200-space lorry park rejected

Plans to build a 200-space 24-hour lorry park in Kent near one of the county’s motorways have been turned down.

The facility was planned for near Junction 2a of the M26 in Wrotham Heath, between Sevenoaks and West Malling.

An application was submitted by Moto to Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council (TMBC) in November last year.

The company operates more than 50 service stations and is currently the largest motorway service operator in the UK.

The company described the park as a “secure 24-hour truck stop facility for up to 200 HGVs”.

Plans showed a fenced-off section with 195 spaces for lorries, an ‘amenity building’ and a sixlane petrol station.

The application was refused last week by TMBC, with a decision notice stating the development would “harmfully erode the rural character and appearance of the area, and cause significant harm to the landscape setting of the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)”.

It mentions that “it would further conflict with the purposes of including land within the Green Belt, by encroaching into the countryside.

The facility would have been built on 16.1 acres – or just over 12 football pitches – of green land alongside the A20, but was turned down.

It is also next to the M26, which connects the M20 and M25, and would have been accessed by a new roundabout.

The report goes on to say that the site would affect the amenity of neighbouring properties from the “overspill of headlights”.

It comes as the need for greater lorry parking facilities were highlighted once again with the closure of the M20 seeing thousands of lorries stacked up on the motorway.