A £40million lorry park to ease the congestion of Stack has been put on ice for at least 12 months.

Kent County Council failed to have an environmental impact assessment done on the land they earmarked for a lorry park near Aldington, seven miles outside of Ashford, by the March deadline.

This means a planning application, which was due to be submitted by the end of this month, cannot now be submitted until mid-2009.

KCC transport boss Cllr Keith Ferrin revealed the year-long delay during a committee meeting on Thursday.

He was responding to a question from Cllr Susan Carey, who represents Elham Valley and is opposed to the lorry park proposal for Aldington.

The news will come as relief to people living in the villages of Aldington, Mersham, Smeeth, Sellindge and Brabourne, close to where KCC wants to build the lorry park.

But the delay will infuriate those who were hoping for a quick solution to Operation Stack.

Kent motorists faced huge delays and businesses suffered big losses when Operation Stack was implemented daily for three weeks earlier this year.

Stack, when lorries are parked up on the M20 when bad weather or industrial action closes the ports, was also in place for two days last week.

During the three-week Stack period in March, county council bosses announced their preferred site for a massive lorry park to solve the problem as an area of land near Aldington.

The £40million lorry park would provide temporary parking for 3,000 trucks when there are problems at the ports, but the site would also house a year-round truck-stop for overnight lorry parking.

Since the March announcement, the Lorry Park Alliance has formed with hundreds of people attending meetings and a rally in opposition to KCC’s plans.

They have put forward other suggestions of possible Stack solutions including extending the quick moveable barrier system.

Cllr Peter Wood, who represents the ward where the lorry park would be built, felt a slight relief on hearing about the delay.

But he said: “The negatives outweigh the pluses and people whose lives have been blighted already by the proposed lorry park will find that blight persisting for another year.

“If a planning application is submitted in mid-2009, by the time we have a public inquiry we’re probably talking about 2010 before construction starts - if it actually happens.”