Key port town warns motorway could become 13-mile ‘lorry park’

BRITAIN’S KEY Channel port town has expressed concerns over how the country will cope with a no deal Brexit.

Dover District Council raised fears over lorry backlogs and how ready the UK is to leave the EU without an agreement to cover trade.

It called for “urgent clarity” from the Government.

The impact assessment says that a “temporary solution” to deal with a no-deal Brexit of converting a 13-mile stretch of the M20 into giant lorry park holding around 2,000 lorries could last “many years”.

The document, released under freedom of information laws, expressed concern at the slow pace of work on the scheme and stated “there does not appear to be a Plan B”.

More than 10,000 freight vehicles pass through Dover on peak days as it handles one sixth of the UK’s total trade in goods with a value of £119bn per year, and 99 per cent of the freight moved through the port is intra-EU.

The report said: “The freight vehicles currently only take seconds to clear the Port of Dover but if Brexit ends up creating regulatory and tariff barriers between the UK and the EU, it is predicted that there could be gridlock around the town and through to Maidstone and beyond.

“If increased waiting times persisted then perishable goods could be damaged and supply chains interrupted.

“There is also a potential impact on air quality of any increased traffic queues.”

Port officials have warned that increasing the average time it takes to clear customs, currently between five or 45 minutes per vehicle from outside the EU by just two minutes could lead to 17mile traffic jams, the report said.