News

Kent County Council (KCC) has this morning revealed its preferred location for an Operation Stack lorry park near the M20. After considering a number of options, a site just off the M20 and north of the high-speed railway, off Church Lane, Aldington, has been named. Selected for its good connectivity and proximity to the Channel Tunnel and Dover  Docks, as well as being isolated from built-up areas, the site will have the capacity to hold up to 3,000 lorries.

Paul Carter, KCC leader, says:  “Operation Stack continues to cause severe problems. We have already suffered three separate incidents this year, the most recent involving Phase 2 of Stack which effectively closes the M20 east of Maidstone and creates widespread disruption and delays across the county.” The most recent Stack ran consecutively for nine days from the 28 February.

“This last incident illustrates yet again the need for a solution to Stack and the provision of a lorry park to get this traffic off the M20.” KCC will seek planning permission for the site and negotiate the necessary land assembly while looking to national government to fund the scheme. Carter has been in talks with transport minister Tom Harris calling  for urgent confirmation of the government’s support for a funding mechanism. KCC is suggesting that the scheme could be funded by a ‘Brit disc’ charge on all foreign lorries entering the UK.

The FTA has welcomed the news.  “The evidence of the last 15 years shows that we are going to continue to need adequate parking facilities for lorries in Kent. It is crazy that in the event of bad weather in the Channel, or in the all too frequent case of industrial relations problems in France, we end up with parking lorries on the motorway,” says FTA director of external affairs Geoff Dossetter.

He adds: “An adequate lorry park will be much welcomed by the international transport industry and, no doubt, the people of Kent who have suffered greatly from congestion and other problems as road users seek alternative routes to the closed motorway. The opening of the new lorry park cannot come quickly enough.”