Kentish Express Ashford & District
Truckers left in rain at new lorry park
Truckers have been left queuing for hours at a new Brexit lorry park as they wait for border paperwork to be cleared. Transport chiefs say photos showing a long line of hauliers standing in the rain at the Waterbrook Park facility in Ashford prove the government “isn’t fully prepared” for disruption in Kent.
The site - which is set to be used until the end of February - opened on January 1 and started to get busier last week at the end of the Christmas lull.
HMRC is currently carrying out customs checks on the plot while construction continues on the neighbouring 66-acre facility next to Junction 10a of the M20 in Sevington.
On Twitter, Rod McKenzie, director of policy and public affairs at the Road Haulage Association (RHA), said drivers had been queuing for up to eight hours last Wednesday to get their border paperwork signed off, describing the situation as “shocking”.
Spokesman Paul Mummery agreed, saying the photos show the “the horrible truth” of delays facing hauliers.
“What we are seeing in Ashford is horrendous,” he said.
“The Covid testing hasn’t helped as it has added more time to the hauliers’ journey, but this isn’t just about Covid - this is about the government not getting its act together.
“We import more than we export and we are already hearing that firms on the continent are looking at the queues in Kent and saying that it is just not worth their while coming to the UK.
“They can’t afford to have trucks getting stuck for days.”
Mr Mummery says the RHA is urging the government to take action.
It comes as a long line of truckers waiting to get into the Waterbrook facility queued up on the A2070 Bad Munstereifel Road numerous times last week, blocking 'McDonald's rounda
bout'. Mr Mummery said: “We were never going to see the full extent of the government’s lack of preparedness at the start of the year.
“It was always going to
be in the second or third week of January when more trucks are rolling, as we are seeing now.
“Prior to the end of the transition period, there were no delays apart from the start of Covid testing just before Christmas.
“But these photos show the government isn’t fully prepared.”
In a statement, HMRC said it has set up five inland border facilities across the country - Waterbrook, Ebbsfleet, North Weald (Essex), Birmingham Airport and Warrington.
It says hauliers may choose to visit whichever site is most convenient for them.
A spokesman added: “Drivers are encouraged to pre-book their space at an inland border facility by using our online service, which will allow them see how busy each site is in advance so that they can avoid delays.
“With a majority of drivers using Ashford Waterbrook, this has led to longer waiting times and we have
advised drivers to expect delays.
“However, any driver concerned about the wait time may choose to visit an alternative location.”
Filip Bednarkiewicz, who has covered the Ashford delays on his Polish haulage website www.40TON.net, says truckers’ welfare is not taken seriously across Europe.
“Britain has forgotten about drivers in this particular case,” he said.
“Was it really so hard to predict there could be a queue to the customs office and that it could be raining?”
Speaking on Monday, Ashford MP Damian Green says he hopes the situation “is going to get better now”.
Although the Sevington Inland Border Facility next to the Waterbrook site is not yet fully operational, truckers have been receiving Covid-19 tests on the land since the start of the month.
Mr Green said: "I and others have pointed out some of the quite basic failures of traffic management.
“I’ve spoken to people who are working in Waterbrook and they told me lorries were being released from Sevington to Waterbrook without anyone at Sevington knowing there was a queue on the road, so even just a phone call could solve the problems by holding them at Sevington if there's no space at Waterbrook.
“The other thing that needs changing
mean anything to foreign lorry drivers.
“HMRC may not mean anything to a foreign driver, whereas ‘customs’ is universal. I think what we saw were just some teething problems that are being fixed every day.”
Asked to comment on the long line of truckers waiting on the site, he said: “I hope they’ve all been tested so it shouldn’t pose a health risk.
“The main thing is to get the lorries off the main road so they’re not causing problems for residents.
“papers checked will hopefully reduce over time as people get better at filling in the paperwork.”
Mr Green says he has been told the Sevington lorry park is “still on track to be fully finished by the end of February”.
“The Border Force office which is on Waterbrook at the moment can then be opened at Sevington, at which point a lot of the Waterbrook problems should go away,” he added.