Question: What is Sea and Water?

Heather Leggate: Sea and Water is a Department for Transport, Scottish Executive and industry-funded organisation to promote water freight transport in the UK.

It has grants from the Department for Transport and the Scottish Executive, while the industry supports Sea and Water through subscriptions and sponsorship of our events.

Question: What kind of organisations are your members?

Heather Leggate: We've got port operators, ship and barge operators, inland waterway operators, freight users, and consultants.

Question: How long have you been in operation for?

Heather Leggate: Sea and Water was set up in 2003 and since then we've spent the first three years trying to bring together the 'players' in the water freight industry, which is quite a fragmented.

We've now got over 100 supporters who are representatives of that industry.

The challenge is to move the organisation forward and promote water freight to wider industry to the users of freight and to the policy makers.

Question: You've recently issued your 'Case for water' - what is the case for water?

Heather Leggate: The 'Case for water' document calls on the government to consider water freight in its policy-making and encourage the use of it.

What we're calling for is reform and streamlining of the planning system so that ports are allowed to expand, and to ensure there is sufficient access to water-side and freight-handling facilities.

This will protect the industry from developers who are obviously seeking water-side areas for housing and leisure activities and we are committed to protecting some of these areas for the future so they can be used for water freight.

It is commonsense that wharves and quayside should be safeguarded for the future to enable the water freight industry to expand.

Question: Do you feel, at the moment, the government is doing enough to promote water use?

Heather Leggate: No. I think it's one of those areas that gets very, very little attention because freight isn't exactly a vote winner.

Sea and Water is calling for a water freight unit to be established by government, attracting representatives from all government departments.

This will establish a platform for water and ensure a joined-up approach to water as a viable logistics option. Sea and Water is trying to promote the benefits of water freight to government, MPs and the potential users. We need to raise the profile.

Question: You mentioned talking to the public about the environmental benefits. What are these?

Heather Leggate: The environmental benefits are that water freight can actually reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere compared to other modes of transport.

Obviously carbon emissions are something that the government is targeting, and in fact they are failing to meet their own targets on climate change.

The use of more water for transportation purposes can actually help them to achieve their targets. It also reduces the amount of nitrogen oxide in the atmosphere.

Clearly, when you are comparing water and road transport, road is really responsible for a substantial amount of carbon emissions in the atmosphere and so the challenge is to try and get the lorries off the road to reduce those harmful pollutants.

Question: Do you think increased water transportation is feasible and practical?

Heather Leggate: Well, obviously you can't just take all the lorries off the road and put the freight on to water.

There's probably going to be some part of the journey that's going to have to be done by a lorry, but, we are looking to actually reduce that part of the journey.

There is tremendous scope to transport freight and goods around the coast. Obviously there are some commodities that can be transported on inland waterway systems namely waste, construction materials and dry bulk materials.

I think there is a lot of potential there for movements of freight around the coast. There are over 300 commercial ports in the UK which can be used for receiving ships of various sizes, and obviously a vessel can carry much more than a lorry, so I think there is tremendous scope.

In fact, the Department for Transport has just given us some additional funding to research the potential for modal shift and attitudes to water freight transport.

Question: How does the UK compare to other EU countries in terms of water transportation of freight?

Heather Leggate: I think we have a problem in that we don't have a similar network. When you are comparing us to, say Germany, which has got the river Rhine flowing through it, we just don't have that kind of structure, so in a way it is misleading to do a comparison.

The inland waterways in the UK are used for leisure facilities so there isn't very much freight moved on those waterways.

However, unlike Germany we should remember that the UK has a coastal ring road which can be used for water freight transportation.

Question: You mentioned rail transport. Do you feel that, particularly in the UK, water freight is able to operate on an equal playing field to rail and road?

Heather Leggate: No, that's part of our argument. We feel that road in particular gets a better deal than water.

That's mainly because the users of the road don't actually pay the full cost of road transport when you add in all the externalities that exist, the pollution and social aspects. That's really what we're putting forward in the 'Case for water' document, namely that road users don't pay the full costs.

Obviously the government is proposing to bring in a road pricing system which will ensure that the true cost of road freight is paid. Until we actually get that, then in some respects it is difficult for water transport to compete effectively with road. I should point out that we are also very keen to see a move from road to rail.

We are very supportive of initiatives by the rail freight group to encourage the use of rail for freight transport.

Question: You mentioned in your 'Case for water' that transporting freight by water could help in the construction of the sites for the 2012 Olympics. How could this happen?

Heather Leggate: The construction companies themselves are very keen to use water. However, there is a need for the development of infrastructure and the need for work on certain locks, and it's a question now of who funds that development of this infrastructure.

The construction companies are willing to invest in barges and vessels to transport materials by water, but the question is who pays for the infrastructure?

Decisions need to be taken now such that water can be used for the construction phase when it begins in 2007/08. With a relatively small investment half a million lorry journeys will be avoided during the construction phase for the Olympics. So the benefits are really tremendous.

Also, after the Olympics, you would have that infrastructure in place for continued movement by water freight, which could reduce road transport by an estimated 12,500 lorry journeys.

Question: Is there an employment benefit to increasing the amount of freight travel by water?

Heather Leggate: Well, insofar as you need people to operate the barges and to provide the infrastructure around the water transport itself, and the servicing of the vessels and that kind of thing, then yes, but I couldn't give you a figure on what those multiplier effects are.

Question: What do you think is at stake for the government if it fails to recognise the case for water?

Heather Leggate: Really, they would be setting themselves up for increased congestion and increased pollution in already congested and polluted parts of the country.

It's a case for them taking a more long-term view of the transport position in the UK.

That's hard for governments to do because they only tend to look to the next election. They've really got to take a long-term view when it comes to transport.