Following letter sent to Local press in August, written by Sarah Gleave, Dover + Deal Green Party Published in EKM 20/8/20 and Dover Express 27/8/20
We are told to expect lorry parks in Manston (5800 HGVs) and at Whitfield, a field near B+Q (1200 HGVs ) as well as 2 in Ashford (2000 + 950). We expect lorry queues from Manston to Whitfield or Dover, down the A256 and also queues /Operation Brock on the M/A20.
Staffing of clearance offices in Calais has not increased, which will slow entry to EU27 from UK.
Crawling lorries (on A2 also) are likely to make air pollution levels worse and the desirability (property values) of family homes built along these 3 corridors of crawling lorries may well suffer. Logically 2020 + 2021 are likely see new road building / widening on the A256 by Sandwich /Felderland and on the A2 west and east of Whitfield roundabout to cope with these lorries.
Flyovers will be needed on Whitfield and Guston roundabouts, but putting them in will all cause traffic disruption 2020 / 2021, with knock-on effects on ambulance journeys, etc. If we get a new fasttrack bus route from Whitfield to Dover out of it, it’ll be a some crumb of comfort.
BUT some of our stay-cation economy is just coming back post-covid lockdown and traffic jams 20/21 are not likely to help.
Obviously no-one wants unhygienic fly-parking by HGVs.
Obviously Dover town and port area cannot accommodate a lorry park (infrastructure) of this size.
But we East Kent residents should be allowed to ask; why our corner of the orchard garden of England is coming in for so much damage; why Johnson's Conservative bungling ministers in London have done so little to protect Dover + East Kent from the consequences of their decisions, why they've binned their promises of friction-less freight flow.
Smart digitalised controls ? Really?
Just watch the faces of our Border Force friends and neighbours when you ask them about new Home Office IT systems.
A real, green, climate-friendly, post-covid recovery is what is urgently needed; not this expensive, unthought-through mess.
Couldn’t local and national govt come up with a more sustainable freight /border solution given a bit more time?
The French PM has just announced 3 new cross-country freight to rail lines (Mediterranean to channel); an example of post-covid green recovery for others to follow?