Dear Residents,
We have just picked this up from Facebook.
They say that every cloud has a silver lining and we thank our Gods that there were no fatalities in the awful accident that occurred yesterday on the M20. It has highlighted the real need for small lorry parks along our motorway networks that could be used in emergencies such as the bridge collapse.
Susie Govett has just posted this:
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Hello All :-) Apologies for the length but just wanted to let you all know of a statement we have just released.
Following yesterday's incident on the M20, UKIP Councillors in Kent are highlighting the potential value in several smaller lorry parks across the South Eastern road network rather than one large lorry park, which is currently proposed at Stanford.
A number of local, smaller lorry parks situated across the South East road network would help to ease the system when incidents such as today's events occur. Local, easily accessible lorry parks could temporarily relieve the local congestion experienced after such events, ensuring that traffic continues to flow via local diversion routes. They could also potentially provide very basic, easily accessible, temporary facilities such as water and toilets for families and/or lorries caught up in traffic chaos.
Councillor Frank McKenna, who is a Kent County Councillor and Shepway District Councillor said "It's clear that Highways England are intent on delivering a pre-determined single lorry park at Stanford. One large lorry park is a more attractive investment for a contractor since it will be more profitable than a network of strategic smaller sites. We are saying that this issue is too important to be driven purely by profit."
Highways England contractors have this week demonstrated their contempt of publicly elected representatives and the communities they represent in the insult accidentally delivered to Cllr Pete Maddox, describing him as "an unpleasant character". We find it unpleasant that the people of Stanford are having this thrust upon them and that Balfour Beatty have already been given the contract to build the park.
This, combined with the typing error during consultation regarding the size of the site, which persisted for some time without anyone from Highways England apparently noticing, makes us question the ability of Highways England to competently consult with local communities and councils during this process.
ENDS
KCC Cllr Frank Mckenna
KCC Cllr Hod Birkby
Cllr Susie Govett
Cllr Mary Lawes |
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