Kentish Express Ashford & District
Call to reconsider plans for £250m lorry park
Plans for a huge lorry park to deal with Operation Stack off the M20 should be reviewed and possibly dropped, according to a senior Conservative councillor.
Cllr Susan Carey, who represents Elham Valley on Kent County Council and is a member of the cabinet, said there were questions about the need for the park given that Operation Stack had not been implemented for two years.
The project is currently in limbo because of a legal challenge by opponents about the way the project was agreed. A High Court hearing has now been put back until October to hear the case, and all work on the scheme on a 700-acre site near the village of Stanford is suspended.
Cllr Carey said that if the new government elected in June was being given the opportunity to reconsider the justification for the park – which would hold up to 3,600 HGVs – then so should KCC.
She said: “If the national government is to be given time to reconsider the scheme, maybe we should be given the time to recon- sider the project, given that it is two years since Operation Stack has been implemented.”
But the suggestion was given short shrift by the Conservative cabinet member for transport Cllr Matthew Balfour, who said it was important the project moved ahead “at a pace”.
Answering a question tabled by Cllr Carey at a full council meeting, he said: “I think we should push on at pace and that KCC should continue to support the proposal.”
After the meeting, Cllr Carey said: “We should take advantage of having a rethink because it has been two years since we had Operation Stack. It is a great deal of money to spend on the lorry holding area. My residents in Stanford are very much affected by this. They have blight already and cannot sell their homes and nothing is happening.
“It is a very cruel situation that people find themselves in. If we are going to make an intelligent response to the problems that happen when freight services are disrupted, a lorry park costing £250 million was not, in my view, a good response.”