Disused airport in UK to be opened as lorry park to ease border closure disruption
Lisa O'Carroll - The GuardianThe UK government is preparing to open a disused airport in Kent as a lorry park to ease disruption after the overnight French border closures, the Department for Transport has confirmed.
Manston airport was a back-up plan for Brexit congestion contingencies but has become a priority because construction on the lorry park the government was building in Ashford to cater for gridlock in January is not complete.
“We are currently preparing Manston ready to support Kent Resilience Forum’s plans to manage disruption in #Kent today … our message to #Hauliers is to avoid travelling to Kent until further notice,” the department said in a tweet.
The airport, near Ramsgate, has the capacity for 4,000 trucks, two-thirds of the 6,000 trucks transport secretary Grant Shapps said had been expected on Eurotunnel and the port of Dover on Monday morning.
'Urgent, hard measure' necessary, French minister says
France's deputy minister for European affairs, Clément Beaune, has been talking about the travel restrictions introduced in response to the new variant of coronavirus detected in the UK.France, along with a number of other countries, has introduced 48-hour bans on UK flights ahead of an EU meeting at 10:00 GMT today.
"We must take an urgent, hard measure, because it is about health protection," Beaune said of the two-day restrictions in an interview with radio France Inter this morning.
"It's 48 hours to do three things: clarify scientific information and provide transparency, 48 hours to co-ordinate even better at European level."
He added that officials were also considering how to manage the situation of French nationals stranded in the UK: "We have to look for solutions for them beyond this very strict blockage of 48 hours."
"We have a very simple message for them: do PCR tests," he said, referring to the standard swab test used to identify coronavirus infections, adding that a negative test result would "surely" be required if the French government was able to organise transport for citizens to return home.
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