Southern Daily Echo – 8 May 2008

The Government has backed plans for work to start on the largest port to be built in the UK for 25 years. The biggest container ships in the world will dock at the London Gateway port in Essex. It would be a rival to Southampton Container Terminals. It has been claimed the new facility will result in 2,000 fewer lorries on the UK's roads every day.

Construction of the £1.5bn London Gateway container port will begin later this year on the former Shell Haven oil refinery site in Stanford-le-Hope. The project will incorporate Europe's biggest logistics park and will be the largest employment creation project in the country ... It follows a prolonged battle to develop the site by P&O, which is now part of Dubai Ports World. DPW also owns 51 per cent. of SCT following the £3.9 billion takeover in 2005. Docks owner Associated British Ports holds the remaining 49 per cent. and ownd the land it [SCT] sits on.

A Dubai Ports World spokesman said the two container ports were "complementary" and met a need for extra capacity. SCT currently employs 800 people and handles 50 per cent. of the UK's trade with the Far East.