Dover's MP has warned that the area cannot be allowed to be turned into "one rolling lorry park."

Charlie Elphicke says that road investment is needed locally cope with more traffic when the Lower Thames Crossing is complete.

He says that the A2 needs to be fully dualled and more lorry parking space has to be provided.

But he disagreed with a suggestion by a Dover Harbour Board boss to create a second Dover TAP on an expanded A2.

Mr Elphicke stressed: “We’ve been saying for years that we need to dual the A2. The previous Labour government axed the plans but we’ve been working relentlessly to get the scheme back on the table.

“With the increased traffic expected when the Lower Thames Crossing opens, dualling the A2 is more vital than ever.

“Yet this alone is not enough. I’m concerned that a new A2 Dover TAP, along with the proposed contraflow on the M20, would turn the roads to Dover into one long rolling lorry park. Our town would be cut off from the rest of Kent.

“That’s why it’s just common sense to build more lorry parking facilities, like at the Stop 24 services off junction 11 on the M20. Brenley Corner on the A2 is another option. And we need a wider network of lorry parks up and down the country.

“This is a national priority. It’s time we had real investment in Kent’s roads.”

Mr Elphicke was speaking at a meeting at the Port of Dover with Highways England project director Tim Jones and the port's the port’s head of policy and communications, Richard Christian who had suggested a second TAP.

Also at the meeting at Harbour House, Marine Parade, were Dover District Council leader Keith Morris and Nigel Collor, cabinet member covering tranpsort.

The planned opening date for the £6 billion Lower Thames Crossing is 2027.

Two three-lane tunnels under the river will link the M25, near North Ockendon, Essex, with the A2 near Shorne, Kent.

At the Harbour House meeting Richard Christian, Port of Dover head of policy and communications, stressed just how much traffic travels through Dover’s docks.

There are 60 arrivals and 60 departures of 12 different ferries every day, carrying up to 10,000 trucks in total.

Lined up in a queue it would be 180km (111 miles) in length.

The port handles up to 500 trucks an hour and has space for less than 1,500.

Combined, Dover and Eurotunnel handle 30% of the UK’s trade in goods – around £210 billion.

Mr Christian had suggested that if the A2 was fully dualled, a second Dover TAP scheme could be used on this route.

Like the current TAP scheme on the A20, it would involve queueing lorries in the left-hand lane when there are delays at the port.

Mr Christian said this would cost around £65-70 million compared to the £250 million quoted for the axed Stanford lorry park plan.

Highways England’s Dover TAP (Traffic Assessment Project) is used with traffic lights to control the flow of lorries entering the town.

It is usually from the the Round Hill Tunnels at Folkestone to Aycliffe and involves a 40 mile per hour speed limit for all traffic, where the speed limit is usually 70mph.

Dover has often had road delays on key routes and one of the most notorious cases was on Black Saturday on July 23, 2016.

On that day up to 250,000 motorists were delayed for up to 12 hours because of lack of French border control staff.

The dualling of the A2 has been asked for for decades but previous plans were axed by Tony Blair's government.