Member Engagement
Out and about in the regions
Recent regional meetings have been held in Yorkshire, Aberdeen, and Kent & East Sussex
activity of the Heathrow cargo advisory body. All in all, a worthwhile and informative member meeting. Kent & East Sussex A well-attended member meeting with a range of guest speakers. Border Force (BF) updated Members on the latest situation with safety and security declarations. As expected, compliance within maritime and air sectors continues to be very good but improvements are still needed with road freight shipments. Following a period when a ‘soft’ approach focusing on education was adopted, BF has recently started to make the first referrals to HMRC for civil penalties. Representatives from HMRC and BF at Sevington provided an insight into how their respective areas work, with HMRC stating that there are 42 lanes for queuing trucks, capacity for 1,000 trucks and a target turnaround time of 2 hours. BF advised that there are approximately 270 staff covering Sevington, Stop 24, Western Docks and North Kent ports around the clock. Doug Bannister, chief executive Port of Dover, spoke about the
Yorkshire The Yorkshire meeting was held at the Holiday Inn Garforth in late- October. Seventeen BIFA Members attended to hear about developments at the east coast Port of Felixstowe from guest speakers John Coups and Jo Ochwat. BIFA regional representative Andrew Melton updated Members on the Policy group discussions and the 2025 BIFA Standard Trading Conditions (STC). Two matters of concern to Members, discussed during the meeting, were CDS issues and the uncertainty around new trade agreements with our major trading partners. Aberdeen The Aberdeen South Harbour premises were the venue for the latest Aberdeen Regional Member meeting, with Christopher Whetham of the Port of Aberdeen providing an interesting overview of the port history. He explained that
Aberdeen is a ‘trust port’, an independent not-for-profit statutory body governed by its stakeholders rather than shareholders, with any surplus profit reinvested into the port. Christopher also outlined development plans for the south harbour, including the purchase of new equipment and provision of a customs office. The energy sector remains the most important to the local area but the halt in exploration and drilling, as directed by the government, is leading to the consideration of other markets. Currently, 50% of Scotland’s non- energy related exports depart from English ports so utilising Aberdeen would save thousands of truck miles. Jack Rice, regional representative, along with Denise Hill, member engagement director, updated Members on BIFA policy group activity. Members were also interested to hear about changes taking place in the south for road traffic through the short straits at Dover and
Pictured above: Yorkshire Members discussed CDS issues and the uncertainty around new trade agreements with our major trading partners.
22 | December 2025
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