A broadly-based expert Steering Group, advised EMRA officers in drawing up a draft Regional Freight Strategy in-house using the State of Freight Study as its starting point. The Steering Group membership included:-

• British Waterways
• Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics
• East Midlands Regional Assembly
• East Midlands Transport Activists Roundtable
• East Midlands Transport Advisers Group (TAG)
• emda
• Freight Transport Association
• Government Office for the East Midlands
• Highways Agency
• Local Transport Authorities represented by:
  • Derbyshire County Council
  • Leicester City Council
  • Northamptonshire County Council
• Nottingham East Midlands Airport
• Port of Boston
• Strategic Rail Authority

Whilst it was agreed that initially there would be no need to commission any consultancy input in formulating the draft itself, EMRA had made budget provision to secure further consultancy input should the strategy development process identify related issues that should usefully be explored. This did prove to be the case, with further research commissioned in November 2004 to verify and update the rail modal shift target in the light of any changed circumstance since 2002, and to explore the opportunities for the food sector industries in the Region to make significantly greater use of railfreight. The Steering Group, which first met in July agreed the following objectives:-

• Develop key findings of the State of Freight Report
• Strategy to act as a daughter document to the RTS including:
  • Development of railfreight modal shift target, including consideration of:-

• Railfreight development
• Inter-modal terminals
• Loading gauge issues
• Rail network pinch-points

• Sustainable road freight measures
  Development of East Midlands ports

• Inform RSS review
• Inform next full LTPs
• Inform Highways Agency schemes
• Inform SRA strategies
• Inform decisions regarding water-borne freight
• Inform airport Master Plans
• Guidance to freight operators, planners and developers.

It agreed that the following activities would be necessary to address those objectives:-

• Formally establish a Steering Group
• Define scope of strategy and a project plan
• Review State of Freight Study
• Assess strategies of any existing Freight Quality
• Partnership in the Region, and freight strategies of the Local Transport Authorities
• Review approaches in other regions, especially neighbouring regions and identify best practice
• Commission any necessary data updating
• Consider ongoing management / monitoring arrangements including dissemination
• Develop a draft Strategy
• Undertake consultation procedures
• Publish substantive Strategy

The timescale for the work was provided by EMRA’s Business Plan 2004/5, which indicated an ultimate target of launching the substantive strategy and beginning implementation by the end of June 2005.