With up to 5,000 lorries queuing on the M20 for 18 hours or more, freight and transport bosses call for urgent action.
David Cameron is under pressure to find £300m, to make sure there is no repeat of the gridlock on the M20 triggered by the migrant crisis and industrial strikes in Calais.
As the Prime Minister faces the first major crisis of his second term, The Independent on Sunday can reveal that a group including Kent County Council, Eurotunnel, the police and Highways England has issued Transport minister Andrew Jones with a report outlining vital roads and infrastructure improvements it says are necessary to avoid widespread disruption when Operation Stack is invoked. Prepared over several months, the report – which was only completed on Friday morning – demands that up to £295m funding be made available to give the M20 a two-way contraflow capability and an additional coast-bound lane. It also calls for £8m for a holding area to park 1,000 heavy-goods vehicles every time Operation Stack is put into practice.
Introduced in 1988 when lorries clogged the M20 because of a strike at the docks in Folkestone, Operation Stack is invoked by Kent Police and the Port of Dover whenever there is disruption to ferries or the Channel Tunnel. It involves shutting part of the M20 and parking, or “stacking”, up to 5,000 lorries. The scheme is likely to be used with increasing frequency, because the number of heavy-goods vehicles on Britain’s roads is expected to increase by 58 per cent by 2040.
Richard Burnett, the Road Haulage Association’s chief executive, said David Cameron's proposals were “sticking plasters in terms of trying to resolve this problem”
The migrant crisis in Calais has led to Operation Stack being brought into force for an unprecedented 27 of the past 40 days, with average queuing times of 18 hours. The acute problems have hastened the European Gateway Strategic Delivery Group’s report, which Mr Jones is said to be considering seriously. Other members of the group include P&O Ferries, the Road Haulage Association, Port of Dover and the Freight Transport Association.
The report warns that a number of measures must be introduced to make sure that Operation Stack is only used as a last resort. The contraflow would cost £135m-£195m, and the additional lane is expected to cost about £100m, but this assumes that compulsory purchase orders are not needed.
As well as the road improvements, there needs to be improved communication with freight companies to warn them of any problems, better internet warnings and extensive use of social media to provide live updates on traffic disruption.
The report states: “Over 20 days of disruption from seven Operation Stack events in June and July 2015 is entirely unacceptable. There is an urgent need to act now .… Specifically, we ask the Government to provide gap funding to enable delivery of the package of measures that provides a full solution.”
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Latest video shows the huge delays faced by drivers on the M20
The report provides detailed analysis of the economic disruption caused by Operation Stack. Britain’s Channel ports account for nearly £200bn a year in trade, but the haulage industry loses more than £15m whenever there are chronic delays causing vehicles to spend up to 36 hours moving through the queue. The daily cost to Kent is estimated at more than £1.4m while police, fire and rescue services, and the NHS, also spend thousands overseeing the situation and helping stranded drivers.
The report states: “Driver welfare is also a serious concern with drivers stuck in their cabs for many hours without their own heating and cooling systems, food and water, and toilet and washing facilities; therefore emergency temporary welfare facilities are provided by Kent County Council at a cost to the taxpayer.
“Throughout the week of 29 June, 7,100 meals were provided, along with over 40,000 litres of bottled water. There is also a cost to the clean-up of litter and waste left by drivers …. These problems are not contained to the motorway as drivers attempt to find alternative routes to the ports and take statutory breaks in lay-bys and road verges across the country.”
Matthew Balfour, Kent County Council’s cabinet member for transport who chairs the delivery group, said last night: “We need [the £300m] as soon as possible, because it takes a long time to do these things, such as buying the land.”
He was also critical of Highways England, which runs and maintains Britain’s motorways and main roads. Mr Balfour said: “It has been deeply frustrating and difficult to get Highways England to come up with innovative ideas.”
However, Highways England has been charged with developing several of the report’s recommendations, such as a technology feasibility study and improving the M2/A2 corridor.
The report, which warns that “we can no longer ignore this problem”, will heap pressure on Mr Cameron, whose response to the crisis has been widely criticised.
Slow-moving or stopped lorries are a sitting target for the many men and women who hope to hitch an illegal ride to England (Getty)
The Prime Minister said that he would send extra sniffer dogs to Calais, extend the fencing around the entrance to the Channel Tunnel and use Ministry of Defence land in Kent for temporary parking.
But Richard Burnett, the Road Haulage Association’s chief executive, said these were “sticking plasters in terms of trying to resolve this problem”.
Mr Cameron is expected to take a holiday in the UK this week.
In France, the scenes have been even starker, with striking ferry workers burning tyres across a motorway leading to the port in Calais on Friday. They were reportedly infuriated by the UK, accusing British authorities of not allowing their boats into Dover. This is also part of a wider dispute over possible job cuts.
A source familiar with the Government’s deliberations over Operation Stack said: “David Cameron has told ministers that he wants officials to solve the problem ‘at pace’, so that’s good. We need to get logistics companies better informed of what’s going on so that they don’t send lorries down to what amounts to a full stop.”
