‘Humber Lagoon’ needs people power
PUBLIC SUPPORT NEEDED TO ADVANCE PLAN
AN ambitious £1.5bn project to build a lagoon off Hull in the Humber needs “people power” to make it happen.
That’s the view of businessman Tim Rix, who originally came up with the idea of creating a combined road and flood barrier along the estuary while turning the River Hull into a non-tidal waterway.
The bold concept of the six-mile long lagoon was first launched just over a year ago.
It envisages creating new development opportunities along a re-shaped Hull waterfront, including a major expansion of Hull’s eastern docks near the Siemens Gamesa offshire wind turbine factory.
A four-lane road built in the estuary would take port traffic away from the city centre and double as a flood barrier to protect the city from rising tides caused by climate change.
Since its launch, 12 months ago, a small team has continued feasibility work into what is needed to turn the idea into reality.
Now Mr Rix has reaffirmed his view that the project needs to happen to secure Hull’s future.
Speaking as part of this week’s Waterline Summit in Hull, he said: “For me, this is all about the people of Hull and this area getting behind a project that they what to see happen. Tim Rix can’t make it happen. Tim Rix can help make it happen with the people that we’ve got in place, with the likes of (project manager) Paul Hatley and the knowledge that he’s got of the river, but it’s going to be the people of this area that say: ‘We want to transform what we have got. This is a really good idea. We need to get behind it.’ The number one thing is for people to get behind it.”
If given the go-ahead, the project team claim the lagoon will add an extra £1bn a year into the region’s economy through improved productivity and help create 14,000 new jobs.
The team says the project could take at least a decade to happen after going through a detailed appraisal process taking up to five years.
Mr Rix added: “When we launched it, we were telling people that we need them to get behind it and that’s absolutely true now as it was then, even more so now.
“The one thing I have learned is that politicians tend to listen to people power so if people want something to happen then the politicians will listen and probably try do something about it and that’s where we need to be.”
Mr Rix said he welcomed support for the project from the area’s MPS and council leaders, but said the next challenge was persuading the government to get on board.
“We are making enormous strides and enormous progress,” he said.
“The thing about the lagoon is that the Government tends to look at things in silos - flooding, highways, placemaking, transport, the ports, whereas we are trying to put together a project which embraces all these aspects which would really transform this city.
“You can see what has happened in the Fruit Market.
“You could have Fruit Markettype developments all the way along the foreshore, from the Humber Bridge all the way to Sammy’s Point and, again, there will also be loads of development opportunities up through the old industrial hinterland up the River Hull all the way to Beverley.
“So you are starting to see some massive transformational things that could take place if we could get the project off the ground and actually built.”
Mr Rix said he was determined to prove people casting doubt over the project wrong.