Green MEP Dr Caroline Lucas has added her voice to the growing opposition to Kent County Council plans for a huge lorry park to deal with Operation Stack.

The plan has bitterly divided opinion, with local people in Aldington and Sellindge largely opposed to the scheme.

Dr Lucas MEP said she accepted something needed to be done but the lorry park was not the solution. She also called for a halt to plans to expand the Port of Dover, saying it would only aggravate the problem.

“Operation Stack has plagued Kent’s roads for long enough. Whenever the cross channel transport packs up, local people must suffer long pile-ups of parked lorries and the frequent closure of the M20. But the lorry parks planned by Kent County Council are simply not the answer. They are unsustainable, unworkable and unsuitable for the surrounding area. The land earmarked for an off-motorway lorry park between Junction 10 and 11 is green land with a rural community which would struggle to accommodate such a facility,” she said.

She also raised concerns the lorry park would not even cope with Operation Stack.

“If the worrying predictions about the number of lorries on UK roads increasing annually are to be believed, even a 3,000-space lorry park may not be large enough.”

However, she accepted KCC was right to say the issue needed a national solution.

“I urge Kent County Council to consider these solutions before ploughing ahead with their unpopular and unsustainable lorry parks,” she said.

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