News Content

BIFA hits plan for big truck park in Kent to ease cross-channel flow

THE British International Freight Association (BIFA) has criticised British government plans to build a huge truck park in Kent as an alternative to Operation Stack the existing highway cross-channel safety procedure.

Operation Stack is the emergency procedure whereby large trucks separate into two emergency queues on either side of the carriageway when the are problems with cross channel freight services.

Earlier this month, plans for a truck park the size of Disneyland (870 acres/352 hectares) on the M20 were criticised by a parliamentary committee that believes the government needs to justify the cost of the build, said the BIFA release.

Like the committee, BIFA said it also believes that the government has not clearly demonstrated what options have been evaluated and considers that the decision to proceed with a truck park project in Kent had ignored some of the usual best practice when planning the expenditure of such large sums of money.

"Our members' cross-channel trailer services are seriously impacted when there is disruption in the channel ports and Operation Stack comes into action." said BIFA director general, Robert Keen.

"They are keen for the government to seek a solution to the disruption caused by Operation Stack, but query whether a lorry park is the best approach, given the cost and scale involved.

"It seems a little odd that such a significant amount of money might be spent on a lorry park that might never get used and might not even solve the wider problems.

"BIFA has always said there is not one single fix and a range of options should be considered, including consideration of the use of the M26 to queue rather than park traffic, upgrading of the A2 so that we've got two major routes to the port, as well as using smart technology," Mr Keen said.