Kentish Express Ashford & District
£91bn trade boost from the Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel is responsible for more than £91 billion of trade a year, according to a new report.
About 30% of UK exports to the EU, worth £43.6 billion, depend on the rail link between Folkestone and Coquelles in France, according to findings by accountancy firm Ernst & Young.
About 22% of imports to the country also rely on the route, worth £47.8 billion.
The report said the tunnel, which opened in 1994, has “fundamentally changed the way the UK does business” with industrial sectors and the automotive industry depending on its speed and reliability.
It is estimated 220,000 UK jobs are supported through exports using the route, adding it transports 21 million passengers a year.
It said inbound tourism using the rail link adds £1.7 billion to the economy and supports another 45,000 jobs, while enabling 840,000 business trips.
The report found France is the most significant single destination of UK exports, accounting for 18%.
Peter Arnold, director for economic advisory at Ernst & Young, said: “The £91.4 billion of trade that passes through the tunnel each year is vital to the UK and is likely to grow in importance as the economy continues to expand.” mmilehamchappell@thekmgroup.co.uk Suspected migrants were spotted jumping off the back of a lorry at a business park in Ashford last week.
The incident involving a foreign lorry occurred at about 1pm last Friday in Foster Road in Sevington.
A video shared on Twitter showed a handful of suspected migrants climbing off a Transped lorry.
The video also shows police officers at the scene.
Nick Hanson, who owns Ashbury Furniture in Foster Road, said: “Basically, a lorry pulled up with a police van, and the door was undone and the people in the back got out.
“There were four or five people on board, and they all looked OK.
“The police must have led the lorry here, because it’s unusual for a lorry to drive up with a police van behind it, it hasn’t happened here before.
“A lot of foreign lorries do park here, and with migrants getting on lorries across the Channel it is an ongoing problem.
“This estate is terrible for lorries parking up and doing all sorts of things, but a surveillance camera has been put up here recently.”
A police spokesman said: “We were alerted at about 1pm to reports that four people were in the back of a Romanian registered lorry in the Ashford Business Park.
“Three men and a woman have been handed over to Immigration.”
‘The police must have led the lorry here, because it’s unusual for a lorry to drive up with a police van behind it’