Airfield used as HGV holding site to help prepare for no-deal Brexit
THE GOVERNMENT is to use up to 150 lorries in a major test of its plans for UK border disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
A “live test” on Monday will examine the proposal to use Manston airfield near Ramsgate as a mass “HGV holding facility” to alleviate congestion on the roads to the Channel ports, the Department for Transport has confirmed.
In a letter to hauliers, obtained by Sky News, DfT and Kent County Council officials say they would run tests during the morning rush hour at 8am, and again at 11am, to “establish the safest optimum release rate of HGVs” from the airfield to Dover along the A256.
It said it would pay for 100 to 150 hauliers from the local area to take part in the test of Operation Brock.
The news came after it was reported that Prime Minister Theresa May was due to speak with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday as she seeks added flexibility in the Withdrawal Agreement.
MPs are due to debate the PM’s Brexit deal on Wednesday ahead of a meaningful vote the following week but the EU has yet to offer any changes.
A DfT spokeswoman said: “We do not want or expect a no-deal scenario and continue to work hard to deliver a deal with the EU.
“However, it is the duty of a responsible Government to continue to prepare for all eventualities and contingencies, including a possible no-deal.
“We will be testing part of Operation Brock to ensure that, if it needs to be implemented, the system is fully functional.”
Congestion at the Channel ports caused by the reintroduction of customs checks on goods has been one of the most commonly cited negative impacts of a no-deal withdrawal from the EU at the end of March.
Labour Cardiff Central MP Jo Stevens, part of the anti-Brexit Best for Britain group, said: “This Government has a real choice to make for our country and we don’t have to flirt with a cliff-edge Brexit.”
BRITAIN’S POWERHOUSE services sector saw business activity rise at one of the slowest rates for two-and-a-half years in December, while job creation also ground to a near halt as Brexit uncertainty weighed on firms.
The closely-watched IHS Markit/CIPS UK services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) showed a reading of 51.2 in December for the sector, which represents around 80 per cent of the British economy.
This was higher than the 50.4 recorded in November when it hit a 28-month low, and above the 50.7 reading economists were expecting. A figure above 50 indicates growth.
But the reading was the second-slowest rate of business activity growth and services employment since July 2016, after Britain voted to leave the European Union. The survey suggests that concerns over Britain’s departure from the EU affected businesses’ spending plans toward the end of last year, while consumer demand was more subdued, which hit sales.
Fears have been growing in recent weeks that with Parliament yet to approve the Prime Minister’s Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, the UK may crash out of the European Union without a deal.
And yesterday the Conservatives’ political partners the Democratic Unionist Party said they were still opposed because of the proposed customs “backstop” element of the deal – affecting the Northern Ireland/Ireland border – agreed by Mrs May with Brussels. The party’s Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson said there is no way his party can support the deal.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s not just because of the regulations which Northern Ireland would be subject to with the backstop, but also the fact we would have to treat the rest of the United Kingdom as a third country, we would not participate in any trade deals which the United Kingdom may enter into in the future and we would find that there would be a border down the Irish Sea, which would impede trade with our biggest trading partner, namely GB.”
Meanwhile, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said a second EU referendum would “trigger a very populist reaction” and would further divide the UK.
Speaking to German newspaper Die Welt yesterday he said: “The current rate at which Britain is torn would be small compared to the tensions that a second vote would cause.
“It would continue to split our nation.”
The comments echoed his Cabinet colleague Jeremy Hunt, after the Foreign Secretary said earlier this week that the consequences for democracy of another referendum would be “devastating”.
Data released yesterday indicated that businesses winning new work grew slightly due to political uncertainty and downbeat expectations for economic growth in 2019.
Employment growth in the services sector was softer in December as firms aimed to cut costs. IHS Markit said the latest upturn in staffing levels was only marginal and that tight labour conditions made it difficult to recruit skilled staff.