On Friday 31 July, Helen Whately MP joined the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport Andrew Jones MP, representatives from Highways England, Kent Police, Kent County Council and other Kent MPs in Maidstone for an urgent meeting on Operation Stack. Representatives from the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel were also present. The agenda for the meeting was to review proposals from the ‘European Strategic Gateway Group’ to alleviate and reduce the impact of Operation Stack. This group was set up in February, and due to report back in September. However, the report was expedited to inform a quicker response to the repeated initiations of Operation Stack since June this year. For Helen Whately and other Kent MPs, it was a chance to press again for an immediate plan to solve Operation Stack.
During the meeting Helen made clear her frustration that there is still no immediate alternative to using the M20 as a lorry park on the table. She updated the group on the effects of Operation Stack on residents and businesses in her constituency, and insisted that Highways England must come up with another way of managing queuing Lorries. She also asked the Police and Eurotunnel whether any more could be done to improve security in France, including whether the UK could provide ‘boots on the ground’ as well as the high security fence already supplied.
Highways England proposed several short term adjustments to improve Operation Stack, such as better communications and signage, along with more work to enforce Operation Stack for lorries and stop the 20-30 percent of lorries that attempt to bypass it. However, as Helen made clear in the meeting, that is not enough. MPs insisted off-motorway holding areas such as Manston Airport and Ebbsfleet must be considered in the short term, and pressed Highways England to look again at introducing a contraflow on the M20. Highways England confirmed this was used in 2005, but resulted in long queues and was called off when the motorway hard shoulder began to collapse. The meeting concluded with the Transport Minister giving Highways England ‘a matter of days’ to come up with an alternative to Operation Stack that would enable a 2-way flow on the M20.
Helen said:
“I am frustrated it has taken this long, but at last there is serious commitment to sort out Operation Stack and the situation in Calais. On Friday morning the Prime Minister chaired the emergency COBRA meeting on Operation Stack and the Transport Minister came to Maidstone and would not take no for an answer from Highways England.
I made it crystal clear to Highways England and the Transport Minister that continuing the status quo throughout the summer is not an option. Clearly it’s not easy to solve, but that’s not good enough.
Following the COBRA meeting, The Prime Minister said: To help hauliers and the people of Kent we will do all we can to get the queues moving. Sorting this situation out is an absolute priority.” There is clearly now full national attention on Operation Stack, so I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll start to see effective security on the French side and a change to how Operation Stack is managed. I am expecting news early next week and a full update from the Minister on Wednesday.
Looking ahead, we must have serious investment in Kent’s road network and more resilience to keep routes to the continent working. Kent is Britain’s gateway to Europe, so this is a national problem not just a Kent problem”
