PLANS for a semi-permanent lorry park on farmland to help bring an end to Operation Stack could cost £20 million, county council chiefs have admitted.

Kent County Council is hoping to identify farm land near the M20 where lorries could be parked on a temporary basis when Operation Stack is implemented, helping to avoid closing stretches of the motorway.

But despite the potential £20million price tag, county transport chiefs insist the option could still prove cheaper than investing in a revolutionary moveable barrier - believed to be favoured by the government - that would allow lorries to be parked along the motorway hard shoulder while other lanes remained open in both directions.

The potential cost of a semi-permanent lorry park emerged during a meeting of the county council’s cross-party cabinet scrutiny meeting.

Cllr Keith Ferrin (Con), KCC’s cabinet member for the environment, said: “It [a semi-permanent site] could cost £20million but that seems to us better value than the £10million that the Quick Moveable Barrier, which would only be used for phase one of Operation Stack anyway.”

Peter Raine, KCC’s managing director of the environment, said the limitations of the barrier were that it could only be used to allow around 850 lorries to be parked on the motorway between Junctions 11 and 12 at Folkestone, whereas a semi-permanent park could cope with more than double that.

“A barrier could not stretch to the second phase of Operation Stack and we have to remember that when it was implemented recently, they did not even bother with the first phase.”

Members of the cross-party committee were told that it was unclear if KCC would need formal planning permission to use farmland as a temporary holding area for lorries during Operation Stack.

Mr Raine said it could be a case of the local district council giving approval.

“We are still at the early stages of deciding whether we take this forward. One of the difficult issues is determining what is permanent and what is a temporary 'stand by’ lorry park for Operation Stack.”

KCC has set a deadline of mid-April to find possible options for land that might be used as a holding area for lorries.

* County council officials are due to meet transport minister and Kent MP Dr Steve Ladyman to discuss possible solutions to Operation Stack next week.

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