A total 1,300 lorry parking spaces could be placed in Shepway, which would help relieve Operation Stack.

Shepway District Council has highlighted a strip of land west of the Stop 24 services at Junction 11 of the M20, countering an earlier Kent County Council proposal for 3,000 for the area.

Shepway leader David Monk said: “There is an extra need for spaces because lorry freight continues to grow.

“I wouldn’t even call what KCC proposed as a plan, but a misconceived idea.

“It would not deal with Operation stack and ruin any potential for employment in the area.
“Can you imagine 3,000 lorries coming out at the same time? It would killed local areas like Hythe.’’

Cllr Monk on Monday visited the site with Paul Wells, director of lorry park managers Channel Ports Ltd, and Luke Davenport from landowners Henry Boot Developments.

A total 132 spaces, managed by Channel Ports Ltd, already exists next to the Stop 24 service area near Westenhanger.

Shepway’s development control committee has just given planning permission for HB to provide another 60 places just west of that.

The council is looking to the eventual opening up land again further west to provide a total capacity for 1,300 lorries.

This is a strip of disused land, between the M20 and high speed railway line.

A five metre high earth bund would be removed to provide the first 60 new spaces. Acoustic fencing would be placed to help prevent noise nuisance to neighbours.

Kent County Council in January proposed 3,000 lorry parking spaces for the Westenhanger area after nearly a week of disruption from Operation Stack.

It wants this on a triangle of land south of Stop 24 and bordered by the railway line, Stone Street and the A20 Ashford Road.

Cllr Monk dismissed this as “bonkers’’ and believed it was a mistake to concentrate too many lorries on one parking site but instead have a number of smaller ones spread around the county.

County council leader Paul Carter had in January said that the 3,000 figure was “bit if an exaggeration’’ and that it was nearly to 1,500.

But he stressed that a solution was needed as Stack at that time had cost £20-30 million.