The consultation on the long term solution for Operation Stack has now begun and will close on 25th January 2016. You can find out more about the detailed plans here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/operation-stack-consultation-on-new-lorry-area-launches-today . It is important that everyone has there say. Thanks to the £250million funding that we have secured from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the resources are there to deliver this long term solution. We now have to decide whether or not we want to go with it, and make Operation Stack a thing of the past.
For years Kent has had to endure the misery of Operation Stack when it is in force; which has been on 32 occasions this year. In June and July, we saw the worst ever period of Operation Stack, which caused massive disruption to everyday life and hit Kent businesses hard. Surveys have suggested that many local firms that rely on visitors in the summer season were twenty per cent down in takings on the previous year. Research from Kent County Council has suggested that the direct cost to our local economy this summer, as a result of Operation Stack was approximately £50million. Wider estimates have also stated that the cost this year to the UK economy of the lost hours and business caused by Operation Stack is over £8billion.
There has been constant debate over what the best long term solution should be, and a substantial amount of work has been completed since the summer into this. In July I pressed the government to consider any solution that could help to re-open the motorway and get the traffic moving again; this led to the use of Manston Airport as a short term measure to relieve the pressure on our roads. A long term solution has to be based on an off road holding area for vehicles that are waiting to access the Channel Tunnel and Port of Dover, as if the lorries are not being held on the M20, they need to be somewhere else. This facility also needs to be available at any time; as we often don’t have much notice that Operation Stack is going to be enforced. Highways England have estimated that holding areas big enough to take 4,000 lorries would be enough to prevent phases 1 and 2 of Operation Stack being called, which require the closure of the coast bound carriageways of the M20 between junctions 8 and 9, and junctions 10 and 11.
Two sites have been brought forward for consideration to create a new off road lorry parking facility, although many more have been examined and discounted. The site needs to be on the coast bound carriageway of the M20, as that is the direction the traffic is heading in. It needs to be to the west of the Channel Tunnel entrance, but as close to it as possible to make sure we have proper enforcement. Of the two sites, one to the west and the other to the north east of Stanford North, I believe only one could be acceptable. The site to the west of Stanford requires the smallest amount of land to be lost, is integrated into the motorway network and would be linked by a new bridge to the services at junction 11 of the M20. Crucially the lorries would access and exit the lorry park directly from the motorway without disturbing other local roads. The alternative site requires a larger loss of land, it sits next to the area of outstanding natural beauty, and would be accessed from Stone Street, which would cause congestion when Operation Stack is in force. For all these reasons, I would favour the site to the west of Stanford.
