Road Traffic

Natalie Elphicke Excerpts

Monday 23rd November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Natalie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)]

It is with great enthusiasm that I rise to discuss the motion concerning traffic management and heavy commercial vehicles in Kent. I am the Member for Dover and Deal, and in the Dover area we spend many hours considering, deliberating and discussing heavy goods vehicles, light goods vehicles, port traffic, holidaymaker traffic, camper van and caravan parking, local traffic and all types of traffic management. That is because we are home to our country’s most successful and busiest port of its type, the port of Dover.

In an ordinary year, the port of Dover deals with £122 billion-worth of trade—about a fifth of the whole UK trade in goods—transiting 4.5 million vehicles and 11 million passengers. Daily, that means up to 10,000 freight vehicles and up to 90,000 passengers. The importance of the short straits route is unquestionable. It will remain the foremost route for trading, not simply because of its geographical convenience and proximity to the continent, but because we are just very good at what we do. Passengers are processed at the rate of one per second. The time it takes for lorries to be managed off the ferries is a matter of minutes. Building on that success, we are determined to expand and thrive. That includes an exciting freeports bid. We want to continue to pursue transit excellence and make the opportunities for investment, jobs and money real for our area. That includes new global trading routes between Dover and the world.

As the Member of Parliament for Dover and Deal, that means working with Ministers to ensure that the Port of Dover is successful and that our area as a whole is successful, too. At the heart of the regulations and what they are seeking to achieve is the need to ensure that traffic can transition smoothly to the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel and, through such active traffic management, ensure that local businesses and residents can get on with their daily lives. It is what we locally call the “Keep Dover Clear” strategy.

I thank the Minister for working with me and listening to the positive suggestions and ideas that have been developed with Councillor Trevor Bartlett, the leader of Dover District Council, and Councillor Nigel Collor, as well as Councillor Roger Gough, Barbara Cooper and Toby Howe and the whole team at Kent County Council, who have been working on these Kent-wide proposals. We have a meeting with the Minister and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster later in the week to discuss the next steps and fine-tuning of our Kent proposals, and I look forward to discussing the progress of the “Keep Dover Clear” plans at that meeting.

In that context, I particularly welcome the second order, which allows controls on local roads. As a backstop measure, it is vital for people that local traffic can get around for school, for work and to see family and friends. The orders give control powers to enable that, but controls also need people to manage and enforce them. Will the Minister consider whether additional traffic control officers can be deployed at our local traffic hotspots, such as the Duke of York and Whitfield roundabouts, together with real-time traffic cameras to optimise the traffic flow for weeks and months ahead?

In the Dover area, we are no stranger to traffic congestion from time to time when there are hold-ups at the port, usually because the French are on strike. We have well-developed and tested mechanics to escalate and manage extreme traffic events in TAP and Stack. Those are now joined by Brock, which is enabled by today’s regulations.

Undoubtedly, we face a period of some uncertainty as we transition to new arrangements in the transit protocols. It is a matter that is not wholly in our hands. Just as French strikes can cause some of our most severe disruption, French border and trade controls may be similarly disruptive, or they may not be. The Port of Calais, like the Port of Dover, has been working very hard to prepare for 1 January 2021. I wish them both every success over the coming weeks as this vital project reaches this major milestone.

I pay tribute to the port’s collaborative work under Doug Bannister, the chief executive of the Port of Dover, in its contributing to transition planning and today’s regulations. Recently, we were discussing the relationship between port and town. Mr Bannister expressed the port’s position to me in these terms:

“We never forget how much the success of the Port of Dover links together with the support of the Dover community. In the weeks and months ahead please be assured that the strategic traffic management will have firmly in mind the needs of residents to get to work, school and to see family and friends.”

With stationary lorry traffic comes the important issues of air quality and littering. The regulations bring additional traffic controls to the A20/M20 route. Residents of Aycliffe, which is situated next to the final part of the A20 coming into Dover town, have long argued that the Operation TAP point should be further back along the M20. Air traffic quality monitoring is in place and has been for some time, but I ask the Minister whether consideration could be given to a review of the location and effectiveness of the air quality monitoring in the next period, alongside these instruments. Will she also ensure that the traffic management regulations that are under consideration today are matched with appropriate litter and sanitation facilities along both arterial routes? The A2 does not currently have the same degree of sanitation planning as the A20, yet the needs of lorry drivers stuck in a queue are very much the same.

Let me turn to the bifurcated major road strategy of the M2 and M20, which is at the heart of the traffic management strategy underpinned by these measures. Dover is one of the best positioned locations in the land. It has two major motorways, the M2 and the M20, which become the A2 and A20 for the last few miles into the town. This excellent road positioning will be further enhanced in due course by the lower Thames crossing. This is, in essence, a new national bypass that connects the north and midlands straight through into Dover. To make the best success of that opportunity, there is a parallel programme in the completion of the dualling of the A2. Dover is just so well connected, yet the last few miles into town on the A2 are merely single track at key points. I welcome the Government’s commitment to the A2 traffic management today and, indeed, the A256, which links east Kent as a whole. However, I urge Ministers during this period of post-transition work to reflect on whether it is, as I believe, in the national interest to accelerate a mission-critical last few miles of tarmac on both these key strategic roads. In welcoming these provisions, I ask the Minister to continue working closely with our area post transition; 1 January 2021 is the starting point of an exciting journey to come.

Finally, I strongly welcome the jobs and investment that a new border control point in Dover can bring in July next year. Will the Minister continue working with me and local residents to ensure that it is designed sensitively in order to take into account environmental and further traffic considerations—matters on which I know the Minister is already engaging with the community and council? These measures are a vital first step in ensuring not only that Dover is ready, but that we are best placed to make the most of the opportunities to come—for Dover and for our country as a whole.