So, after weeks of M20 misery is there finally sunshine on the horizon for Operation Stack?

There has been a decidedly mixed reaction to the news that the former Manston Airport has been lined up as temporary lorry park but it is progress of a kind.

How, having been the least favoured option, did it become the government's preferred choice?

It is a question many are asking, especially after only days earlier, it had seemed that ministers considered was best placed to take stranded HGVs off the road.

The answer is partly because the Prime Minister decided to knock a few heads together and demanded something be done. Or, as someone told me, "he threw his toys out of the pram."

The endless media coverage of lorries stuck on this side of the Channel and migrants breaching Eurotunnel security with impunity on the other side in Calais was becoming politically toxic.

Cameron was beginning to look impotent and worse, indifferent, while a sense grew that the government was helpless. It was reminiscent of the criticism of Tony Blair when he was confronted by angry hauliers who had blockaded oil refineries back in 2000.

As the costs and inconvenience to businesses mounted, along came another problem - the fury of holidaymakers struggling to get away and facing hours and hours of delays.

It is true that Manston has problems. But that misses the point that so do all the other options.

If the recent weeks have demonstrated anything, it is that there is no perfect solution to Operation Stack - only a choice of least worst alternatives.

It is not so much that Manston has problems, per se. In fact, having visited the site to see the preparations and work needed, it is hard to see any of the other options for off-road sites being any better.

The problems lie in the access to and from the site, especially away to the Port of Dover. Getting there seems comparatively straightforward but there are clearly concerns about using Detling Hill to enable HGVs to get on to the M2 and then the A299.

There is another reason why Manston came into the equation.

If it can absorb some of the lorries that would ordinarily be parked on the M20, the prospects of bringing in a contraflow on the M20 improve - the key demand that many of the county's politicians have been making for any "solution."

It may work, it may not.

The important point now is that the government and others should not lose sight of the fact that we are only dealing with an interim solution.

The government's urgency over finding a "viable, short-term solution" was welcome. Now that sense of urgency needs to be applied to a viable long term solution.

Being the “Gateway to Europe” ought to bring rich dividends to Kent.

Instead, the county is buckling under the constant threat of unpredictable gridlock.