Dredging of River Nen to Make Port

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 14, 9 October 1937, Page 18

Dredging of River Nen to Make Port

PETERBOROUGH. — Seagoing vessels from across the North Sea are before long to sail up the River Nen through 30 miles of fenland to this inland town. This is revealed here as the main aim behind a great scheme for the improvement of the Nen, the first part of which has now been completed. This rehabilitation plan is to cost £750,000. Transformation of Peterborough from a market town to a port will, it is considered, have important commercial results, opening up anther trade artery for the industrial Midlands, Some miles below the city two great sluice gates and a lock 150 feet across now stand ; guard against the tides of the Tiver. These were recently officially declared open by . Sir Donald Ferguson, Permanent Under-Secretary to the Ministry of Africulture. It has taken five years to xeach this first stage in the improvement scheme. The river has been widened, gravel shoals scooped out of the river bed, concrete piles driven in near the banks a'nd concrete walls erected. Now,; up-. stream beyond Peterborough, more than 50 miles of* silted- river bed are to!be cleaned .out, . and- nearly as many broken-down reconsructed. This wili enable' barges to ply regularly. and easily between Northampton and Peterborough. ; When the improvement scheme was first announced it was taken as being little more than part of a plan to drain the ■ fenlands and strengthen river banks against flood, the boistering of the banks -and -the widening of- the channel } will have thia effect; but activity in Peterborough among busi-' ness men has shown that the most important part of the scheme now lies in in the;fact that Peterborough is to be turned into a port. ' Selection of - si'tes for wharves is already. being made. It is anticipatod that inotor vessels up to about 450 tons will bear the main burden of the traffic. Rotterdam is thb harbour pointed. Out as. Peterborough 's "opposite number." A number of years ago, wben canal traffic was greater than it is now, Peterborough used to be a port of call for. barges and small coasters. This trade fell away, however, and for some time little attention was paid to the state of the riven The opening up of Peterborough is expected to be of considerable assistance to British coastal shipping firms. Coastal shij^iing here has been through a hard time, not merely on account of competition from foreign ships with less sttingent labour regulations, but becauso of the decline of inland waterways; traffic has been largely from harbour to harbour.Peterborough is sufficicntly a key position to mako through water transport from the Midlands to the east of Britain and to Europe as cheap, if not

cheaper, than rail, or rail-apd-boat, carriage. Return freights for tramps would be easier to obtain from a "clearing house port," such as the inland port of Peterborough is expected to become, thqn from many seaside harbours,