Kent council's chaos warning
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• A truck park with a capacity to hold at least 1,000 trucks is needed to prevent repeated traffic chaos in Kent, according to the county council. it warns that the existing method of coping with disruption to Channel Tunnel traffic causes too much havoc on local roads.
Operation Stack involves closing southbound sections of the M20 and using them to park tunnel-bound trucks. Over the past four years, it has been used 34 times.
Council leader Sandy Bruce-Lockhart says: "The diver sion roads that are used during the operation are not suitable for the amount of traffic imposed on them and they produce much higher maintenance costs. The motorway was built to relieve these roads."
The council is demanding a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to discuss building the emergency lorry park but it says greenfield land must not be used. It also wants to discuss duelling the A2 outside Dover to help drivers seeking alternative routes when the M20 is closed.
A spokesman for Kent Police says lorries were initially sent to Ashford Freight Terminal before Operation Stack was set up but this proved unacceptable to local people: "When one looks at the number of lorries we are dealing with, it is very difficult logistically. Unfortunately, nobody has come up with anything better."