The text in Objective 9 should be amended to include reference to the Port of Barry as set out below:

Promote Cardiff Airport and Bro Tathan Enterprise Zone, the Port of Barry and the former Aberthaw power station site, as important employment areas, enabling delivery of high-quality and skilled jobs, training, and education opportunities. Support diversification of the rural economy, enabling opportunities to provide employment and business premises within rural settlements and facilitate the growth in rural enterprises.

ABP requests that Objective 9 is amended to include reference to the Port of Barry as one of the “important employment areas”.

ABP is the UK’s leading and best-connected port owner and operator with a network of 21 ports around the UK which offer unparalleled marine, road and rail access to domestic and international markets. Included within ABP’s ownership are five ports across Wales which includes the Port of Barry (‘the Port’).

The Port covers an area of approximately 240ha (including 69ha seaward) within the heart of Barry, with shipping access via the Bristol Channel. A number of buildings and land within the Port are leased to other operators for port, port-related and non-port activities.

The Port remains one of the major ports and trading hub for businesses in Wales and elsewhere in the UK. The operational port and docks is an important commercial asset, providing jobs and business opportunities that contribute towards economic regeneration and international trade. It provides a strong multi-modal offering, with direct links to the national rail network and proximity to the M4.

Flexibility and responsiveness is key in a commercial environment, and there is a need to respond to changing demands – now and in the future. ABP has identified that there are many opportunities to develop and grow new businesses for the future and undertake complementary development through careful business planning and site-wide master planning activities. This is recognised elsewhere within the Deposit Draft Plan.

ABP’s publication ‘Future ports: Wales vision’ (2021) recognises that its Welsh ports are going to be hugely important assets in helping Wales make the strategic realignments demanded by decarbonisation and digitisation, and will play a decisive role in any economic transformation. Across its South Wales estate, ABP sees opportunities for its ports, land and infrastructure to decarbonise energy generation, in manufacturing and logistics while also offering opportunity to create growth environments for communities, businesses and ecosystems across a wide range of land uses. By 2030, ABP has the ambition that its South Wales ports will have translated their central role in the first industrial revolution into a key role in the decarbonisation and digitisation revolutions of the future.

In Barry, not least by virtue of the physical size and location of the land (and the docks), the future development of the Port is clearly an important consideration for the RLDP in terms of economic strategy, land use planning and sustainable development.

The significance of the Port in contributing to the economic success and growth of Barry is recognised within the Employment Land Study that forms part of the Evidence Base of the RLDP. In delivering its economic and jobs growth strategy, the new Plan must play its part in delivering, and protecting the range and choice of employment land and business premises at sustainable locations across the Vale. The multi-modal connections and the range of existing and potential employment sites is such that the Port has played, and will continue to play, an important role in this key objective. A thriving Port means a thriving Barry.

The Draft RLDP recognises the significance the Port of Barry within its other strategies and policies, including at Strategic Growth Policy (6) and within Policies EMP1 and EMP3. These propose an approach that places the Port on a par with other major and important employment growth opportunities. These are recognised and promoted within Strategic Objective 9, and ABP consider that the Port of Barry should be given an equal billing and equal promotion.

This approach is given greater weight in so far as the Port has the potential to provide an alternative form of employment offering to the other sites, that focuses more on B2, B8 and Port-related opportunities that do exist elsewhere.

This variety of employment uses should be reflected in Objective 9, and text should be amended to include reference to the Port of Barry as set out below:

Promote Cardiff Airport and Bro Tathan Enterprise Zone, the Port of Barry and the former Aberthaw power station site, as important employment areas, enabling delivery of high-quality and skilled jobs, training, and education opportunities. Support diversification of the rural economy, enabling opportunities to provide employment and business premises within rural settlements and facilitate the growth in rural enterprises.

Amendments to paragraph 5.35 are requested to update information on the ABP Masterplan

ABP supports the general approach of this strategy, but advises that amendments should be made to the supporting text.

The Masterplan that was prepared and is referenced within this Deposit RLDP included land that is no longer to be brought forward for development by ABP. As a result, ABP will be preparing a new Masterplan that more accurately reflects the current position and the future aspirations for the Port.

The masterplanning exercise will be subject to a rigorous process and it is likely that the ambitions for the Port will be similar to those identified in the previous Masterplan, including the redevelopment of the Black Rocks Site and the promotion of the Clean Growth Hub. ABP will also continue to commit to investment in the Port facilities.
As delivered on other ABP land holdings across the UK, there is potential at the Port of Barry to create new renewable energy hubs, solar, green hydrogen production and carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities. The reference to the suitability of green energy generation should be included.

In order to reflect the potential and opportunities at Barry more accurately, ABP proposes that paragraph 5.35 is amended to read as shown below:

5.35 In addition, Associated British Ports (ABP) will be masterplanning the Port which identifies future redevelopment opportunities on land within their ownership. This may include:
• Investment in Port infrastructure.
• Redevelopment of Black Rocks Growth Zone for potential uses such as battery supply chain, advanced manufacturing, rare earth mineral processing, next generation biofuel manufacturing, and other green energy generation and Port-related opportunities.
• The Port Clean Growth Hub focusing on zero carbon operations and manufacturing.

ABP fully supports this policy and looks forward to working constructively alongside VoGC and other key stakeholders to realise the opportunities that the Port of Barry can deliver for the town, the Vale of Glamorgan and the Wales economies.

In order to reflect the current circumstances, it is proposed that paragraph 6.283 is amended to read as follows:

6.283 The plans for the Port of Barry represent the next stage in the regeneration of Barry Docks and focusses on enhancing the docks’ future economic role. The identification of the area as an Employment Regeneration Opportunity Area reflects the vision and aspirations of ABP contained within its emerging long-term strategy. This will set out the employment areas and operational port land at the Port and focus on developing the port around low and zero carbon sectors alongside traditional marine related industrial uses.

ABP fully supports this policy and looks forward to working constructively alongside VoGC and other key stakeholders to realise the opportunities that the Port of Barry can deliver for the town, the Vale of Glamorgan and the Wales economies.

It is suggested that the text is amended as suggested:

Non B1, B2 and B8 and suis generis uses will be restricted to ancillary services or facilities associated with an existing or proposed employment use that would serve employees on the wider employment site where:

ABP objects to this policy. It is overly restrictive in respect of the Use Classes set out (B1, B2 and B8).

With regards to Port land, and other employment land, many of the proposed and promoted uses within the RLDP are associated with a suis generis use, including renewable energy and sustainable development opportunities. These do not necessarily fit neatly into the stated use classes, and the text of this policy, as drafted, suggests that those uses would not be compliant. This is an unintended consequence of an effort to limit other types of uses within employment land (eg. retail).