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Brexit: Ashford site for 10,000 lorries to get customs checks planned

BBC Site earmarked for the customs clearance centreBBC
Work will begin on fencing off the site near Ashford on Monday

A post-Brexit customs centre for up to 10,000 lorries has been earmarked for a 27-acre site in Kent, in a plan the local MP says came "out of the blue".

The Department for Transport is understood to be purchasing the site off the M20, near Ashford.

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said it was not the intention to create a massive concrete lorry park.

But Ashford MP Damian Green (Tory) said the site is the wrong place and no consultation on it has been undertaken.

It comes after Mr Gove defended his plans for the new post-Brexit border infrastructure after Labour said the government was unprepared.

"It is the intention to provide the smart infrastructure which in Kent and elsewhere will allow trade to flow," Mr Gove told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme.

'Smooth traffic flow'

He said a variety of potential sites had been looked at in the area.

"What we want to do is to make sure that freight travelling through Kent can get to Dover and then onto the ferries and then into France as quickly as possible," Mr Gove continued.

"And so it may be the case, not so much in Kent but elsewhere, that there will be specific pieces of infrastructure that we put in place in order to smooth the flow of traffic."

Site earmarked for the customs clearance centre
Local MP Damian Green is worried about the noise and pollution the site would generate

Ashford Borough Council has backed the government's plan.

Paul Bartlett, the Conservative deputy leader, said: "We welcome the jobs coming to Ashford. We want Ashford to play its full part in Brexit.

"All of the infrastructure has been put in by Highways England and it should enable the traffic to flow quite easily in the area."

'Out of the blue'

But Mr Green said it was the wrong location if the intention was for a permanent lorry park, as there would be greater pressure on the transport system, along with noise and pollution.

"I've been assured by the minister that it is meant purely as an insurance policy that if all the haulage companies sign up to the new post-Brexit trade system, then they won't need an emergency park.," he explained.

"[But] this proposal has come out of the blue. There's been no consultation about it."