It’s been confirmed that the traffic problems in Dover were caused by a Home Office security operation that involved checking all vehicles and passengers at Dover and other ports.
It is of course vital the Home Office is able to take whatever steps it feels necessary to keep the country safe. Yet we do also need to understand what happened in relation to traffic management and I am liaising with a number of authorities on that issue so we that we don’t see a repeat of these problems going forward.
Dover TAP, Operation Stack and Operation Brock are all schemes designed to ensure traffic is kept flowing and off local roads and we do need to understand more about how the decisions on these were taken as things progressed.
Because as I have said recently in conversations with Transport Ministers, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Dover District Council and Kent County Council, our area has such an important role in transition and in the future position of our country.
It is vital that we keep Dover clear and I will continue to work hard on this issue going forward.