More than one million lorry miles will be removed from Scotland's roads following Scottish Government funding to reduce emissions.

A total of £3.2m pounds of Freight Facilities Grant has been allocated to Montrose Port Authority to construct a new deep water berth which will enable additional shipping services to be operated between Scotland, England and mainland Europe.

A range of local agricultural, commercial and oil related businesses have already signed up to use the new facility and transfer their freight from road to water.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is also providing five million pounds support to the project.

On a visit to Montrose Port, Transport Infrastructure and Climate Change Minister Stewart Stevenson said: "This significant investment will enable the Port Authority to upgrade the facility and allow local businesses to switch freight from road to water. In taking more than one million lorry miles off our roads every year - equivalent to almost 130 lorry journeys a week - this project will cut emissions and noise and boost local tourism by removing lorries from scenic routes.


"We are committed to getting more freight off Scotland's roads and onto water and rail. Initiatives such as this can make an important contribution towards achieving our 2020 target to reduce emissions by 42 per cent and I would encourage more Scottish businesses to think about their freight priorities and how these impact upon the environment. The freight industry can play its part by taking advantage of our grant schemes and moving more freight away from the roads."

The project will generate more than £6.6m of environmental benefits over eight years.

Montrose Port Authority is a Trust Port and, in 2003, a large section of quay on the south side collapsed into the river, reducing capacity and hampering further development. The authority is taking forward an 8.5 million pounds project to reconstruct the quay.

Agriculture and oil related businesses already committed to using the new facilities include, Carrs Fertilisers, John Lawrie (Aberdeen) Ltd, Reid Fertilisers, Openfield and Schlumberger.

(GK/BMcC)