News

Kent County Council admits that its plan to acquire land next to the M20 and develop a site for trucks to park on during Operation Stack could take two and a half years to come to fruition. The news that the council has finally found land large enough to stack thousands of LGVs when Dover Port cannot handle any more traffic has been welcomed by the haulage industry. However, it will now have to negotiate a price to purchase the 70-acre site from  a local farmer before it applies to develop it into a vast truck park. Assuming there are no problems it will be nearly 2011 before the site is up and running.

There are also questions over whether the government will fund the plan. A Department for Transport spokesman says: "We will consider this proposal very carefully. However, like any other request for government funding, it will have to be properly evaluated to ensure it represents value for taxpayers' money. We appreciate the current concern and will examine the proposal as quickly as possible.

"We will need to assess a number of factors - detailed costings, the potential benefits to all stakeholders and the practical implications of constructing and operating the facility - before we can decide whether to support the proposal." A council spokesman says: "It's very early days. A new access road will have to be constructed, but it will come straight off the motorway."  Asked what will happen if the government refuses to fund the lorry park, he says: "I don't know. But we aren't just relying on the government we are exploring European Parliament avenues as well."

Conservative MEP Richard Ashworth has already raised the issue in the European Parliament. Commenting on the recent chaos on the M20 and at Dover caused by SeaFrance officers' decision to strike, Ashworth says: "I ask that the Presidency [of the Parliament] prevail on the European Commission and the respective national governments to ensure that the principle of free movement of people and goods throughout the EU single market is upheld. "Longer term, I also ask that they bring far greater urgency to their endeavours to bring a permanent solution to this problem that brings so much inconvenience and hardship to the people and businesses of the south-east of England."

Council leader Paul Carter says he fears Kent's nickname 'the Garden of England' will be replaced by 'the Garden of Gridlock' if the government doesn't agree to introduce a Brit Disc scheme. Writing on his blog, Carter says: "We have long been suggesting a Brit Disc scheme which will charge foreign lorries for using Kent's roads and would pay for the lorry park and could also contribute to a third Thames crossing."