Operation Brock jams up our roads every time it’s deployed.
Traffic grinds to a halt, lorries divert through villages, and families face endless queues just to get to work, school, or appointments. What was meant to be an occasional emergency measure has become a regular headache for local people.
Last week I brought together parish and district councillors with the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum. The purpose of the meeting was simple – to make sure those running the system hear directly from the communities living with it.
Operation Brock comes up again and again in my emails from constituents and at local meetings, and I’ve campaigned on this for years. Along with other Kent MPs, we lobbied for an end Operation Stack which used to shut the M20 completely. Brock may be an improvement, but it still causes chaos. Everyone agrees that something needs to change.
At my meeting last Friday we pushed for progress on “Mini Brock” – a proposal to move the start of Brock from junction 8 to between junctions 8 and 9 – and for a long-term alternative to Brock altogether. I was told that the new Entry/Exit System (EES) being introduced at the border is one reason for holding back Mini Brock for now.
But I made the case, both in the meeting and in a letter I’ve since sent to the new Maritime Minister, that Mini Brock would only reduce queuing capacity by around 10%, while making a huge difference for local residents. That’s a fair trade-off by anyone’s standards. Scroll down to read my letter.
The Port of Dover is also exploring plans to expand its HGV queuing space, which should help reduce how often Brock is deployed. I’ve written to the Chief Executive of the Port to ask for an update and offered my help to get this work moving faster. Scroll down to read my letter.
I’ll keep fighting for a better solution – one that keeps Kent moving without turning our motorway into a lorry park.
In the meantime, please keep sharing my petition. The more people who add their names, the louder our message will be: Kent deserves better than Operation Brock.
Sign the petition here if you haven’t already.
