Kentish Express Ashford & District
Brock could be used 7 more times in ‘22
County highways chiefs say there could be a need to trigger Operation Brock as many as seven more times this year and that they need more power and money to keep traffic moving during times of disruption.
The warning that Operation Brock may be needed in the remaining months of the year was made during a debrief to county councillors on why there had been a prolonged period of disruption in which the M20 was closed to hold lorries because of delays and cancellations to crossings.
Toby Howe, Kent County Council’s (KCC) senior highway manager, said there would be a review of the scheme but that any changes would be unlikely to be brought in in the short term.
He said: “Operation Brock does remain exceptionally disruptive, both locally and nationally. It’s limited in its capacity.
“And of course it’s resource heavy and has a huge impact on the road network around.
“But it’s likely to continue for the next however long so the next steps in the short term is for the Kent Resilience Forum (KRF) to carry out a review because everything has changed since we left the EU.
“In the medium term, we need to be planning for the year ahead.
“There are seven possible key events coming up such as getaways and school half-terms.”
He said that there were questions around the ability to redirect lorries who were trying to get to Dover without getting trapped in the M20.
It emerged that only Kent Police had the legal authority to redirect traffic and that it had called on several other forces to help out during the prolonged logjam.
Mr Howe added:“One of the operational issues that we’ve had really throughout this was resource.
“Kent Police, who are the main enforcers of all of this, really struggled.
“Their priority is to stop crime, rather than control traffic.
“So they had to bring in resources from numerous other places, which meant they weren’t carrying out their regular function.”
The main objective in the longer term is to “get this problem taken out of Kent so that it isn’t always us that’s got to deal with it”.
In a statement, the KRF confirmed there was close monitoring of key dates.
■ The specific dates are: May Day weekend (Bank Holiday May 2); Whitsun/Platinum Jubilee week; summer getaway (July onwards); October half-term; Christmas and New Year.