Operation Stack: Plan B?

29 July 2015

Planning a trip down the M20? Anyone with Continental road travel plans or who lives in Kent will know all about Operation Stack, where lorries waiting for crossings have to park on a closed section of the motorway.

Images of backed-up lorries queueing for miles, hours and days and stories of local people taking two hours to make 10 minute journeys abound.

We have already written to the authorities – Kent County Council, Kent Police and Highways England – to encourage them to further consider the impact on road users on the M20 and in the surrounding areas. You can read the letter here.

Some people have suggested making the other M20 carriageway contraflow to keep things moving. Highways England and the emergency services say that this is unsafe. Well, in that case, what is plan B?

Stack is a short-term emergency solution. It may be OK for this, but is it fit for purpose now that cross-Channel disruption is a near-daily occurrence – and seemingly here to stay? Living with the current situation does not feel tenable.