Tory MP: Facilities to help lorry drivers at Manston Airport are 'slightly sketchy'
22 December 2020, 15:50
Facilities to help lorry drivers stuck at Manston Airport are "slightly sketchy at the moment" but will "get better as time goes on", a Tory MP has told LBC.
Ashford MP Damian Green made the comments in response to a question by LBC's Shelagh Fogarty.
Highways England said that as of 8.25 this morning there were 650 HGVs on the M20 between J9 and J11, and 945 at the lorry park at Manston. The number of HGVs arriving at Manston is going up every hour, they said.
More than 40 countries have banned flights from the UK due to a mutant variant of coronavirus spreading through the country, while lorry drivers spent a second night sleeping in their cabs on the M20 outside the Port of Dover, which has been shut since Sunday night as a result of the new strain.
Lorry Drivers stuck in Kent after Dover port closed
Shelagh asked Mr Green what facilities there were for drivers who find themselves in a long tail of traffic in Kent.
The Ashford MP replied: "Well it depends where they are is the truth.
"There are facilities being put up on the motorway and indeed these were part of the post-Brexit transition period preparation anyway.
Patel: Kent traffic chaos is not a portent of Brexit
"Everyone suspected that whatever happens, whether we get a deal or not, there will be some friction at the border.
"So there are plans there. Manston is up and running. I know there are facilities there and there are food vans appearing there as well.
"I mean they will get better as time goes on, I suspect. It's all slightly sketchy at the moment but things are being done there."
