A Development Consent Order by the Secretary of State has been granted for a 7.9 million sq ft strategic rail freight interchange in Staffordshire.
Joint venture company Four Ashes was granted the order for its 735 acre West Midlands Interchange scheme near Junction 12 of the M6 last week.
There is now a six week period in which the decision may be challenged in the High Court, a legal process known as a Judicial Review – if there is no challenge then the developer can start construction.
The scheme will include an intermodal freight terminal, including container storage and HGV parking, rail served warehouses and ancillary buildings.
Once complete it is though the scheme could reduce HGV movements of a regional scale by 50.6 million HGV km each year.
The scheme has been designed to increase the efficiency of freight distribution, taking freight traffic off motorways and trunk roads and onto the rail network.
Four Ashes is led by Surrey-based Kilbride, which specialises in rail infrastructure, with funding from Grosvenor Group and Kilbride, while the majority of the land belongs to Piers Monckton, whose family owns Stretton Hall.
It is thought the scheme could accommodate units from 100,000 sq ft to 1 million sq ft.
The scheme is one of very few sites in the UK with good road access and where the rail access is the necessary W10 gauge that will enable the largest sized containers to be moved on the rail network to the rail terminal.”
The site is located near Cannock, and is bounded by the A5 to the north and the A449 dual carriageway to the west.
