The transport minister reflects on how Operation Stack has affected the county this week - and what must be done to prevent this chaos in the future
Kent police along with Highways England, KCC, and others have joined a task force to try and find alternatives to Operation Stack.
Traffic caused misery for motorists this week, as industrial action in France saw backlogs at both the ferry port and Eurotunnel. Operation Stack has to be implemented by the police, when the M20 has to be used as a lorry park to accommodate the waiting freight traffic.
This causes gridlock for the county, as well as costing businesses enormous amounts of money.
Transport minister Andrew Jones visited the county this week, and reflects on the issues caused by this excess traffic.
He writes: “The Port of Dover and the Channel Tunnel are of immense value to the whole of the UK. But this week we have once again seen that when those links to the Continent are blocked, it has a hugely damaging effect on people and businesses in Kent.
“As the prime minister told the House of Commons at Prime Minister’s Question Time, the scenes witnessed this week are unacceptable. Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin has convened a meeting of COBRA to ensure we have the right plans in place in the event of another wildcat strike, and we will be working with the French to see that law and order in Calais is maintained. We have already invested £12 million in security at the port to improve infrastructure and bolster security measures. Attempts by migrants to exploit the situation make things worse, so as well as working with our European partners to stem the appalling trafficking of people across the Mediterranean, we will pass an Immigration Bill to make the UK less of a target destination.
“But as Kent readers will know all too well, these events have an impact on both sides of the Channel. For almost three decades, whenever there has been major cross-channel disruption, Kent Police have been forced to implement ‘Operation Stack’ – the emergency measure under which miles of Kent’s roads are turned into a parking lot as thousands of lorries queue to cross into France. The result can be days of congestion across the county.
“On Tuesday, while the images of striking French ferry workers setting roads alight - and migrants exploiting the situation - dominated the news, I was at Highways England’s south east traffic control centre. I saw first-hand the huge effort being made to minimise disruption to Kent’s roads.
“Operation Stack must only ever be used as a last resort. But the second deployment of the measure this year proves the urgent need for alternative solutions. The urgency is intensified by the fact that when French strikers see the effect their action has on Kent, they wrongly believe that it gives them greater bargaining power.
“Following the implementation of Operation Stack for the first time this year in January, Kent County Council, Kent Police, Highways England, national freight associations and others formed a task force to find better options. Those options will include proposals to mitigate the worst effects of Operation Stack, or to prevent it from having to be implemented in the first place.
“The task force is due to deliver a report to ministers soon. We look forward to receiving that report, and although we know there are no easy answers, we are determined to do whatever possible to help keep Kent’s roads free from disruption.”
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