News MBC working with residents to improve Op Brock
Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) is asking local people impacted by Operation Brock how it affects their daily lives.
The Council is calling for change in the way that Op Brock is implemented on the M20 due to the amount of disruption it causes to residents and businesses in Maidstone.
To help understand how it affects those people MBC has launched a survey asking for their experiences and how it impacts their personal working lives so that it can build a picture of the environmental, social and economic impacts.
Leader of the Council, Cllr David Burton said:
“Operation Brock is not a long term solution for the border control issues. We cannot tolerate this becoming the ‘new normal.’ Whilst we know that it is needed as part of the current plan to manage the volume of traffic heading to Europe this cannot be a permanent solution and we need to look at alternatives now – not later.”
The media regularly reports the disruption that the traffic measure causes for freight and holiday traffic but the Council really wants to hear from the people of Maidstone who are impacted when Op Brock is in place so that it can understand how it affects their lives.
The MBC survey which asks people for their experiences can be accessed here: Maidstone Have Your Say On Op Brock
David Burton added:
“My personal view is that there needs to be sufficient off- road lorry parking in the vicinity of the ports and this would help manage some occasions with high freight and tourist traffic numbers. I know that others suggest a scheme to hold vehicles further up country and we will not rule this out although there would be operational challenges to how this would work and be enforced. Technology has enabled us to work productively throughout the pandemic in many walks of life – technology could also offer solutions to these challenges.
“We want Maidstone to be a borough that works for everyone, with residents and local businesses at the heart of our decision making and would really like to hear from you about how this disruption has impacted on your lives and ideas for alternative ways forward so that I can take this evidence to Government to demand action to prevent this from going on forever.”