British Waterways determined to prevent waste transport on London’s river Lea 

A report on this project is to be found at www.hackneywastebywater.com 

Climate change is a reality, and the government is urgently seeking initiatives to reduce our impact on the environment. It is recognised that waste transport by water can help by taking large numbers of trucks off the roads, reducing traffic congestion and emissions. That was why the Department for Transport funded an innovative pilot scheme in Hackney during 2003 and 2004 which proved that the environmental benefits could come at lower cost than the road alternative. 

But British Waterways did not want the project to succeed and rigged the SRB grant funding system in an effort to stop it. Then, when the pilot went ahead anyway and proved successful, BW stepped in to prevent further progress. 

In 2000, a small company called Intermodal Solutions Ltd. (ISL) was asked to assist Mott, McDonald Ltd. in working on the Waste by Water study for British Waterways (BW). This looked at the feasibility and costs of transporting Hackney’s waste by barge from their site alongside the river Lea to the Energy from Waste plant at Edmonton, also alongside the river. 

The study was based on the premise that a transfer station would be built on the canal-side in Hackney to transfer the waste from the refuse collection vehicles to the barge. 

Hackney rejected BW’s proposal because the projected £3 million capital and £328,000 annual operating costs would represent a large increase in their annual expenditure. 

ISL then proposed a much simpler system, using Continental style waste collection vehicles with demountable containers which removed the transfer station and its costs, whilst still giving the environmental benefits of barge transport. 

It quickly became evident that BW London Region did not support the venture; the clear message was that waste by water was considered a BW initiative to be exploited for their purposes only. If the scheme was to develop, it was BW London Region who were to be holding the reins. 

In 2001, ISL applied to the London Waterways Partnership (LWP) for a £119,000 grant from the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) to assist in the running of the pilot. BW London Region made little secret of their displeasure at this funding application. 

The grant was approved by LWP, subject to a requirement that match funding was obtained. Less than six weeks later, well before the matched funding could be finalised, and with no written or verbal contact, ISL learnt that the grant had been removed, not by LWP, the funding body, but by BW (See the report on misappropriation of SRB funds by BW London Region on this web-site). 

In 2002, ISL organised a demonstration at Copperfield Quay in East London to illustrate how the pilot would work. A waste container was moved directly from the demountable container refuse collection vehicle to the barge without the use of a crane. 

BW, who had not contributed in any way to the demonstration, nonetheless saw the publicity value and printed a full spread of photographs in their Freight on our Waterways brochure (Click here to view the pdf) without attributing the work to ISL. 

In 2003, a £236,000 grant to part fund the pilot scheme was obtained from the Freight Facilities Unit of the Department for Transport. A second application to the SRB fund raised £50,000 (by this time BW realised they could not object) and Transport for London (TfL) contributed a further £32,000. 

The pilot was a success, with the report (see www.hackneywastebywater.com), endorsed by Hackney Council, indicating that the technology could reduce the Borough’s road waste transport mileage by 52% and reduce capital and annual operating costs by 23% and 33% respectively.
 
By early 2005, finance was being sought from the government to move the Hackney pilot on to a first-stage implementation. In April, BW organised a meeting which included staff from BW, Hackney and TfL but deliberately and specifically excluded ISL. The meeting was used as a vehicle for TfL and BW to outline their ‘vision’ of how the project would develop; it was not mentioned at the meeting that this did not include ISL or implementation in Hackney. ISL was a small, private sector company that had embarrassed BW – they were happy to be rid of it. As a direct result, the pilot scheme came to an end against Hackney’s wishes and against those of the Department for Transport who had provided the Freight Facilities grant. 

Worst of all, BW’s actions worked against the interests of DEFRA who fund BW and who had much to gain from the development of a sustainable and economically viable waste transport system, the income from which would help to reduce BW’s financial reliance on the Department. And the pilot scheme proved, as intended, that for the right loads, major capital investment in dredging and quayside facilities is not an essential prerequisite of water transport. 

But the end of the Hackney pilot was not the only effect. Under the terms of the contract with the Department for Transport, four more pilot schemes were due to be undertaken, principally in the London area. Unable to meet the terms of its contract with DfT, Waste by Water Ltd., the company set up to run the pilot schemes, went into liquidation in 2006. 

Success in Hackney was essential to the development of these four subsequent pilots, as ISL’s private sector investors had made clear from the outset. British Waterways actions made it impossible for both the Hackney project to proceed and for the following pilots to be undertaken.