I first cycled down to look at the Sevington site in August 2020. It is south of Ashford and alongside the M20. To get to it, I had to pass through the suburbs of South Willesborough and then cross the busy A2070, called Bad Munstereifel Road (named after the spa town in Germany that is twinned with Ashford). Once across, I found myself on typical narrow Kentish lanes, without pavements. I was searching for a safe and convenient location to mount a demonstration against the planned border inspection lorry park, the latest local effect of Brexit.
I headed towards a good landmark, the spire of an old church. The route passed fields with horses grazing, and a signboard indicating a riding school. At the end of the lane was a cul-de-sac with no exit onto the main road. It was the suitable space I was looking for, with parking for a few cars and near a pedestrian bridge over the A2070.
Sevington: church, community and developers
The church graveyard was impressively overgrown. A notice from the churchwarden explained that the parish followed nature-based guidelines and so kept large areas unmown. Most parishes with similar graveyards now do this, and later in the year I was to learn more about the nature-friendly plans of the Church of England at the Lambeth conference at Canterbury.
The church itself was locked, as is often the case with rural parishes with declining congregations. With further investigation, I discovered it has mounted a major fundraising drive to repurpose its medieval masonry for modern community use. This usually means modern toilets and a kitchen, and furniture in the nave to provide for coffee-mornings and other social events. Actually, they had a good chance of getting the funds because at that time the firm bidding to take over the nearby field as a dispatch centre was offering a hefty contribution to this church community project.
Flood warnings and vanishing birds at Sevington
I wandered back down the lane, trying to figure out more about how people lived around here. Along the lane going south there were some impressive big, detached houses. As well as scouting for a protest site, I wanted to get local opinion on the plan for the Sevington lorry park. The first few occupants were either out or wouldn’t talk. But then I did meet one chatty couple. They had bought their house knowing of the plan for the dispatch centre but had expected it to take many more years before implementation. They liked living in the country and were bird-lovers, pointing out that they had spotted skylarks over the field about to be concreted over for lorries. They also made some apt observations of the likelihood of flooding.
The contract to use the field as an International Border Facility (IBF) was finalised quickly. Soon, it was noticeable how many Gallagher trucks with concrete churning inside them were filing daily along the road to Sevington. But the contractors did not complete on time. As the neighbours had predicted, they encountered flooding and had to rejig their structural work.
Low demand and contamination risks halt Guston site plans
Meanwhile, I was following up other related stories. Protesters in Dover had been furious at plans to site an IBF at Guston. But then answers in the House of Lords revealed that demand was less than had been predicted, mainly because so many small food exporters had pulled out of cross-channel trade when faced with Brexit red tape.
Guston campaigners were relieved that the site was rejected. Using it for phytosanitary purposes or live animal transport would have risked contaminating the chalk watercourse beneath. That the government did not realise this sooner is laughable. Everybody knows the white cliffs of Dover are made of permeable chalk!
Trade imbalances and staff shortages at Sevington
What was happening with food trade at the time was that imports from the EU were allowed to continue largely unchecked. The UK government quietly chose not to impose new inspections that might disrupt supermarket supply chains. This meant lorries from the international port of Rotterdam – which would otherwise face customs charges – entered the UK without fees.
In contrast to the negligent attitude of Boris Johnson’s government towards the international food trade, the EU imposed full checks on UK exports. France built extensive lorry parks in Calais. So, trade was increasingly one-sided, with British exporters restricted while EU food imports were allowed into the UK. I have never seen a count of how much revenue the Treasury lost as a result. Eventually, Sevington became operational. But local residents complained of light pollution, and the area used at night had to be adjusted. More rigorous phytosanitary checks were also still required. One problem is that the UK had (and still has) a shortage of vets with the right skills. Many had been EU citizens who had gone back to their own countries after Brexit. The local newspaper advertised 60 jobs for the Sevington IBF, with training provided.
But even once Sevington opened as an IBF for phytosanitary checks, the procedures were not enforced. I have heard criticism from two informed sources (one involved in freight for agri-products and the other experienced in the policing of cross-border controls) that there was no provision for stopping lorries suspected of carrying illegal or sub-standard phytosanitary goos. The UK Border Force at Calais (under the juxtaposed border system for cross-channel transport) could serve papers on them and tell them to call at Sevington (some 19 miles away from Dover). But they do not put a tracker on the lorry or inform police. So a suspect lorry could simply drive past Sevington, avoid the checks, and sell illegal produce further on into the UK. This is corroborated by a BBC report of more illegal meat on sale in shops. What a waste of money in constructing the IBF and training a workforce to operate a pretend border control! The whole Sevington saga seemed to be more about satisfying pro-Brexit public appetite for stories about ‘sovereign’ Britain than actually engaging with how trade operates.
A new deal with the EU: food trade to flow freely again
Now the politics of Brexit have turned again. Phytosanitary restrictions have been lifted because UK has agreed to keep its regulations in sync with the EU. Food trade can flow freely once more. What good news for the oyster trade of Whitstable, who can once again send their lorries of fresh oysters straight to French restaurants and the salmon exporters of Scotland who used to export by the refrigerated lorryload down the M20! Good news for garden centres too, as all those pots of garden plants exported from the Netherlands can once again come uninspected across the Channel.
What next for Sevington?
So, what may happen to Sevington? The 230-acre site only became operational in April 2024. More than 150 people are employed there and it has capacity for 1,700 lorries. The government is reputed to be exploring whether either Getlink, the managers of the Channel tunnel or the Port of Dover could utilise the space, as Dover is notoriously cramped. But there has recently been investment at Dover to open up more space for coaches, ready for when the new identity checks for the EU come into operation.
Operation Brock, which restricts lanes on the M20 whenever there is a cross-channel blockage by reserving one lane as a lorry park, could possibly be repurposed to redirect lorries into Sevington. This would allow traffic to flow normally along the M20 and would please many commuters. But that would mean Highways England or Kent County Council taking over the site and no extra revenue coming into public funds to recompense for that £154mn spent.
It seems an awful waste of making and spreading all that concrete over a green field in Kent. Did the politicians dancing to the tune of sovereignty in the public eye ever visualise what the on-the-ground impact could be?
I don’t think the skylarks will ever return to that expanse of concrete.
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