Proposed Lorrry Park - Newsletter No. 9

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

Dear All,

Several Lorry Park Alliance (LPA) members and the Kentish Express have used the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to pressurise KCC into disclosing a heavily censored draft version of one of their confidential Operation Stack reports. The report, entitled “Operation Stack Improvement Options”, is marked “Draft In Confidence - May 2007” and deals with only 5 of the 40 or so potential Lorry sites examined since the late 1990s, but information regarding costings and sites other than that at Aldington/Smeeth has been censored. While the censored report is interesting, it does not contain anything that we did not already know or had not deduced. Anyone wishing to have a copy (2.5MB pdf) of this censored report should contact me by email.

What is far more interesting than the censored report itself are some of the reasons given by KCC as to why they initially refused to disclose the report, despite having received legitimate FOI requests. For example, one LPA member was told in writing by KCC’s legal dept that:


“Head of Countywide Services Kent Highway Services Environment & Regeneration Directorate confirmed that the intention was not to withhold information rather that there was less information available than the requester would suppose and that the Council did not want to unduly cause concern regarding alternative sites when they had not been fully considered.” [my underlining]

So, here we have a clear admission by one of the most senior KCC Officers that:

(a) despite all their trumpeting regarding their due diligence and research in respect of the Aldington/Smeeth Lorry Park proposal, KCC in fact had far less information available than an ordinary member of the public might reasonably suppose was available, and

(b) that alternative sites to Aldington/Smeeth have “not been fully considered”. The latter point is mind blowing in its audacity, and I’ll let LPA members and the media draw their own conclusions as to where that leaves the veracity of KCC’s half-baked proposals. The term, ‘disingenuous’ strikes a chord.

Just to rub salt into the wound, KCC’s legal dept also informed the LPA member in writing that “Inspection of available papers reveals that there is very little in the way of final documents prepared”. A well known phrase regarding organising things in a brewery springs readily to mind.

Finally, I am given to understand by those with more intimate knowledge of this KCC report that the censored draft version now released under the FOI Act is not necessarily the final draft version and certainly not the most informative version.

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