The first day after Brexit will see miles of lorry queues in Kent and gridlock in Northern Ireland unless the Government increases its customs preparations at the UK’s borders, MPs have warned.
In the strongest parliamentary criticism yet of the preparations for Brexit, the House of Commons select committee on home affairs said the Government was facing the prospect of “Operation Stack” on steroids, a reference to the 2015 crisis when there were 30 miles of parked lorries in Kent waiting to get into the port of Dover. That tangle was caused by French ferry strikes and the Calais refugee crisis but MPs on the committee believe that this time the problem is largely the Government’s own doing.
The MPs’ criticism of the Home Office’s planning for Brexit followed a damning report from the House of Commons public accounts committee on HMRC’s Brexit preparations which warned of “catastrophic” consequences if a new customs declaration system was not ready in time.
The latest report by the home affairs committee said customs operations would be disrupted after Brexit if urgent steps were not taken to draw up contingency plans and increase staffing and infrastructure.
“Unconvincing” Plans
The MPs welcomed one possible solution proposed by the Government, the expansion of its “trusted trader” scheme which reduces the need for document checks at the border, especially in Northern Ireland. But the report said plans to register the 180,000 eligible traders needed to be urgently sped up.
The committee dismissed the Home Office’s plan to recruit an extra 300 border staff by March 2019 – in addition to 5,000 extra HMRC staff – as “completely unconvincing”, especially in the event of a “cliff edge” hard Brexit.
Unless there was a further significant increase in numbers Home Office staff would inevitably have to be diverted from other critical areas at the border, such as immigration and security checks, the committee warned.
The MPs heard evidence that the customs office at Tilbury closed at 4pm each day and goods arriving after 3pm were not accepted for clearance. Continuing that regime could lead to a “very substantial proportion of goods having an extra day’s transit time”, according to the report.
“Miles of Lorries”
Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, said the Government runs the risk of “celebrating their first day of Brexit with the sight of queues of lorries stretching for miles in Kent and gridlock on the roads of Northern Ireland.”
Such a scenario “would be incredibly damaging to the UK economy and completely unacceptable to the country,” she said. “Contingency planning is essential. If the Government gets this all wrong, we could be facing Operation Stack on steroids.”
“We expect a speedy response to this report from the Government to demonstrate that it has now taken these vital matters in hand – and we want to know which Minister is in charge. The current pace of contingency planning is insufficient and risky.”
The report was published as the Government announced it was considering installing traffic barriers on the M20 so that lorries facing delays at the Channel ports could be parked in the centre of the motorway. The scheme is designed to cut delays for other road users and should be in place by the time the UK leaves the EU in March 2019.
In summer 2015, Operation Stack led to sections of the M20 being turned into an enormous HGV park for up to 5,000 lorries when services at the Channel Tunnel and Dover port were hit by the migrant crisis and ferry strike. Nearby roads were also gridlocked, leaving many local businesses out of pocket and forcing hauliers stuck in large tailbacks to dump perishable goods. Kent County Council estimated the country’s economy lost around £250m a day during Operation Stack.
The Government pledged to develop a “permanent solution” to cope with future disruption but the M20 barriers scheme, described as an “interim innovative plan”, is now being developed by Highways England to allow motorists to continue using the M20 during any repeat of Operation Stack.
by Bob Graham
The post Brexit: Prepare for 30 Miles of Lorry Queue Chaos appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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