UNIVERSITY of Chester chief Lawrence Bellamy talks the importance of transport in his latest column.

TRANSPORT and Logistics is big business around Warrington.

Taking the ‘30 min drive from Warrington’ catchment area, there is estimated to be in the region of 90-100K people employed in the sector.

If you look at logistics roles broadly (for example in Engineering or Chemicals) the total is much higher.

Most organisations require some form of logistics specialisation to operate. Use of the waterways started this for Warrington, then the railways and motorways taking advantage of Warrington’s position sandwiched between the industrial cities of Liverpool and Manchester.

By traversing from Warrington to the port of Hull, traffic can take the E20 to St Petersburg, drop down through Europe to the E40, leading close to the Chinese border or hit the E35 to Rome.

Given the increase in congestion on roads it is also important to recognise the role of new developments such as Manchester’s Airport City, the updating of rail networks with HS2 (only another 19 years, if on time!) and Port Warrington, part of the Atlantic gateway.

Waterways were important to the Romans approaching 2000 years ago in Britain.

It is ironic that to make the best use of the Omega development we will need waterways once again.