Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal

History

DIRFT

Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal is part of a land development project undertaken by Severn Trent Water on a 174 ha site near Crick in Northamptonshire. The location, at junction 18 of the M1 motorway in close proximity to the A5, A14 and M6 roads had been identified as early as 1978 as a "motorway-orientated growth point".Sources:

• The ground area of the original DIRFT development is divided into three sections: DIRFT Central 16 ha, DIRFT East 53 ha, and DIRFT South 55 ha by the A5 and A428 roads.Sources:

The site first became operational on 27 May 1997, and was officially opened in November 1997 by Anne, Princess Royal, at inception the facility included a 475000 sqft warehouse operated for road haulage operator Eddie Stobart. The rail connected terminal was operated by Tibbett and Britten; construction of a 210000 sqft rail connected warehouse was started in 1998, a second 24600 m2 facility was constructed in 2000.Sources:

DIRFT was one of the earliest post-Channel Tunnel road-rail intermodal terminals – the site includes rail connected terminals and traditional warehousing was designed to act as a regional node for rail freight flows to and from the Port of Felixstowe and the Channel Tunnel, it forms part of the UK network of the Trans-European Combined Transport network.

The site was primarily developed by Severn Trent Property, part of Severn Trent Water. Early occupiers included Royal Mail, Tesco ('Fastway RDC' operated by DHL) (closed 2009), and Mothercare. In 2004, 74 acre of undeveloped land on the site with a capacity for 1400000 sqft of warehousing was sold to a British Land/ Rosemound joint venture, British Land subsequently let its holding to several customers including a 750000 sqft warehouse let to Tesco in 2005.

Severn Trent plc sold its holding in DIRFT, as well as the 130 acre DIRFT II site to Prologis in 2006. In 2008 Malcolm Rail became the operator of the railport at DIRFT.

DIRFT II

In 2005 planning permission was granted for a rail connected 54 ha westward expansion of the original site with a built ground area of over 180000 m2. The DIRFT II expansion was designed for rail connected warehousing allowing transfer between sea or Channel Tunnel-borne rail-freight and road transport or warehouse storage. Plans included facilities for containerised and side-loaded palletised rail freight.

Tesco acquired a 840000 sqft grocery distribution centre in 2011, constructed by VolkerFitzpatrick (main contractor),Sources:

• construction work was completed in September 2011. As part of the development, a rail tunnel was built under the A5 road to connect DIRFT II to the rail network via the original DIRFT railport.Sources:

DIRFT III

A further 7.5 million sq.ft. extension, DIRFT III, was proposed for construction on the former Rugby radio station site to the northwest of the current development. The proposal also included a large area 70 ha of green space, named Lilbourne Meadows. The development is a joint venture between ProLogis and Rugby Radio Station Limited Partnership (RRSLP) (BT and Aviva). The DIRFT III site would also be rail connected, with over 700000 m2 of warehousing over 163 ha of land plus a 3.5 ha HGV parking site. A related development is the Sustainable Urban Extension (SUE) built to the west of DIRFT as a suburb of Rugby, with over 6,000 homes planned. The development took on the name of Houlton and the first homeowners moved in during December 2017.

A planning application to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) was submitted in 2011, and was approved in July 2014.

References

References

1. (November 2019). "Annual Report and Accounts 2001". [[Severn Trent]].
2. Daventry Railport Opens ''[[Rail Express]]'' issue 15 August 1997 page 10
3. HRH Princess Royal opens terminal ''[[Rail (magazine). Rail]]'' issue 319 3 December 1997 page 7
4. "Severn Trent Property develops facilities in the UK, primarily for distribution, retail and industrial sectors (reproduced from Hemmington Scott annual report)". Hemmington Scott Ltd.
5. (27 August 1998). "TURF CUT AT DIRFT FOR NEW DISTRIBUTION CENTRE". www.hayesanderson.com.
6. John Ratcliffe. (2009). "Urban planning and real estate development". Routledge.
7. (1 November 2002). "Consignia chooses DIRFT for £40m postal hub". m.propertyweek.com.
8. (1 November 2003). "Tesco – we will not sacrifice food space". The Grocer.
9. (13 March 2009). "Tesco closes Fastway DC". www.logisticsmanager.com.
10. (21 August 2002). "Mothercare focuses on a planned delivery". [[The Daily Telegraph.
11. (1 May 2004). "Part of dIRft sold". www.logisticsmanager.com.
12. (5 April 2004). "British Land and Rosemound acquire at DIRFT". British Land.
13. (17 March 2005). "British Land/Rosemound jv lets 750,000 sq ft to Tesco at Dirft, Daventry (UK)". www.europe-re.com.
14. Sinead Cruise. (18 October 2006). "ProLogis secures Severn Trent properties". www.building.co.uk.
15. (6 November 2006). "Disposal". [[Severn Trent]].
16. Jim Clark. (27 September 2011). "Scotland's Transport Future In A Changing World". WH Malcolm Ltd}}{{Dead link.
17. "Prologis RFI DIRFTII Daventry". ProLogis.
18. (22 July 2011). "Northamptonshire logistics go green". www.northamptonshireletyourselfgrow.com.
19. (20 September 2011). "Tesco's building goes up at DIRFT". www.logisticsmanager.com.
20. (2 February 2011). "Thousands of new jobs in major DIRFT expansion". Rugby Advertiser.
21. "DIRFT III – PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE". dirftiii.com.
22. "Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal approval confirmed". BBC News.