Government confirms Operation Stack lorry park to be built off M20
A police force that deals with the national fall-out from a giant traffic jam that has blighted its region for nearly 30 years has finally been promised relief.
A police force that deals with the national fall-out from a giant traffic jam that has blighted its region for nearly 30 years has finally been promised relief.
The Government has confirmed that a huge lorry park off the M20 in Kent is to be built to deal with Operation Stack.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said work will start as soon as possible on the 3,600-vehicle park site at Stanford West, with places available from 2017.
Mr McLoughlin said the park would be a long-term solution to the problems caused on the countys main arterial route and keep the M20 moving during disruption to cross-channel services, helping Kent go about its business as normally as possible, he added.
Chancellor George Osborne has allocated £250 million for the scheme.
Mr McCloughlin admitted: Operation Stack is only ever used as a last resort but we recognise the impact it has on roads in Kent and are determined to deliver an alternative solution.
The new lorry area by the M20 will improve journeys for drivers and will not only support the regions economy but also businesses as far away as Scotland that rely on the M20 to access the Port of Dover and the Channel Tunnel.
The Government is also exploring using the site for overnight parking of lorries, relieving pressure caused by some drivers parking in unsuitable or illegal locations.
Last summer saw Kent overrun with Operation Stack, which was first used as a temporary solution to traffic congestion back in 1988 whenever there was disruption to channel crossings, usually because of poor weather affecting shipping.
Three phases of closing the M20, which turns the motorway into a giant lorry park to ease the route to the port of Dover, were implemented with junctions eight to nine creating a park for up to 2,100 lorries, nine to 11 adding another 1,500 capacity and closure of the London-bound carriageway between eight and nine making a total of 5,700 vehicles.
But in the first three weeks of July alone last year, Kent Police racked up a bill of £700,000 for policing Operation Stack which was used 23 days in the month.
Between its official start status of 1996 and the beginning of 2015, the operation was rolled out 48 times. Last summer Operation Stack was implemented 32 times and cost the Kent economy £1.45 million each day it was in use.
The cost per day to haulage companies caught up in the operation was £750,000, according to the Freight Transport Association, and £250 million to the UK economy as a whole.
Former Kent police and crime commissioner (PCC) Ann Barnes fought a protracted battle with central government, insisting the cost of enforcing the operation should be covered nationally. “It`s been going on for 20 years, until now it`s been looked upon as a small local problem but it`s not,” she said last year.
“It`s a chronic national problem that happens all the time, she added. It should be funded nationally, the bill should not be picked up by Kent taxpayers.”
On Tuesday (July 12), she welcomed the news that a lorry park was going to alleviate the transport heartache.
She told Police Professional: I think it is good for the people of Kent that a new lorry park is going to be funded by the government. This definitely is a national problem, not a local issue.
It is so difficult for the people to cope with, when their main arterial route the M20 is turned into a giant car park.
It means parents cannot get their children to school, hospital appointments are missed and the dead cannot be buried.
But she urged the Government to fund the policing of the new lorry park by the national coffers and not Kent Police.
New Kent PCC Matthew Scott added: Any measure which can help prevent Operation Stack or reduce the impact of any disruption in future is to be welcomed which is why Im pleased that a decision has been made on where a relief lorry park should go and that construction on the project will be able to proceed.
Mr Scott said he will also continue to discuss with government any o