The government is pressing ahead with its no-deal Brexit contingency plans to avert lorry gridlock in Kent even though Boris Johnson has in effect accepted the UK will not crash out of the EU next week.
Contraflow systems and partial motorway closures will be implemented this weekend to ensure Operation Brock can begin at 6am on Monday, the day parliament votes on whether to hold a snap general election.
With the EU yet to decide on whether it will offer the UK an extension to article 50, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, favouring a delay of just two weeks, Highways England decided it could not take the chance.
The agency said it had decided at 4pm on Friday to put the operation into place, which will cause huge disruption for local traffic in Kent.
Under the contingency plan, part of the eastbound M20 – the main artery to Dover and the Eurotunnel at nearby Folkestone – will be closed to normal traffic and made exclusively available for lorries.
Other vehicles will instead use the London-bound side of the M20 in a contraflow system.
Up to 2,800 lorries will be managed in slow-moving lanes on the eastbound carriageway between junctions eight and nine.
“Operation Brock is part of a set of measures put in place to allow the M20 and the rest of Kent to keep moving in the event of cross-Channel disruption. We have worked extensively with our partners in Kent to ensure that the county is as prepared as possible for any disruption to cross-Channel services,” said Highways England’s south-east operations director, Nicola Bell.
The disused Manston airport in Kent is also available as a lorry park should congestion occur, whatever the outcome of Brexit and election talks next week.
While the rerouting of traffic causes disruption to local residents and businesses, Richard Burnett, the chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said he thought the move was wise.
“I guess it’s belt and braces. You don’t know what curveball will be thrown at you in the coming days with Macron’s position, so I think it’s a sensible contingency plan.”
Highways England said it would stand down the operation if it was not needed next week.
The food industry, which relies heavily on the Calais-Dover route for fresh imports, said it was “still on a war footing” as it believed a no-deal Brexit was a distinct possibility.
It fears the instigation of Operation Brock would be in itself disruptive as it could prevent delivery lorries getting through in good time.
The activation of the contingency plans came hours after it emerged that the government was also continuing with its taxpayer-funded adverts advising the public to prepare for Brexit on 31 October.
