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Operation Stack quandary continues
Page 12
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By Chris Tindall A PERMANENT LORRY parking solution for hauliers caught up in Operation Stack on the M20 in Kent is no closer to being resolved, two years after a preferred site was announced.
Kent County Council (KCC) reveals that assessments of the land's suitability have "inevitably" taken longer than expected to complete, and that no planning application has yet been submitted.
The news comes in the same week KCC was forced to release documents under the Freedom of Information Act that reveal other sites in Kent considered for the 70-acre lorry park.
The documents show the site adjacent to the M20 at Sellindge, which would double as a secure, overnight lorry park for 2,500 trucks, was the most favourable, despite estimates it would cost more than il8m to redevelop and that Ashford Borough Council has objected to it. KCC's website says a planning application was due to be submitted by the end of 2009, but a spokesman says: "The current position is we're still working on a planning application."
He adds: "An environmental assessment had to be done over a year. Inevitably, it's taken a hit longer than that to complete and get the report together."
Kent-based R Swain says the Sellindge site is the most convenient and logical for operators.
Paul Burridge, commercial director, says: -In principle it's as good a location as any. The reality is that when Operation Stack is in place, the inconvenience for the trucking industry and anyone else is absolutely huge."
Burridge adds, however, that most of the congestion problems arise from French authorities failing to stop unions from bringing the roads to a halt on their side of the Channel.
Road Haulage Association head of international affairs Peter Cullum reveals that investment is also a stumbling block: "They [KCC] always said finance would be an issue.
'They need support from central government because they believe it's a national issue.
"It's always been a matter of funding to put bricks and mortar on the ground."