The Department for Transport has confirmed that sections of the M20 will be used to park lorries before Manston airport, despite this evening's announcement.

Yesterday we revealed the owners of Manston airport are set to sign a contract to use the site as an emergency lorry park during Operation Stack.

But this evening The Department for Transport told KentOnline that before lorries are parked at Manston, sections of the M20 will be closed to house the queues.

And North Thanet MP Roger Gale said he had assurance from Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond MP that "Manston will only be used if absolutely necessary."

Work vans from construction firm Balfour Beatty have been seen entering Manston, where it is understood engineers are preparing the site to house lorries.

"I believe this to be a profoundly bad and impractical proposal. You do not solve a problem by moving it from A to B" - North Thanet MP Roger Gale

Mr Gale also confirmed Mr Hammond had assured him that any damage done to the potential of Manston as an airfield "will be rectified."

Finally Mr Gale questioned the impact of the necessary diversions on domestic tourist traffic in east Kent.

He said: "I believe this to be a profoundly bad and impractical proposal. You do not solve a problem by moving it from A to B, which is effectively what the leader of Kent County Council and the Highways Agency are seeking to do.

"To divert traffic across country roads at the height of the tourist season across twenty miles of Kent`s highways is, I believe, quite wrong when there are other alternatives such as the park at Ebbsfleet and Kent County Showground, which lies between the M20 and the M2, available."

South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay also said he was "unconvinced" by the plan.

Mr Mackinlay said: "I am bitterly disappointed at this decision; I hope it will be short-lived.

"Given the M20 crisis and the true misery experienced by residents and businesses along that corridor, I respect the government's reasoning in seeking a variety of alternatives for the greater good of wider Kent but am unconvinced that this one will work.

"The route of this crisis starts thousands of miles away, but French authorities need to do significantly more to keep this fundamental border running smoothly."

Folkestone and Hythe MP Damian Collins welcomed the plan, and said Manston would be used next time Op Stack was brought in.

Mr Collins said: "We have to find a solution that takes lorries off road and Manston does that. This is a massive step towards taking pressure off Kent.

"This is a site where 2,000 lorries can be held. Clearly in the long term there will have to be a permanent solution but the major advantage of this solution is that it takes HGVs off the road."

He added the government was also working to ensure a contra-flow option was also available, having been rejected initially by Highways England.

"The hope is to find away of keeping the M20 open in both directions."

Kent County Council leader Paul Carter said: “We welcome the decisive action taken by the Government on this issue in trialling the new initiative.

“Our principal concern throughout this difficult period has been that we need to keep Kent moving for local residents and businesses.

“It is particularly important we endeavour to keep the M20 open in both directions as far as is possible, and we will continue to impress upon our partner agencies the need to help make this new initiative a success.”

Kent Police’s Deputy Chief Constable Paul Brandon said: “We are pleased to support any measures that will ease the pressure on the M20 and those communities and businesses who have been adversely affected by Operation Stack in recent weeks.

"We have been in a critical situation in Kent since the middle of June and, in that time the situation in Kent has been acknowledged as a very real, national issue.

“Following work by the Department for Transport and Highways England, the option to divert freight bound for Europe to Manston Airfield, whilst very challenging, has become more feasible in terms of resourcing and logistics."

The news comes just days after it was announced around a thousand lorries were to be held at Ebbsfleet International Station in a bid to ease Operation Stack tailbacks.

Transport minister Andrew Jones made the announcement at a meeting at county hall in Maidstone.

But in a dramatic U-turn, it's been revealed the plan is no longer on the table.

Sources have told KentOnline the owners of the Manston airport site were ready to sign a three-month deal with the Department for Transport, with the option of it being renewed on a monthly basis.