Representation by Dover Harbour Board (Dover Harbour Board)
- Date submitted
- 26 January 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The Port of Dover is responsible for facilitating £144bn of trade and 33% of the UK’s trade in goods with the EU, half of which is travelling to and from beyond London and the South East to support industry and commerce in the Midlands and North of the UK. Indeed, the Port was recently successful in securing £45 million of the Government’s Levelling Up funding, in part because of the national role it plays in supporting the levelling up agenda through the multiple sectors that move goods via Dover and the businesses and consumers across the UK that rely on them. As such, the Port of Dover is an advocate for the Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) and the strategic benefits it offers for the vital north-south flows of international road freight between Dover and the rest of Great Britain that support both the levelling up agenda and the national economy more broadly. Whilst an advocate of the scheme, the Port is also keen to ensure that, in tackling congestion at Dartford, the scheme does not displace the congestion to Dover, causing severe disruption to north-south flows there. The Port of Dover is connected via two strategic routes – the M20/A20 and M2/A2. Although the M20/A20 is the signed route to Dover (hence there is broadly a 60:40 split in traffic between the routes), we know from previous experience that when the M20 has a problem, the freight traffic naturally diverts to the M2/A2, with up to 70% of Dover’s freight traffic using this route. Once the LTC is built, potentially around half of the Port’s traffic will rely on the A2 as a matter of routine due to the time/cost benefits of that route. Port of Dover handles up to 110 miles of freight traffic per day at peak and the last few miles of the A2 into Dover are a drastically sub-standard single carriageway, providing minimal resilience to one of the UK’s most important trade routes as well as the local traffic movements. The A2 near Dover will therefore be under severe strain without suitable parallel investment. The Port of Dover remains committed to supporting the LTC because of its overarching benefits to the national role the Port plays. However, it is important in this process to recognise that the strategic benefits the LTC brings in this regard are equally reliant in their realisation on ensuring that the Dover end of this key strategic north-south route is also enhanced (known as the A2 Access Scheme, which is a National Highways pipeline project for RIS3). Working together as coordinated strategic investments, the LTC and A2 Access Scheme will make a significant contribution to overall UK trade resilience as well as keep local communities and businesses moving.