‘Taking back control’ means more lorries parked here

Prompted by the news that 27 acres of land off the M20 is being made into a lorry park, I took a walk around there at the weekend.

I actually think the site is wellchosen, separated from most housing by the railway, the A2070, the industrial park and Junction 10a.

Once a slip road is made off Junction 10a, the HGVs can turn into and out of the park without hindering local traffic and noise nuisance will be no greater than that from the very busy A2070.

The few houses (less than 10) that are nearest are traditional detached Kentish rural houses of the old Sevington village.

The one owner I talked to admitted that they had always known the site was about to be developed, probably as a warehouse hub, and they had been consulted about that and agreed with the landscaping in that design.

But they had not been consulted at all about the new HMRC project which must have been planned in detail in secret for many months, including putting out tenders and engaging a contractor who were able to arrive on site on day one.

Although this lack of democratic consultation is deplorable, it is apparently the way this government has to proceed in order to implement Brexit.

‘Taking back control’ involves more lorries parking in rural Kent, more customs form-filling for all businesses, and more people employed for red tape work rather than in the more productive side of their business.

However, it would be prudent to listen to local voices on some of the details of the plan.

Their rural road is prone to flooding at the turning.

The earlier plan had nicely landscaped ponds nearest to the row of houses. These residents advise that they would have no problem with the lorry park on the other side of the slope (still within the purchased site) but what they fear is concreting on their side of the slope.

The amount of parking required on that site depends on whether it will be used ONLY for HMRC checking of some inbound lorries (which could then be confined to the other side of the slope) or whether it will also be necessary as an overflow for outbound lorries to relieve an Operation Stack crisis of hold-ups on the Calais side.

Quick calculations reveal that some 2,000 lorries could be parked there if the whole site was concreted over.

The views of residents (and the calls of the buzzard that currently frequents the area) are unlikely to be heard when this concreting decision is made.

The flow of traffic on the M20 is too important to too many people.

But can we have some long-term policies too, with incentives to shift more freight to rail? This generates 76% less airpollution than HGVs (Air Quality News, December 2019).

The Channel has underused capacity: much of the inbound freight carried on HGVs on the M20 could be shifted to containers and sped through Kent by rail at night to a rehabilitated Willesden Euro terminal.

Charlotte Mbali

Work has started on the post-Brexit lorry park off the M20 near Ashford