I've been campaigning about fly-parking ever since I became an MP.
It's when lorries park up on hard shoulders and road verges instead of using proper facilities, and anyone living in Kent will know it's a huge issue locally.
The first problem is that it's simply not fair on drivers. After hours on the road they deserve a decent place to rest - somewhere safe and kitted out with the facilities they need. Lay-bys aren't designed for this, and you can see that by the amount of litter often strewn around afterwards.
Even more worryingly, it's incredibly dangerous. In fact back in 2018 I called a debate in Parliament after three people were killed when a car crashed into a parked lorry on the edge of the A2 just south of Faversham - not the first time something like that had happened locally.
At the time I made the case for more and better lorry parks, and for tougher rules to make sure drivers used them - and in the years that have followed we've seen a steady stream of action to make things better. This week we got some more good news.
39 roadside facilities have been chosen to receive a share of £8m funding from the Department for Transport to significantly upgrade truck stops for lorry drivers. Better still, 5 of them are in Kent.
This HGV parking and driver welfare grant scheme is part up to £100 million government and industry are looking to spend through to March 2025 to improve lorry roadside facilities for drivers - a huge step in the right direction.
It's not going to solve all our issues with lorry parking in Kent, and there's still certainly more work to do if we want to end Operation Brock once and for all. But this is a big win for lorry drivers and for the safety of our roads, and it's great our calls have been heard.
