Kentish Express Ashford & District
Campaign bid to name Brexit lorry park after Farage
A tongue-in-cheek campaign has been launched to name Ashford’s controversial post-Brexit lorry park after Nigel Farage.
At the time of going to press, more than 25,000 people had signed the petition on change. org titled ‘Kent lorry park to be named after Nigel Farage’.
Work on the 66-acre spot, next to Junction 10a of the M20 and officially called the ‘Sevington Inland Border Facility’, started in the summer.
It will be used to process paperwork before truckers continue their journey and in the event of disruption at Dover and Eurotunnel, it will be a holding area for up to 1,700 HGVs to avoid queues on the M20.
A consultation was recently opened by the Department for Transport (DfT) asking for people’s views on the plans, despite work having started on the project four months ago.
The new petition was created last Thursday by a Gareth Evans.
He writes: “The undersigned request that the new Brexit lorry park in Kent be named after Nigel Farage, without his years of selfish grift, dissembling and misapplied zeal on the behalf of the more gullible voters of Kent this project just would not be happening.
“It is fitting that every lorry driver, every commuter and every local resident has a chance to link this fine example of civil engineering to its true hero.
“It maybe that Mr Farage will be unable or unwilling to attend the unveiling of this great hon
our that we do him but that shouldn’t get in the way of seeing his name and huge gurn plastered all over the boundary fence at regular intervals topped by a coil of razor wire no doubt festooned with the shreds of black farmers plastic known as witches knickers.
“For the foreseeable future everyone should genuinely be able to refer to this diesel soaked valhalla as Nigel’s Folly.”
One comment on the petition called for it to be known as ‘Nigel’s Garage’.
Another commenter said: “Love this! Yes, it is only fitting that the Brexit ‘hero’ has his name firmly tied in with this masterpiece of HGV parking capacity.”
In July, Mr Farage, leader of
the Brexit Party, said he welcomed the government’s plan for the Brexit lorry park.
He said: “The new customs site will result in a bit more traffic but it won’t be catastrophic.
“We’ve seen Operation Stack many times, we get it when the French strike, we get it when there’s a force 10 south-westerly gale in the Channel - Kent is used to these problems.
“For the past 25 years, Kent has become the temporary ‘Garden of Lorry Parks’ whenever the French go on strike.
“But I’m pretty certain that once this is up-and-running and streamlined, there literally won’t be a massive load of difference.”
Mr Farage was contacted for comment.