A waste of money

This morning the UK Government tried to arrange a traffic jam.

And failed.

The plan was to simulate several hundred trucks and lorries parked at Manston Airport and drive the 20 miles to Dover Eastern Docks, and return. Thus showing the dastardly EU that UK is very well prepared for a no deal Brexit.

In the event, just 87 trucks turned up. Or 86 and a dustcart, they failed to move off on time and missed most of the rush hour in Dover. Most of the UK media was there to record and report on the event. It was painful.

87 trucks is about half a ferry load of trucks that the average ferry usually carries, so trying to simulate several day’s backlog which could be 10500 trucks per day being stuck, 87 id really just a drop in the ocean. Or a drop in the North Sea.

It was a miserable display of poor planning by the Department of Transport under the fine “leadership” of Chris Grayling.

The thing that occurred to me was that this totally was a waste of time, not because it was because of the number of trucks, but for us Dovorians, the old Operation Stack meant that life in the town was quieter than normal, as trucks were only allowed in when there was a ferry for them to board. Weeks went by in 2014 and we saw no trucks, no queues or jams. But, once Operation Stack is stood down, trucks from all over Kent where they had been parked, converge on the town, using whatever roads they can to get closest to the Eastern Docks to jump the jams. It is that point that chaos hits Dover.

Saying that, a permanent or semi-permanent Operation Stack, or whatever they call it, will mean that the motorways, M20, M26, M2 will be closed for lorry stacking, and all other traffic will be forced onto other roads. It is estimated there will be parking for 20,000 trucks and lorries in the county, which equals just under three day’s traffic for Dover. If delays are longer than 3 days, then Kent will fill up and stacking will spread up to London, round the M25 and up the M1.

No other part of the country is preparing for parked and jammed lorries. There will be a shortage of portable lavvies, bottled water, and so on.

The Eastry by-pass is closed this week to allow for strengthening work to cope with the anticipated extra lorry traffic from Manston. Will there be stacking on that too?

Our food and supplies comes down the same routes as traffic for the port, meaning that our everyday needs will be jammed up too, or stuck on the other roads. We might starve. Already ministers are saying there will be fruit and veg shortages. Seeing as March and April are lean months, between the winter and spring harvested. There is no worse time for there to be interruption in food from abroad.

Am I alone in thinking this is sheer madness? Why are we doing this, even thinking about it. And yet the Brexiteers call this still “project fear”. FFS.

It has been pointed out that the dredger currently trying to prepare the harbour at Ramsgate ready for ferries returning in March. Only, the company charged with running the services still have no ferries, and no sign when they might get any, bearing in mind that the ferries that will have to use the port have to be special “slimfit” ones, that are scarce.