Port Development and National Planning Strategy: The Implications of the Portbury Decision

The authors maintain that the British Government’s decision to reject the Portbury scheme and to concentrate container berths at Tilbury and Liverpool and on the Clyde will accentuate congestion and industrialisation along the north-south “transport corridor”, thus frustrating the policy of encouraging development in other regions. Throughout the world estuarine sites are increasingly attractive, and it is suggested that Portbury could be another Rotterdam.