WAYS of boosting freight on the country's inland waterways, including the Leeds and Liverpool Canal are being considered by the Government.

The new Freight Study Group will examine and identify cost-effective and practical means of encouraging increased levels of freight on waterways. A specially commissioned research project will help identify key issues.

Although canals were originally built to move goods around the country, the waterways' role as a thriving freight transport system has been in decline for many years, mainly due to changes in markets and the increase in railway transport and then road haulage.

Aerospace company Weston Electrical Units, of Foulridge, has a factory next to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and plans another next to the canal in Barnoldswick. But executive chairman Geoffrey Sutton said it would not be practical for his company to use the canal to transport goods between them.

"Our goods are too delicate to transport like that and it would be too slow," he said.