Road bosses have been forced to shut a roadside parking area used by lorry drivers due to littering.

The unofficial lorry park just off the A2, in Marling Way, Gravesend, has been left with dumped tyres, food waste, plastic bags, cardboard boxes and other rubbish.

Highways England (HE) owns the site, which has space for 30 lorries, and closed it for a month for a major clean-up in March last year, pictured above, but it wasn’t long before it returned to its previous state.

The on-site skip was left to overflow and was eventually removed, and there are no toilets or dustbins, with human waste, rats, and oil having to be cleared by specialist cleaners.

HE was reluctant to shut the lorry park again as it resulted in an increase in the number lorries parking dangerously along the hard shoulder on the A2, but it will be closed from today (Friday) for a week.

Lorry drivers will have to go to Medway or Thurrock in Essex for the nearest service station with parking.