The latest face-to-face meeting of the Wider South East Freight Forum has taken place where attendees discussed and debated decarbonisation in the freight and logistics sectors.
Transport for the South East, England’s Economic Heartland and Transport East jointly organise the forum which is designed to bring together freight and logistics operators and representative organisations, business representatives, local authorities, Department for Transport, National Highways and other interested parties to discuss a variety of freight issues.
The face-to-face forum was held at the Local Government Association offices in Westminster, London.
Attendees watched presentations regarding perspectives on decarbonisation across road, rail and maritime freight. These were presented by Andy Salter from Freight Carbon Zero, Phil Smart from the Rail Freight Group and Gyula Torzsok from the Thames Estuary Board.
Opening comments and contributions were made by Ian Wainwright of Future City Logistics; Naomi Green, Managing Director of England’s Economic Heartland; Andrew Summers, Chief Executive of Transport East and Rupert Clubb, Lead Officer of Transport for the South East.
Those attending the face-to-face forum included representatives from the Road Haulage Association, Logistics UK, Wincanton, Zedify, Thurrock Council, Southampton City Council, Suffolk County Council, Buckinghamshire County Council, UK Major Ports Group, Simarco, Victa Railfreight, Mediterranean Shipping Company, UK Warehousing Association, Transport for London and the Department for Transport.
The presentations were followed by group discussions to establish the challenges that feature in current decarbonisation plans and the opportunities that exist to overcome these challenges.