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The MPA’s key concern is the continuing lack of any integrated consideration of the supply chain implications of infrastructure ambitions within the draft National Infrastructure Assessment (NIA) or more generally within Government. The Association points out that the implementation and maintenance of infrastructure projects over the next twenty years is likely to require two billion tonnes of aggregates and mineral products. However, without a strategic approach supporting the future supply of aggregates and mineral products, which is integrated with infrastructure, housing and construction objectives within Government and amongst stakeholders, the MPA says there is no guarantee that projects can be delivered in the medium to long term.
The MPA believes that the NIC and NIA should therefore recognise the significance of such supply chain issues and help stimulate a more strategic consideration of how to integrate long term supply chain implications with project and programme delivery.
A related concern highlighted by the MPA is the dismissive attitude of the NIC to rail freight. The NIC consultation uses what the MPA believes is a simplistic metric that “reducing road freight by one-third would require more than a three-fold increase in rail freight capacity, which simply could not be accommodated on today’s busy railway” to define the significance of rail freight and goes on to suggest that truck platooning is a more viable option for freight movements. According to the MPA, this ignores the significant benefits resulting from the delivery of some 20 million tonnes of aggregates and other mineral products by rail for infrastructure and construction customers. Integrated rail, wharf and road infrastructure reduces carbon emissions, road congestion and improves air quality and road safety in the delivery of aggregates, other mineral products and construction materials. It is also said by the MPA to meet the demands of construction and infrastructure clients for more sustainable supply chains.
While there will be inevitable constraints on the role of rail freight, the MPA believes the NIA should adopt a more positive approach to the benefits of rail freight in the foreseeable future. The implication in the consultation that rail freight is of little consequence compared with future road platooning of lorries needs to tempered, argues the MPA, with a more practical appreciation that this modal shift is unlikely to be practical or sustainable for many existing rail freight users in the reasonably foreseeable future. In particular the use of rail and water to deliver bulk materials required for construction and infrastructure projects is, says the MPA, likely to remain a significant element of sustainable supply chains.
Commenting on the consultation, MPA chief executive Nigel Jackson said: “The critical role of supply chains such as mineral products is persistently overlooked by the NIC and Government when outlining ambitious plans for future infrastructure and housing investment. Unless there is more strategic awareness and recognition of the role of supply chains such as mineral products in the delivery of infrastructure, housing and other development, we will not achieve the most sustainable long term supply to these projects. The blinkered attitude towards the benefits of rail freight just serves to emphasise the lack of awareness of the supply chain permeating the consultation. This needs to change as a matter of urgency; supply should never just be assumed.”
