Kentish Express Ashford & District
Sites identified to ease lorry parking
Plans for a series of lorry parks across Kent could ease the problems caused by HGVs parking unofficially in residential and industrial areas.
Kent County Council has identified three possible sites for round-the-clock, commercially run lorry parks which could also double as a holding area when Operation Stack is implemented and the M20 is closed.
A report now says KCC is to abandon plans for a large-scale lorry park off the M20 at Ashford, saying it would cost too much. The potential new sites are:
Westenhanger, adjacent to Stop24, on the M20 at Junction 11 – 300 places;
Land adjacent to Ashford International Truckstop – 278 places;
White Cliffs Business Park, Dover – 237 places.
KCC says all three could be developed without the need for major road improvements, such as slip roads or motorway junctions. The council will now look to find potential operators.
Cllr David Brazier (Con), cabinet member for transport, said: “Being home to both the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel, Kent is the UK’s front door to Europe for road freight, with nearly 90% of all HGVs travelling between the UK and continental Europe doing so via the county.”
He added: “This movement of goods and materials is vital to the UK’s economy but does create a number of issues for Kent’s residents. One particular issue is a sizeable number of complaints about HGVs parking in inappropriate locations, near residential areas and the resulting noise, nuisance, litter and antisocial behaviour.”
On the original plan for a park to cope with Operation Stack, capable of holding as many as 2,000 HGVs, the report states: “A facility on this scale catering for ad hoc occurrences of Opera- tion Stack could not provide the economic case to attract funding from Government.”
The county council identified a number of potential sites across Kent that met specific criteria, including a minimum size, being close to M20/A20 and M2/A2 corridors, and no requirement of major road infrastructure improvements.
KCC members will consider the assessment work carried out and provide comment on a preferred site at a meeting on Wednesday 17 September.
If approved, development work on the preferred site will be undertaken with a view to delivering the first in a possible network of lorry parks.