The Foreign Secretary’s idea for a cross-Channel bridge makes for a great headline in the spirit of British and French co-operation, but the costs and practical implications would be enormous.
“We’re better off spending smaller amounts of money on improving our crumbling roads and opening more lorry parks,” said RHA chief executive Richard Burnett.
“The Strait of Dover is the world’s busiest shipping lane carrying more than 500 ships daily, so construction would cause huge disruption to sea traffic. And what of the impact on the road network and people of Kent? The Channel Tunnel and the ferry routes are working well within capacity, so it makes no sense to commit huge amounts of taxpayers’ money in an uncertain economic climate to a costly bridge project that we don’t need” he concluded.
A similar proposal was rejected by the Government in 1981.
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