Final Draft Site Assessment Report 11 October 2013 Van artwork courtesy of AECOM Prepared by: ............................ Checked by: ............................................ Johan Els Jonpaul Simpson Principal Consultant Project Manager - Transportation Approved by: ........................... John Hix Regional Director Final Final Draft Report - Site Assessment Rev No Comments Checked by Approved Date by 1 Draft Site Assessment Report JS JH 20Sept2013 2 Draft Interim Report – Site Assessment JS JH 4 Oct 2013 3 Final Draft Report – Site Assessment JS JH 11 Oct 2013 9th & 10th Floors, Sunley House, 4 Bedford Park, CR0 2AP Telephone: 020 8639 3500 Website: http://www.aecom.com Job No 60305766 Reference 11 Oct 2013 This document has been prepared by AECOM Limited for the sole use of our client (the “Client”) and in accordance with generally accepted consultancy principles, the budget for fees and the terms of reference agreed between AECOM Limited and the Client. Any information provided by third parties and referred to herein has not been checked or verified by AECOM Limited, unless otherwise expressly stated in the document. No third party may rely upon this document without the prior and express written agreement of AECOM Limited. Table of Contents 1 Introduction................................................................................................................................................................ 2 2 Background and Methodology .................................................................................................................................. 4 3 Legislative Framework ............................................................................................................................................... 8 4 Confidential Discussions ......................................................................................................................................... 15 5 Assessment Criteria ................................................................................................................................................ 27 6 Site Review and Assessment .................................................................................................................................. 36 Appendix A – Site Location Maps......................................................................................................................................... 49 Appendix B – Lorry Park Size Comparisons ........................................................................................................................ 51 Appendix C – Site Assessment Sheets ................................................................................................................................ 53 Appendix D – Maps of Proposed Sites ................................................................................................................................. 55 Introduction AECOM Final Draft Report - Site Assessment 2 Capabilities on project: Transportation 1 Introduction 1.1 Overview This final draft interim report provides details on the site selection assessment process and confidential discussions carried out with key stakeholders. It concluded with a list of proposed most suitable sites for lorry park development. Kent County Council (KCC) has commissioned AECOM to produce a feasibility study for commercially operated lorry parks in Kent. The objective of this study is to undertake the necessary work to: x Identify a network of low cost small-scale lorry parks (200-500) spaces) adjacent to the M20/A20 and M2/A2 in Kent suitable for overnight lorry parking or a dual function lorry park catering for both overnight lorry parking and an element of overflow parking to help address operation stack when it is called x Carry out consultation with the relevant district council on identified sites as well as the Highways Agency and Kent Police x Carry out outline financial and commercial analysis for each identified site to ascertain to what extent each could be commercially viable x Recommend the implementation of a network of lorry parks including priority and model for delivery The minimum facilities to be provided at each lorry park are showers, toilets and security/secure parking. The nature of this work and the early stage of development mean that this study into the feasibility of lorry parks remains confidential. It is important that the study remains such until further work is completed based on the recommendations made. Background and Methodology AECOM Final Draft Report - Site Assessment 4 Capabilities on project: Transportation 2 Background and Methodology 2.1 Introduction In this section of the report we discuss the background of the situation of lorry parking in Kent as well as the methodology used to undertake the site assessment. 2.2 Background Lorry parking issues in Kent have been highlighted regularly both at regional and national level for a number of years. They relate to the high concentration of international freight vehicles and their use of ‘unofficial’ roadside parking on the main routes serving the Channel ports and Eurotunnel. Kent is the main gateway for road freight traffic between the UK and Europe. As such it is subjected to many pressures such as congestion, intensive road use and demand for safe and secure lorry parking facilities. Previous studies have consistently shown that there are a large number of HGVs parking in lay-bys and industrial estates in Kent. The national lorry parking study AECOM conducted for the Department for Transport in 2011 found a shortage of provision in the majority of districts in the County. This study found an average lorry park utilisation of 73%, around 434 vehicles parking off-site locations and a shortfall in capacity of over 300 vehicles. Crime was also found to be a significant issue in the area: Truckpol figures found that 119 lorry related crimes had been reported across the County in 2010. This indicates the requirement for future lorry parking facilities to provide a secure and safe environment for lorry drivers to park and rest. The DfT Lorry Parking Baseline Report conducted by AECOM in 2009 found that many drivers who parked in lay-bys did so in order to save money, however parking in lay-bys is usually an ad-hoc decision. As such, given the right encouragement and incentive, coupled with effective enforcement, many of these drivers would use official parking areas. Parking in official areas with adequate facilities can help to avoid problems such as littering/noise near to residential areas and damaged curbs and verges. In addition, consistently busy lay-bys can create safety issues as this removes areas where drivers can stop for short rests. With regards to new developments, a planning application for the extension of STOP 24 with an additional 47 truck and coach parking bays has recently been submitted. Over the last year there have been a number of developments at both the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel. In 2012 Port of Dover opened an overnight lorry park that can accommodate 300 trucks. The Port is currently extending its lorry parking by 220 spaces and this extended buffer facility is due to be operational by the end of 2014. Similarly, Eurotunnel is currently at the design stage of increasing its lorry holding by 300 spaces taking its total capacity to 600 spaces. The additional capacity is due to be operational by early 2015. Both of these expansions, while not the complete answer to Operation Stack parking issue, will act to help put off the point of Operation Stack need to be called. 2.3 Methodology This section of the report sets out the methodology that AECOM used to identify the potential sites that are most suitable for lorry park development. Figure 1.1 gives a schematic layout of the process undertaken. AECOM Final Draft Report - Site Assessment 5 Capabilities on project: Transportation Figure 2.1 – Methodology - Site Assessment AECOM Final Draft Report - Site Assessment 6 Capabilities on project: Transportation After the inception meeting the Client provided AECOM with a short list and long list of sites that have previously been identified. AECOM then identified further potential sites as part of a desktop research process which included the following papers and documents: x Growth Without Gridlock, December 2010, KCC x Operation Stack: Cross Channel Traffic Management, Final Report – Part 2, November 2005, Faber Maunsell x Operation Stack: High level Feasibility analysis, 2010, Jones Lang Lasalle x “Draft short list of sites” x M20 Corridor: Overnight Lorry Park / Operation Stack Facility, September 2005 A total of 54 sites were identified. The next stage in our site assessment was to consult with the relevant local authorities within the area of jurisdiction of Kent County Council and the Highways Agency on our list of sites. During this phase of the project three more sites were identified and included within our proposed list of sites. At the same time 26 sites were discarded due to access arrangements, planning allocations and/or developments that have taken place. To develop a set of assessment criteria, the legislative framework of relevant national, regional and local policies was reviewed. A set of criteria which capture all relevant aspects of decision making has been developed. Based on our previous lorry park site assessment work, a simple weighting and scoring system was developed to be applied to each site. Whilst much of the information used to evaluate each site was obtained