Villages and residential communities near the proposed Lower Thames Crossing could face increased lorry parking pressures if the road opens without a dedicated rest facility, MPs have warned.
The 14-mile route linking Kent and Essex is currently planned without a service station or lorry rest area. MPs said drivers needing to stop could instead search for space on local roads and A-road lay-bys, potentially bringing heavy goods vehicles into areas not designed to accommodate them.
Concerns over driver facilities
Ruth Cadbury, chair of the Commons Transport Committee, said the lack of provision highlighted a wider gap in national transport policy. “Hauliers need somewhere to stop and sleep where both they and their loads are safe,” she said.
She warned that drivers could be left without access to toilets, food or adequate security if suitable facilities were unavailable.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has previously confirmed that the crossing scheme is not required to include a rest and service area. In correspondence earlier this year, Alexander said the original proposals had included one, but that the plans were subsequently reassessed and the facility removed.
Thurrock parking pressures
Jen Craft, Labour MP for Thurrock, said inappropriate lorry parking was already a significant local problem. She said drivers were struggling to find space at existing service stations and were resorting to roads that were not designed for heavy goods vehicles.
Craft questioned whether the absence of a rest facility on the new crossing could worsen those pressures. Cadbury agreed, warning that the project would increase traffic movements across an already busy part of the network, including the number of trucks and lorries.
The crossing is intended to connect the A2 near Gravesend with the A13 in Thurrock and the M25 near Upminster, including a tunnel beneath the River Thames. While the project is designed to improve cross-river connectivity and add road capacity, MPs’ concerns focus on how lorry parking and driver welfare will be managed beyond the main route.
Without dedicated provision, some of the traffic pressures associated with the scheme could spill onto surrounding roads and into nearby communities, MPs warned.