Freight News, Sea


Fenlanders thwart green delivery efforts

[ April 30, 2025   //   ]

Heavy transport company Robert Wynn & Sons is complaining that longstanding plans to deliver electricity transmission components to a site in Cambridgeshire by water have been blocked by an intransigent local council.

It says that a scheme to use its Government-funded heavy lift barge, the Terra Marique to move pieces for a Synchronous Condenser along the River Nene to Wisbech have been refused permission by Fenland District Council.

This, it says flies in the face of the Department for Transport’s ‘Water Preferred Policy’ states that abnormal indivisible loads of this type should be moved by inland waterway whenever possible, to the closest port, to minimise the use of roads.

An alternative plan is now in place to move the components all the way by road from Sutton Bridge.

The River Nene is in regular conmmercial shipping use, notably by a fortnightly cargo shipping service from Riga, Latvia, to Wisbech.

However, Fenland District Council, which is the statutory harbour/navigation authority for the River Nene, has rejected Robert Wynn & Sons’ detailed plans for navigation to Wisbech, from where the loads would be moved by road to the final site at Walpole St Andrew.

Robert Wynn & Sons submitted its proposals more than a year ago for the 80-metre-long, 16.5-metre-wide Terra Marique to navigate the River Nene to Wisbech – a route and port officially identified as appropriate for abnormal loads. There followed prolonged discussions, passage planning and a series of surveys to identify any issues to be resolved but, after six months of delays, the Council refused permission.

“Wisbech is Cambridgeshire’s only port – you would think the Council would treat is as a jewel,”complained Peter Wynn, the company’s managing director. “We seem to have a Council that – despite central Government policy – believes the movement of a gross load of more than 600 tonnes along the road from Sutton Bridge is safer and better for the environment than delivery to Wisbech by water. As a result, we have what seems like an insurmountable obstacle to a vital Net Zero project being delivered in a sustainable way.”

Robert Wynn & Sons’ proposal is for two shipments on the Terra Marique, each carrying one 164-tonne transformer and one 365-tonne generator.

The Terra Marique is wider than vessels that routinely go up the River Nene to Wisbech, said Peter Wynn, but the navigation would be no more challenging than a series of successful deliveries made by the barge in its 20-year history.

Peter Wynn added: “The processes we have had to go through to satisfy Fenland District Council have taken a huge amount of time and money – we have organised geotechnical surveys, bathymetric surveys, flow rate surveys and other consultancy work,” said Peter Wynn.

He warns that the case could set a precedent for transporting increasingly oversize, overweight loads that will be required in the UK’s journey to Net Zero

Robert Wynn & Sons says it first approached Fenland District Council more than 12 months ago and detailed navigation surveys were carried out and risk assessments were written and reviewed by qualified mariners, which demonstrated that the passage was safe.

However, in November 2024, the Council appointed a second set of independent third party experts to carry out a review of all the submitted technical information. Whilke this highlighted areas that required further consideration, it did not conclude that the Terra Marique should not be permitted to navigate the River Nene to Wisbech.

However, rather than discussing and addressing the report’s conclusions, which would be the normal course of events, says Robert Wynn, the Council issued a Decision Notice preventing the passage of the Terra Marique to Wisbech.

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