Brexit: Kent to get ‘internal border’ to monitor incoming lorries
Police will soon have to monitor Kent’s border and turn away lorries without an “access permit” as a part of the government’s Brexit plans.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said officers will use number plate recognition technology to monitor truckers travelling into Kent, with some characterising the plans as amounting to an internal UK border.
It comes as a Cabinet Office letter warning that Kent could see 7,000-long lorry queues after the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December was leaked to the BBC today.
The worst case scenario would see a two-day delay to trade, in what would be a disaster for the UK’s supply chains, as the Cabinet Office expects that up to 50 per cent of trucking companies will not be prepared for the new regulations.
Gove told MPs today that truckers coming into Kent will next year need a special access permit to ensure they have filled out the proper forms to travel into the EU.
The UK will leave the EU customs union and single market on 31 December.
“We want to make sure that people use a relatively simple process in order to get what will become known as a Kent Access Permit, which means that they can then proceed smoothly, because they do have the material required,” Gove said.
“If they don’t have the material required, then it will be the case that through policing, ANPR cameras and other means, we’ll do our very best to ensure that his constituents are not inconvenienced.”
Gove said in his statement that just under a quarter of businesses were “fully ready” for the end of the Brexit transition period, while almost half thought there would be an extension past 31 December.
The possibility of an extension is now next to zero after the UK refused to countenance the prospect.
Tory Ashford MP Damian Green said: “The prospect of 7,000 trucks queuing to cross the Channel will send a chill through my constituents because we know what effect that has on all the roads in Kent and it’s disastrous.”