MPs hear evidence on Operation Stack solution

A panel of MPs heard oral evidence from a series of witnesses last month on proposals to build a new 3,600-capacity lorry park in Kent as an alternative to Operation Stack – which last summer saw thousands of Dover-bound trucks parked on the M20, during strikes that caused severe disruption to cross-Channel transport services.

John Keefe, director of public affairs for Eurotunnel, said the problem needed to be dealt with “in a holistic way.”

“We need to look at how we can shift traffic through the county of Kent to the market. Part of that solution would also be the use of intelligent motorway technology to better manage the speed and flow of the traffic, but not just in Kent, because the traffic coming to Kent is from all over the UK,” he told the House of Commons transport select committee.

“We would need to manage the traffic significantly in advance of its entry to Kent… We cannot just bring it all into one truck park and say that will solve the problem. When you look at the volumes of traffic that are moving and the growth that is predicted, we need something that will work across the whole system.”

Mr Keefe also played down the chances of last summer’s problems recurring.

“The circumstances of last summer were unique,” he said. “There was a strike that took out ferries, which were blockaded in port for months. The port of Calais itself was blockaded for long periods of time. Those are causes that have been dealt with and are unlikely to be reproduced.”

He also argued that increased amounts of HGV traffic in the future would mean that the proposed truck park’s efficacy would be limited.

“There will be increased amounts of traffic. They are already beyond the level of traffic predicted for the truck park as it is described, with 3,600 lorries, so we would end up with a truck park that was full of fly-parked trucks, which could not cope with the number of trucks on the motorway, even for a short period of time, and would not be a proper solution to keep the trade flows moving that our economy relies on.”

Environmental concerns were also raised, including by Dr Hilary Newport of the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

Arguing that such a site would impact adversely on the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Dr Newport said that by their nature, HGVs were “mobile advertising hoardings”.

“They are colourful and bright. They will be a moving element in the landscape that is even more arresting to the visual impact. There will also, of course, have to be the associated infrastructure, which would probably be gantries. There would be lighting associated with it.

“There would have to be security for the site, not only when it is in use but when it is not in use, to prevent incursions into it. The industrialisation that would be caused at what is a very open area of countryside is just not acceptable.”

Matthew Webb, chair of Stanford Parish Council, raised concerns about the health impact on residents.

“[The vehicles] have to run a lot of the time, whether they are moving in queues or running refrigeration units and spewing a large amount of diesel emissions and the particulates they contain into the public air,” he said.

Meanwhile Natalie Chapman, the Freight Transport Association’s (FTA) head of policy for the south east, said Operation Stack could not continue to use the M20 as “a giant lorry park and allow the entire county of Kent to grind to a halt.”

She said FTA was “open to ideas as to ways to solve it” but that it believed a “single area site” would be the “simplest and easiest way.”

Ms Chapman highlighted the drivers’ hours compliance issues that Operation Stack in its current form entailed for operators, arguing that a lorry park might help mitigate them.

“Depending on the configuration of the lorry area, you could configure it in such a way that vehicles can park up and stop in lanes, as they do when they enter the port or Eurotunnel, and they can be in those lanes for long enough to take their statutory EU rest breaks…” she pointed out.

“They could take their breaks and while doing that they can switch their engines off. We should not then have the issue of idling engines and air quality problems. If we could also have somewhere for refrigerated vehicles to plug into, that would be even better.

“The important thing is making sure the layout of such a site works so that whoever manages the site can optimise the flow of vehicles in and out when it is in operation.”

Councillor Matthew Balfour of Kent County Council was also in favour.

“Currently, if Stack happens again for any period of time, the only solution is to have what is quite rightly called a storage area, which means that the trucks can keep moving, but we need to have that off the motorway because if it is on the motorway Kent grinds to a halt,” he said. “Businesses are affected and people cannot get to their hospital appointments.”

Concluding the session, committee chair Louise Ellman repeatedly challenged witnesses to state whether they felt a lorry park “the size of Disneyland” was justifiable.

Councillor Balfour replied: “The figure of 3,600 is what they are aiming for… I would not know what the size of Disneyland is, but if it is 3,600 that we need, it is Disneyland we need.”