Road

The locational significance of Swale, being of equi-distance between the capital and both channel ports and tunnel, means that it is perfectly placed to provide worldwide shipping.

The Borough is well connected to the motorway and trunk network providing access to the M2 and A249 (which leads to the M20, M26 and M25), other channel ports and the Channel Tunnel. We have enhanced our transport infrastructure with essential works worth over £150m in recent years. These include:

• The Northern Relief Road (2011) to reduce congestion in the town centre
• The new Sheppey Crossing (2007) to replace the regularly-congested Kingsferry Bridge that originally linked the island to the mainland.
• The Queenborough/Rushenden link road which serves as a direct access to the Neats Court spine road and also links the new A249 dual carriageway to the development and existing industrial areas.
  These have considerably improved travel to work times to and from major employment sites in addition to creating several new opportunities for development.

These have considerably improved travel to work times to and from major employment sites in addition to creating several new opportunities for development.

Rail

Sittingbourne and Faversham stations form part of the High Speed 1 Network with links to London St Pancras (under 1 hour journey time) and Ebbsfleet International (journey time from 40 minutes). This means that travel to Europe can be achieved door to door in under 3 hours.

For mainline stations, Sittingbourne and Faversham have direct rail connections to London while Sheerness is located on a branch line from Sittingbourne.

Sea

The deep-water port of Sheerness provides a gateway for International freight trade from both the UK and other global markets. It is highly utilised facility offering services to various industries that include vehicles, fresh produce, steel and forest products.

Sheerness is Peel Ports’ flagship terminal, handling up to 2million tonnes of cargo a year across commodities such as forest products, steel, automotive and much more. Its close proximity to London makes it the ideal port of call for the capital, helping to link European and global trade to London, the South East and the heart of the UK.

Import and distribution of motor vehicles continues to be the biggest single driver of growth at Sheerness. In 2013 the port handled 14.4% of the UK’s car imports by volume, due to its close proximity to population centres and car manufacturing bases in the South East, North West and Midlands.  Through long-term partnerships, they have helped global distribution specialists GEFCO and leading brands such as VW Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Peugeot and Ford add value to their supply chains.  The new multimillion Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI) Centre for Volkswagen will see an additional 500,000 cars a year come through the port and has already created around 100 new supply chain jobs.  Forest products have also been a key driver of growth at the port with 662,000 tonnes coming through in 2013 along with steel, of which volumes have increased by 32% in the year ending March 2014.

As a major port, Sheerness is also a key component of the south east Centre for Renewable Offshore Engineering (CORE) – one of 6 around the UK. With deep water access and benefiting from an existing planning permission for manufacturing associated with off-shore wind, the port is well placed to serve the renewable energy market.

To find out more visit the Peel Ports website.

Peel Ports are currently developing a Masterplan for Sheerness Port and are consulting on a draft from the 5th November unitl the 17th december.  The draft Masterplan sets out long-term ambitions for the Port and sets out a strategy to drive growth, including 5 ‘options for change’ which sets out how the strategy may be reflected in future land use.  A total of 660 jobs are supported at the Port of Sheerness and over the next 20 years, the port has the potential to create a further 1,250 new jobs and a GVA of £156million by 2034.

To find out more about the Masterplan, download and read the document.

Air

Being only a short distance from London, all of the capitals airports including Gatwick, Stansted, City and Heathrow airports can be reached in around 60-90 minutes. There are also a number of smaller airports around Kent that cater for a wide range of aircraft operations and have private aircrafts available for charter.