Lovely & quiet

Operation Brock makes it lovely and quiet at our house. I love it - as long as I don't have to go anywhere. Obviously it means all the other routes are gridlocked, especially the A20. Which is why is is unfathomable that MBC would even consider building a new town - 5,000 houses, plus schools, shops & offices - at Lenham Heath. All these extra vehicles would have to use the A20, too. The other local roads are mainly single-track and entirely unsuitable for any extra traffic. Even now, if Op Brock or similar schemes push the traffic off the M20, any problems on the A20 (road works, crashes, breakdowns) mean an influx of vehicle trying to find a way round the blockage, using Lenham Heath Road and other back ways. This is unsustainable and damaging to hedgerows, banks, verges and animals, not to mention walkers and cyclists who take their lives in their hands while going about their daily business.

Massive investment in rail freight and diverting sea freight away from Dover to Thames ports & further up country are the only options I can see. If Manston does open as a freight hub, onward travel should be by rail or air, not on the already over-busy Kent roads. However, I do feel sorry for lorry drivers, who have to comply with all sorts of hours limitations yet have nowhere to stop easily or cheaply.