A STANFORD RESIDENT TELLS IT HOW IT REALLY IS

‎Stan Ford‎ to BBC Radio Kent

Almost 450 shares of my post on here about the scandal of Highways England (HE) blatantly lying to the Transport Select Committee (TSC), who met three times in Westminster with lots of people giving evidence, a report written slamming HE for their methods, not following processes, not looking at alternatives to biggest lorry park in the world, then the Chair of the TSC said it was the size of Disneyland or 90 football pitches. Not only did HE lie to the TSC, they lied to the media and the people of Kent for nine months. They have just revealed that they are taking 250 ACRES - ONE AND A HALF THE SIZE OF DISNEYLAND. How can the BBC not cover this story, HE are a public body and should be held to account. Matthew Balfour, Roads minister for Kent County Council spoke at a meeting recently where he said 'HE cannot do anything at pace, they are hopeless and they got the consultation wrong, very wrong'. Eurotunnel don't want it, Port of Dover don't want it, CPRE are against it, BIFA and MOTIS have said it won't work. How many more people do they need to listen to to say that spending £250m on a mega lorry park will not solve the problem of Operation Stack. A network of Lorry Parks along major routes, smart technology, freight on rail and upgrading A2/M2 has been SOS Kent's message for nine months. Yesterday, KCC announced upgrades to the A2/M2.

There hasn't been an Operation Stack in over 12 months, 11 storms since November 2015 (check the Met Office), Dover Chaos, no Op Stack and Manston has set empty, rented out by HE in case Op Stack is required, to the end of 2017. This mega lorry park for 4,000 HGVs will sit empty, become a £250m white elephant as no-one wants to operate it. There are no toilets or wash facilities in the plan and HE will build it whether it is used or not. Kent Police want nothing to do with it as they will have to apply for funding and didn't get their £700k back from the Home Office, the cost to Policing Op Stack last year.

Last year's Op Stack was caused by French Industrial action which gave migrants opportunity to surge the tunnel and was at the same time as the start of our summer holidays. UK Government invested £4 million pounds towards improving security measures in Calais around the Port and Eurotunnel and since then (Oct 2015) there hasn't been one breach and there isn't likely to be. This mega lorry park is a knee jerk reaction to that event. Better solutions to Op Stack when they are a 'one off event' i..e happens some years, some years not and for 12 hours in most cases. To take 250 acres of prime arable land for something that might, might not happen is not the best solution or the best way to spend public money. Invest in smaller lorry parks, giving grants to commercial operators, not THROW THE GARDEN OF ENGLAND IN THE CEMENT MIXER