Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 23 November (HL180), whether they have developed plans for managing traffic flows through the Sevington border facility (1) when the facility is operating smoothly, and (2) during periods of congestion and queuing.
Sevington Inland Border Facility is a cross-Government managed site owned by the Department for Transport. HM Revenue and Customs operates customs checks on the site and Defra has built a Border Control Post to support sanitary and phytosanitary checks on goods arriving from the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel.
Departments have worked together to develop traffic management plans which set out the mitigations required to ensure traffic flow is managed in and around the site, both when the facility is operating smoothly and in the event of congestion. These have also taken into account the wider Kent Resilience Forum Traffic Management plans, which include the use of some capacity at Sevington if required in times of disruption.