Barge grant to ease traffic jams

The company operates on a number of Yorkshire waterways

An East Yorkshire barge company has been given £350,000 by the government to enable more goods to be transported by water rather than by road.

Branford Barge Owners (BBO) in Goole will use the cash to refurbish two barges which are currently laid up.

The barges will carry 50,000 tonnes of sand and gravel a year from Besthorpe quarry in northern Lincolnshire to Whitwood Wharf in Wakefield.

To transport the same quantity by road would require 80 lorry journeys a week.

BBO is one of the oldest barge businesses in the UK and operates on the Humber estuary, the Rivers Trent and Ouse and the Aire and Calder Navigation.

"The converted 500-tonne aggregate barges will ease congestion on the roads considerably," said John Branford from the firm.

Transport minister David Jamieson said: "The government is determined to increase the use of inland canals and waterways as an environmentally-friendly alternative to road-based transport."