Hopes new £40m scheme can reduce traffic at port

There is hope that a fresh £40m investment will reduce the impact of traffic at the Port of Dover for those trying to access the site, as well as local residents.

The Dover Border Access Improvement Project will see border control facilities within the eastern docks reconfigured, creating increased queuing capacity for up 500 lorries alongside extra space for border processing booths.

Funding for the scheme is from the Port and the Department for Transport, through the levelling up fund.

Port of Dover chief executive Doug Bannister said: "We hope the beneficial effect of reducing the reliance on Dover Tap and Operation Brock will fully be felt by the residents of East Kent."

Kent County Council are not providing any of its own funding towards the scheme, but a spokesperson for the authority said that the scheme would keep traffic moving in the port itself and reduce the impact felt on the M20, A20 and local road network.

Impacts are expected to be felt as far as Maidstone, where Operation Brock usually begins, as the council said that the need for it to be used should be far lower.

Peter Osborne, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "All the local residents will benefit massively from this because it will take away all the congestion, all the traffic, a lot of the noise and a lot of the waiting times."

Toby Howe, head of operations at the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum, added: "There will always be incidents, whether that's a busy summer, whether that's storms in the winter, that we will still need Dover Tap and Operation Brock.

"It will not get rid of them, but anything that we can do to reduce the need for them is a huge advantage to Kent."

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