The government has been urged to ditch plans to use the M26 as an emergency lorry park in the event of disruption and delays at the port of Dover.

Tonbridge and Malling MP Tom Tugendhat pressed the government to consider using a location outside the county when he raised the issue in a Commons debate.

He argued that the government should investigate the possible use of sites beyond the Dartford Crossing, warning that using the M26 would isolate villages and risked sending hundreds of HGVs thundering down country roads.

“Why not have a simpler solution? Why not stop HGVs entering Kent in the first place?

"Why should the Garden of England become the parking lot of England?

"Most lorries do not start their journeys in Kent so why not stop them at source, as they do in France?

"The M26 is largely rural and with no services available. If lorries are parked here, how will drivers be fed and access sanitation?”

He said the scheme would require "abnormally high levels of support among councils and the wider community".

“There must be a better solution than turning major roads in the county in to a lorry park.

"There are alternatives outside Kent and these should be explored. There is technology available and this should be explored.”

He repeated a warning from Kent crime commissioner Matthew Scott that “pretty much every traffic officer” would need to be deployed if the M26 was closed. “I want to know what options that the department of Transport as looked at.”

He warned that plans for 3000 more homes in the area posed another challenge.

“Do an extra 3,000 new families need additional vehicles thundering down country lanes every day? I don't think so.”

He understood why the government needed contingency plans but the solution of using the M26 was not it.

"Why should the Garden of England become the parking lot of England?" - MP Tom Tugendhat

The transport minister Jesse Norman responded by saying that it was right for the government to have contingency plans but that they were a measure of last Resort.

He also indicated that Manston Airport site would be the government's preferred option once the capacity on the M20 Coast bound had been exhausted.

“It has an enormous runaway which can hold up to 4000 lorries. Neither Menston nor the M26 would be used if the initial suite of measures have been used successfully.”

And he admitted that discussions around the use of the M26 had been going on for several months - predating the launch of a consultation which began in the summer on interim arrangements to deal with operation stack and on longer-term solutions.

He said Kent MPs who attended a meeting in March were told that the Secretary of State for transport was weighing up if the M26 could be part of a solution.