Low turnout for MP Helen Whately’s Op Brock protest rally as parish council chairs stay away
A rally to protest about the disruption Operation Brock is causing in Kent attracted only a handful of people today, with key community figures staying away. The gathering, organised by Faversham and Mid Kent MP Helen Whately, drew fewer than a dozen demonstrators at the Maidstone[1] M20 junction eight services.
Three parish council chairs, whose communities are affected by traffic congestion when Brock is in place, were absent, in part due to the format of the meeting being changed. They were unhappy a one-hour meeting was cut short to allow 30 minutes for the demo.
The chairs of Lenham and Harrietsham were scathing about Mrs Whately's reasons for staging the event. Operation Brock was introduced as a post-Brexit traffic management system to be used at times of anticipated disruption at the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel and can cause congestion around Ashford and Maidstone, particularly on the A20. Many drivers take to the A20 to avoid Brock, some causing further havoc by using tiny side roads to avoid the congestion.
Chairman of Lenham Parish Council, John Britt, said he refused to attend Mrs Whately's rally as it is "just a photo op for the MP".
He added: "We certainly need to talk about Brock but if not Brock, what? This is a complicated issue and it needed a lot more time allocated to it. So I didn't go.
"My main complaint is the frequency of Brock being brought in.
It was meant to be an emergency measure but now it's every half-term holiday and all summer." Chairman of Harrietsham Parish Council Eddie Powell, who lives on the route at Chegworth, said Mrs Whately was "jumping on a bandwagon". The former borough councillor added: "I have been calling for Brock to be done away with for years.
What Mrs Whately may not be aware of is that the roads here are already congested from her government's policy to carpet the countryside with tens of thousands of houses hardly anybody wants. "When Brock is on, the A20 and the little single lane roads are horrible, for sure, but Mrs Whately is hardly the first person to say so."
Two borough councillors for the Bearsted area, Cllrs Denis Spooner and Val Springett decided half an hour was insufficient to discuss the complexities of the issue. Cllr Springett, who had a meeting clash this morning, said: "I was due to attend the original hour long meeting but felt that the new arrangement wasn't enough to give to the subject."
Bearsted Parish Council chair David Hall also said he was double-booked but felt that there needed to be more time devoted to the topic and hopes another meeting can be rearranged for another date.
Mrs Whately, who was elected in 2015, said there were representatives from parishes at the gathering before the rally. She added: "The view I take is that we need to speak up, otherwise the Department for Transport and National Highways just think everything is fine, so that is why I invited the wider group of parish councils to come here to show that you care about this.
"That's the way you get something done; that's the way you get something changed - is by speaking up and numbers matter. I was disappointed that they didn't manage to turn up to the event, those that couldn't make it, but it was great those that did come.
"I have been working on this the entire time I have been an MP and together with other Kent MPs we lobbied back in the days of Operation Stack, when the motorway was completely closed and we got Operation Brock, which is not as bad as that, which means you can still use this side of the motorway and the investment in the barrier so it gets put out 48 hours in advance of it being needed.
Picture: Barry Goodwin
"That was down to particularly my work with Damian Green as Ashford's (then) MP because we were the MPs most affected. So we've done lots of work on that, lots of work in getting investment in a new lorry park but that feels like a very long, slow way of trying to solve that problem. So it's something I continue to work on.
"The reason why I organised the rally...is to show the strength of feeling in the area and have more people willing to speak up for this." Asked about the poor turnout, Mrs Whately said: "It was in the middle of a working day. It's not the easiest thing for people to come along to but I have had a lot of people contact me to thank me for doing this on their behalf."
The MP, whose majority fell from nearly 22,000 to under 1,500 in 2024, favours a "mini-Brock" system running from Junctions 8 to 9.
Brock filters freight movements into the coastbound carriageway and all other traffic into two Londonbound lanes with a temporary barrier and a 50mph limit.
Picture: Andy Jones
A sudden prang on the contraflow system can cause immediate problems elsewhere and users complain that lorry drivers do not comply with the speed limits. Surrounding villages can be most severely hit, with motorists using single-track back roads to avoid snarl-ups but often causing damage to property and verges. Tim Lindup, 63, a semi-retired coach driver, of Aldington, Ashford[2], who attended today's rally, said: "I use the M20 and I find Brock very dangerous.
I just wanted to highlight the problem which just seems to get brushed under the carpet.
I'm just fed up with it."
Ashford's MP Sojan Joseph has also said that Brock should only be used when necessary and that an alternative is needed.