Consultation with local communities

UKMPG members attach great importance to fostering strong links with local communities and other stakeholders.  Ports are important transport hubs and can also play a crucial role in the local economy.  It is important that those who live near ports are kept well informed about future developments and where appropriate have an opportunity to offer views.

There are a variety of ways in which ports keep local communities in the picture about their activities, including making full information available on their websites, holding local meetings and arranging port tours.  Ports attach great importance to consulting local interests about proposals for development and as far as possible issues are resolved informally thereby avoiding the need for a potentially costly and time consuming planning inquiry.  Increasingly ports are developing master plans to explain the main current activities of the port and set out the main options for development for the future looking over a period of up to 25 or so years.  Several such plans have recently been published in draft form as a basis for local consultation.

UKMPG ports also have regard to what is said about local consultation in the Government's recently published guidance on trust ports and will act on this as appropriate, taking account of the differing ownership and financial structure of most UKMPG ports.