Operation Brock to roll out with new permit system

A new permit system is aimed at preventing freight drivers from dodging the queues

A traffic-holding system for lorries queueing to cross the English Channel is to be deployed with a new permit system in place.

Operation Brock sees lorries heading to Dover queue on one side of the M20, with the other carriageway operating as a contraflow.

It covers a 13-mile (20.9km) section of the motorway between junctions eight (Maidstone) and nine (Ashford).

The new permit system is aimed at preventing freight drivers from dodging the queues.

The system is to be deployed overnight on 10 July ahead of an “extremely busy period” for cross Channel traffic with holidaymakers and the Olympic Games in Paris, Kent County Council said.

'Rat running'

The authority said the new permit system was to prevent freight drivers from “rat running” as they travel through Kent and to minimise the impact of disruption on the roads in communities in and around Dover and Folkestone.

As part of the new measures, permits will be issued to Port of Dover bound freight drivers at the front of the Operation Brock queue.

To ensure freight drivers have followed the correct route, all freight heading to the port have to leave the A20 at the Courtwood Interchange, where their permits will be checked at the end of the slip road.

If they have complied, they will be allowed to re-enter the queue on the A20 and continue their onward journey to the port.

Simon Jones, of the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum, said: “We know that the impact of severe disruption on local communities and in Dover itself can really affect people’s lives and businesses.

“However, these freight permits are not a fix all solution. There is no doubt that, in busy periods, the situation on the roads heading through Dover remains extremely fragile.”

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