Lorry Park Newsletter No. 8 - Peter Wood

Welcome to the eighth email distribution of news regarding the proposed Lorry Park on the Aldington-Smeeth borders.

Dear All,

As I had expected, with one exception, nothing happened during the KCC/ABC summer recess in respect of the proposed Lorry Park. The one exception was that, with the support of colleagues (incl. Ian Medgett of Sellindge), I managed to get a Tree Preservation Order (TPO No 6, 2008) placed on the whole of Park Wood. This is the woodland behind Evegate that abuts the western edge of KCC’s proposed Lorry Park site.

The summer recess is now over and, as though to mark that fact, a meeting of the Joint Transport Board was held at the Ashford Civic Centre on Tuesday 2nd September 2008.
This committee is made up of both Kent County Councillors and Ashford Borough Councillors and one of the items on the agenda was a report entitled “Proposed Lorry Park” (copy attached). This report was presented for information purposes only, and no committee decision/vote was required. Nevertheless it gave me and colleagues the opportunity to raise publicly a number of issues and, perhaps most importantly, to demonstrate that our opposition has not waned and, if anything, has strengthen.

Points of particular note that arose were:

* I extracted a commitment from KCC that they would undertake the
pre-application public consultation that Paul Carter (KCC Leader) and Keith Ferrin (KCC Cabinet Member) had previously promised, but which has failed to materialise. This consultation is likely to take place in the Spring of 2009.

* All the Ashford Borough Councillors present (irrespective of
party allegiance) made it abundantly clear to KCC that they did not support the proposal for the Lorry Park.

* Paul Clokie (Leader, Ashford Borough Council) proposed that
Operation Stack should be addressed by installing the QMB between J8 and
J9 of the M20 and that overnight lorry parking should be addressed by facilitating the retention and expansion of the existing Waterbrook Truck Stop near J10 and J10A. He also supported the view that the M2 will inevitably become the primary freight route to Dover and that, in seeking to create a permanent off-road solution to Operation Stack on the M20, KCC are ignoring this reality. Cllr Clokie’s comments accord perfectly with those previously expressed by the Lorry Park Alliance.

* Charles Findlay, the Kent County Councillor representing this
part of Ashford Borough, in what was his maiden public statement on the issue, very forcefully and articulately stated his absolute opposition to the KCC proposals for the Lorry Park.

* The point was made that the proposed Lorry Park would inevitably
give rise to issues of prostitution, drugs and other anti-social behaviour, particularly so as KCC were adamant that it should be free of charge. The astonishing response of KCC was along the lines of ‘it’s better to have it all in one isolated place than spread throughout the Borough’!

* KCC are still adamant that central government should somehow pay
for the proposed Lorry Park. This is despite the government having made it abundantly clear that they will not.

* It was stated during the meeting that a KCC proposal for a Lorry
Park on this site had been considered by the Joint Transport Board many years ago. On investigation, this turns out to be correct in that an exempt (i.e. confidential) report from KCC and the Highways Agency was considered with the public excluded, on 9th January 2001. That report, which proposed an Operation Stack Lorry Park for 1,000 vehicles on the Aldington/Smeeth site, was “not supported” by the then Joint Transport Board on the grounds that “a more strategic approach for various solutions [should] be researched”.

I will continue to keep you fully informed as matters progress. If you are aware of anyone who wishes to be kept in touch, but who has not received this email, please ask them to contact me by email so that their details can be added to the distribution list.

I must again stress that my colleagues and I are not opposed to a solution for either Operation Stack or for overnight lorry parking.

However, we are opposed to these current proposals, which are ill-conceived and hastily cobbled together with inadequate evaluation of alternatives and without consultation. We also consider that KCC is seeking to impose a wholly local solution to a problem that is in fact a national and pan-European issue.

Thank you all for your continuing support.
Regards,
Peter
Cllr Peter Wood
Saxon Shore Ward
Member of the Executive
Ashford Borough Council
and
Chairman, Aldington & Bonnington Parish Council
Please reply to: peter.wood@ashford.gov.uk or peter@copperhurst.com