At last the government seems to have made a belated start to building new customs infrastructure in Kent. The local council were told late yesterday afternoon that 27 acres of land to the south of Ashford in Kent and close to junction 10a of the M20 had been purchased for a new border control post. It is, according to The Guardian, 9 miles from the Eurotunnel, 12 miles from Folkestone and 19 miles from Dover. Having looked on Google maps this seems about right.
The site is known as the Mojo site for some reason and appears to be greenfield land off the A20270 near a place called Willesborough.
One can only despair for the residents who will have to put up with the construction and the noise of HGVs for a period until we rejoin the EU. The council were only told of the purchase a few hours before and work to clear the site and provide a temporary access begins on Monday. Talk about a rush job.
It appears it already has B8 planning consent (Distribution and Storage use) which will save some time but I assume the site layout and buildings will need to be designed and get approved by the local planning committee, a process which is going to occupy a few weeks at best and possibly months. I note the Guardian report includes an image which indicates a new motorway junction - delivered 2020 it says - but I assume it's an old picture since Google maps appears to show it's completed.
This will come a relief perhaps to Kent County Council and Dover Council, I assume. At least they are starting to see and think about how it might operate. I assume there will also need to be a lot of security cameras dotted around the roads leading from Dover and the Eurotunnel otherwise smugglers will have a field day.
After being informed on Friday afternoon, the Tory council has been forced to rush out hand-delivered letters to local residents to warn them of the disruption, Paul Bartlett, a Conservative councillor, told the Guardian. He is quoted:
“Boris [Johnson] needs to be careful that these customs and tariff arrangements are finalised and in place in time, because otherwise there could be serious congestion, and we don’t want that.
“There is an enormous amount of trust involved in Boris and his counterparts in Europe to get us where we need to be for 31 December and time is not on our side,” he added.
A paper setting out the government's Border Operating Model is to be published next week together with a campaign to inform business about what they need to prepare for. This is alongside the trade talks which finished early for the second week running with little progress being made. Barnier said "significant divergences" remain to be resolved. Remember we have a little over five months to go - although Gove has given himself a six month extension to handle imports.
Next week we may find out what he intends to do for exports where New Years Day 2021 is still the hard deadline.
Chaos may be avoided if the Goods Vehicle Movement System is ready in time (highly unlikely) but it will come at the cost of a substantial reduction in exports and the probable loss of markets in Europe. And since many journeys are circular - with trucks bringing imports from the continent returning via Dover or Folkestone - these EU truckers will also need to know how to prepare for exports - unless they return empty needlessly adding to the transport costs.
Having border control nearly 20 miles for the point of entry is a bit odd but I suppose it's the only way of combining two entry points into one BCP. Now I suppose there will need to be similar posts at other points of entry at Holyhead, Hull and anywhere goods are to be imported from next year.
