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The Prosser Perspective.... a weekly column from Dover and Deal MP Gwyn Prosser

10 January 2008

This week I will be leading a high level cross party delegation from Dover and Deal to the House of Commons for a meeting with the new Transport Minister, the Rt. Hon Rosie Winterton. Although I describe her as new, Ms Winterton has been in post for over six months now but this is the first time that I’ve taken the local stakeholders for a formal ministerial meeting with her.

I arranged a number of such meetings with her predecessor, Dr Stephen Ladyman, who represents South Thanet and with his predecessor David Jamieson and I have to admit to some disappointment that many of the same points for discussion have remained on the agenda during all that time. But that’s not to say that progress has not been made in improving our transport infrastructure.

For instance, top of everyone’s agenda in East Kent has been securing high speed train services from the capital city to the coastal towns and in particular to Dover Priory Station. For a long time it seemed as if the expense and the technical difficulties of bringing the fast trains through Shakespeare Tunnel would scupper the project but our vigorous lobbying of Ministers and a multitude of informal contacts succeeded. By the end of next year, state-of-the-art high speed bullet trains will be shuttling us between Dover and London in little more than an hour.

There has also been progress in the refinement of Operation Stack for managing lorries on the M20 during disruptions at Eurotunnel and the Port of Dover. The Government has provided £12m for the provision of patented quick removable barriers to separate road lanes on the motorway for lorry parking while keeping road space open for other users. Of course, everyone agrees that that the preferred option for the longer term is a parking area near the motorway but finding a viable business case for such a project is proving difficult.

We will use our meeting to brief the Minister more fully on Dover’s comprehensive regeneration plans and our ambition to obtain growth point status from the Government. We will make it clear that there is broad agreement across the political divide for the District Council’s plans for growth and regeneration, and this is scarcely odd because the core proposals were laid down during Labour’s period of office at DDC.

We will also be united in pressing for improvements to the A20 approaches to Dover. For instance, the problems posed by indiscriminate and dangerous parking of HGVs in our lay-bys, the increase in road traffic accidents during foggy conditions and the local congestion problems being experienced at Aycliffe and along Townwall Street.

And last, but by no means least we will restate the case for dualling the last few miles of the A2 between Lydden and Dover – a campaign which has been running since I came to live in Dover nearly 30 years ago.

I’ll let you know how we get on in next week’s column – but don’t hold your breath over the A2 !