The government has paid the owner of land being used as a Brexit lorry park in Ashford almost £6m in rent, it has emerged.
The border facility, which is still under construction, was set up by the Government to hold around 1,700 lorries in case of border disruption.
Residents next to a large Brexit lorry park in Ashford say it is as bright as Wembley Stadium and has ruined the dark night sky for miles around.
Angry residents are growing increasingly impatient waiting for a solution to be found to stop lorry park-bound truckers getting lost in Mersham.
This week, the practical realities of what Brexit is going to mean came into central focus for perhaps the first time, with a new government information campaign.
Floodlights at a Brexit lorry park in Kent have "destroyed" the night sky, residents say.
Ministers urged to fulfil promise of new facilities, as desperate drivers forced to ‘s*** in bushes’.
Brexit not okay for Kent
25/10/2022
Note that the slogans on these placards all represent news that has reached us about the effects of Brexit on Kent specifically. Some of these have featured in articles in Kent Bylines, as linked in the explanations below.
Pictures posted on Facebook showed trucks wedged in precarious positions in the village as they tried to negotiate the winding streets.
Another Brexit advertising campaign. They've replaced sporting events as signs of the changing seasons. Instead of Wimbledon or the Olympics, we get Michael Gove talking gibberish on television and further millions poured into preparedness exercises for an outcome with no tangible benefits.
Eurostar blames Brexit as 'main factor' in cutting Disneyland Paris trains and St Pancras station delays
27/09/2022
Extra border checks mean St Pancras can't handle as many passengers as it did before Brexit.
Brexit lorry park in Ashford 'like Wembley Stadium' as residents demand changes to lighting
27/05/2021
A huge Brexit lorry park in Ashford is as bright as Wembley Stadium and has ruined the dark night sky for miles around, according to angry residents.
Up to 12 post-Brexit customs centres like Kent lorry park to be built to deal with EU exit
13/07/2020
Businesses face 400 million extra customs declarations a year at a cost up as much as £20 billion under government plans.
Truckers trying to find Brexit lorry park next to Junction 10a in Ashford spark chaos in Mersham
07/01/2021
Confused truckers trying to find a huge Brexit lorry park are getting lost in a nearby village - making houses shake and churning up grass verges.
Europe-bound trains won’t stop at Ashford and Ebbsfleet International stations for at least ‘two to three years’.
Hundreds of seats left empty on London-Paris Eurostar trains due to Brexit passport checks
24/01/2023
ondon trains leave Amsterdam at least 78% empty because of constraints on UK border checks. / Thousands of seats are deliberately going unsold on Eurostar trains every day as the cross-Channel train operator struggles with post-Brexit passport controls.
Fears of dead chicks in lorries and 10 months of ports chaos detailed in new government document
04/08/2020
Emergency traffic measures to last until ‘end of October 2021’ – with a giant lorry park to hold 2,000 goods vehicles.
Ministers accused of building 'pointless lorry park in Kent' after announcing £700m for trade checks [1 min]
12/07/2020
'This is all so pointless. We are creating a vast customs bureaucracy, with costs passed on to the consumer'
A 27-acre site is being built to handle trucks amid fears that new trade rules will slow freight movement. It has been nicknamed the “Farage Garage” after the pro-Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage.
Sites being acquired as part of efforts to avoid long lorry queues at ports such as Dover.
Long tailbacks as Brexit lorry operation to slow parts of major motorway to 30mph overruns
28/10/2019
Motorists brand works in preparation for potential no-deal queues ‘chaos’ and ‘complete waste of time’.
New border checks in Kent and elsewhere reverse 47 years of removal of trade barriers.
DfT has bought site that will be used for customs clearance and holding pen for lorries, Rachel Maclean confirms.
Brexit minister Liz Truss asked to visit Mersham near Ashford as another truck gets stuck on way to lorry park at Sevington
02/01/2022
There are calls for the new Brexit minister Liz Truss to visit a village near Ashford where truckers keep getting lost on their way to a lorry park.
Tory MP says Brexit plans are 'unfair' to his constituents, even though 60% of them voted for it
13/07/2020
Tory MP Damian Green just tried to claim that building a Brexit customs centre in his constituency is "unfair" to local residents, even though they voted to leave the EU.