Operation Brock cost £1.4m over the summer

A holding system for lorries queuing to cross the English Channel cost £1.4m to deploy in July and August, it has been revealed.

Operation Brock sees temporary barriers set up on the M20, which allows one carriageway to be used as a lorry park should there be disruption at the Channel ports.

A Freedom of Information request by the BBC found the system was activated five times, for a total of 34 hours, while in place between 13 July and 16 August.

Toby Howe of the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum said the scheme was "a very expensive option" but ultimately "the only option" to manage traffic flows.

A further deployment between 19 and 26 May was used twice for a combined near-23 hours and cost almost £470,000.

Operation Brock cost a combined £2.7m to roll out across 10 occasions between 2019 and 2024, and a further £3m to deploy for a combined 136 hours in 2025.

The scheme is set up in advance of busy periods for Europe-bound traffic, such as school holidays.

Its contraflow system is activated to prevent queuing lorries from clogging up local roads and other M20 traffic during disruption. When not activated, traffic continues to use both carriageways with the contraflow barriers remaining in place.

Central government pays for the system but decisions on its use are made by the resilience forum - a multi-agency emergency planning group.

National Highways, which operates Operation Brock, said the system was "vital to help keep traffic moving" and limit the amount of freight on local roads, and it was developing "longer-term traffic management solutions."

Howe said: "It is an awful lot of money, however what we need to take into account is the impact, on the east Kent economy in particular, if Brock were not there."

Eurotunnel at Folkestone and the Port of Dover are "essential" to the UK economy as a whole, he added.

Ben Garrett of the trade body Logistics UK said the figures did not include "the cost of the inefficiency that it adds to the logistics system, and therefore the economy".

Dover District Council leader Kevin Mills said all Operation Brock had achieved was "34 hours of queues", and a "permanent solution" was needed.

It is hoped an upcoming project to reconfigure border facilities at the Port of Dover can increase queue capacity and introduce more border processing booths.

Kent County Council's cabinet member for highways Peter Osborne, said in July the scheme "represents the beginning of the end for Operation Brock as we've come to know it".

Other suggestions to reduce the impact have included moving Port of Dover border checks off site and using contingency sites off the M20.

Garrett said Operation Brock had become "a too frequently used solution that should have been temporary to an entirely predictable challenge".

New border controls for entering the EU had to be suspended at the Port of Dover in May after they led to long queues.

Full implementation of the Entry/Exit System (EES), replacing passport stamping with biometric checks, has been repeatedly delayed by technology problems, but there are concerns there could be delays when it fully comes online.

Howe said he did not expect the contraflow to be deployed more frequently as EES was brought in, but that drivers might see "that freight will be held more frequently".

Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram and listen to BBC Radio Kent on Sounds. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.