When traffic is disrupted at the Channel ports, Operation Stack comes into play with lorries parked up along the M20 – a solution which has unfortunate consequences for residents driving in the area.
New plans announced recently will allow traffic to travel in both directions between junctions 8 and 9 on the motorway while lorries are being queued for the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel. This will mean that drivers can access these junctions, rather than being diverted onto smaller local roads.
Roads Minister Jesse Norman said: “This interim plan will help to minimise disruption and mean people will be able to go about their everyday lives, seeing friends and family or going to work, as well as businesses being able to get to their customers.”
The Department for Transport (DfT) is also intending to improve overnight lorry parking, so that fewer lorries will be left on local roads or parked in lay-bys overnight.
All this is good news, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) has said, and will help to ensure that the logistics industry can continue to supply Britain’s businesses with the goods and services they need.
Its Head of UK Policy, Christopher Snelling, pointed out that efficient logistics is vital to keep Britain trading, directly having an impact on more than seven million people employed in the making, selling and moving of goods.
“With Brexit, new technology and other disruptive forces driving change in the way goods move across borders and through the supply chain,” he argued, “logistics has never been more important to UK plc.”
A public consultation on a permanent solution to Operation Stack, led by Highways England, will be launched shortly.
