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Ticketing system planned for A14
Page 16
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Truckers caught in Operation Stack on the Al 4 will be issued with tickets which they must show to get into Felixstowe Port. Chris Tindall reports.
POLICE ARE introducing a ticketing system to control LCiVs and ease congestion on the Al4 when Felixstowe Port is shut.
A spate of recent port closures due to poor weather conditions have sparked chaos on the main route into the Suffolk coastal town. Now police say their initiative to deal with LGVs — Operation Stack — desperately needs an overhaul.
From this autumn trucks will be directed off the A 1 4 between Nacton and Seven Hills when Operation Stack is implemented. Trucks bound for the docks will be stacked on a section of the old A45 near Levington and provided with tickets, which they must show if they want to enter the port.
All other freight vehicles en route to Felixstowe will be allowed to continue their journey.
Suffolk police say they have been forced to act because under health and safety legislation they can no longer allow vehicles to queue on an open dual carriageway. How ever, they accept there are no guarantees the plan will work.
Chief Inspector Martin BarnesSmith, head of Suffolk Roads Policing Unit, says: "We know it works in Dover, but it might be different in Felixstowe. In Dover traffic is stacked to the port 13 miles away and there isn't a problem. From my point of view, the further out we take it, the better."
A spokesman for Felixstowe Port says: "It's a self-policing system. Hauliers can go back to their yards; the one thing they won't be able to do is go from their yards to the port. They can do whatever they want. but they won't be able to jump the queue."
Simon Fraser, chairman of the Felixstowe Port Users' Association, adds: "The police need to do something; the last few times they have put [Operation Stack] out have caused a lot of problems—not just to the haulage community, but also to the locals."
• See Investigation, page 30.