Kent faces road ‘chaos’ this summer with Operation Brock, EU border checks and Iran war fuel fears
Kent's roads face a "chaotic" summer with Operation Brock and possible delays caused by new border checks, councillors fear. The M20 Brock contraflow system, designed to keep traffic moving and freight contained, will be deployed when the schools break up next month.
The EU-imposed biometric Entry-Exit System (EES) is likely to cause long delays because the technology designed to phase out passport stamping has not bedded in properly. The grim realities for the residents were spelt out by Kent County Council's highways and transport strategic resilience manager, Toby Howe.
He warned that Brock is likely to be deployed for "some years to come". Mr Howe, a respected figure in the industry, told the Ashford Joint Transportation Board (JTB) the issues are being compounded by people being reluctant to fly because of fuel uncertainties caused by the Iran war. The May Bank Holiday and school half-term saw lengthy delays at the Channel ports.
He said: "The summer is going to be even busier because we do have a lot of people who are choosing not to fly at the moment and therefore may well be crossing the Channel as well."
Mr Howe said Brock will be in place from mid-July until the end of August to ease pressure as they have been told to expect "at least six weekends very, very busy down at the port".
But Cllr Bernard Heyes (Con) said having Brock in place all summer was "regrettable". "The longer you operate Brock, there's more chance there's going to be an accident because in six weeks there probably would be a quite a significant accident on that route. "I imagine that will cause absolute chaos, if not even more dangerous."
Mr Howe said: "While I appreciate there are a lot of Ashford residents that do not like Brock and do not understand why it's there and just slows their journey, it does actually long-term benefit the residents and town of Ashford.
"The last thing we want to do is gridlock junction 10a for the William Harvey Hospital and all the NHS facilities, so Brock is serving that purpose." Mr Howe also ruled out using the Inland Border Facility (IBF) at Sevington for French authorities to process third-country nationals. French customs officials are only permitted to work at the Port of Dover and the Tunnel site.
The IBF site is unsuitable for holding lorries because "it's on the wrong side" of the M20, he said. In the meantime, a 'mini-Brock' solution has been devised by National Highways and the Department for Transport (DfT) which would move the start of the contraflow system closer to J9 than J8, thus relieving the knock-on effects to the A20 villages of Harrietsham, Lenham and Charing. But this may reduce Brock's capacity.
In the longer term, a mobile phone app is being designed by the DfT to warn lorry drivers that Brock - which can hold about 2,000 HGVs - is in place and to avoid the M20 until instructed otherwise.
Freight would then be held across the country and would avoid the need for building a massive lorry park.
Mr Howe said this idea, already trialled in Switzerland and Bulgaria, is at the "beta" stage and is expected to be trialled by a haulier. He added: "I 100% agree with everybody that we should not be using the M20, we should not be inconveniencing the residents of Kent due to tourists coming from Scotland or the Midlands to go on their holiday in Europe." Ashford MP Sojan Joseph wrote to government minister Heidi Alexander last month expressing his and residents' frustrations that "little tangible progress" has been made in finding an alternative to Brock.
He called on the minister for an update.
Mr Joseph said Brock costs taxpayers GBP35,000 for every 24 hours it is in place.
Ashford borough and county councillor Bill Barrett (Con) said: "I have a lot of time for Toby Howe and he's well-respected but I wasn't completely happy about his message.
"We seem to be on a repeating circle and the results are chaos this summer for local people in Ashford and the rest of Kent.
"Sometimes I just think that we have run out of ideas."