PLEASE SEE BELOW GUSTON PC RESPONSE TO ENGAGEMENT – Dover Inland Border Facility
For the attention of: HMRC
Send to: DoverIBF@wsp.com
8 November 2021
Dear Sir/Madam
Response to Engagement Dover Inland Border Facility
Guston Parish Council and residents have been sent further information from HM Revenue & Customs whereby confirming that a new engagement period has commenced from 25 October 2021 to 17th November 2021, (extension included within the dates.)
The engagement material confirms that the Government is seeking to create an additional Inland Border Facility newly named Dover Inland Border Facility to accommodate new custom and border controls commencing final quarter 2022. “The site will carry out customs checks, comprising documentary and physical inspections of goods entering and leaving the country including document checks on consignments covered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and market surveillance”.
Approval for the use and erection of operational development of a new site would be sought under the requirements of a Special Development Order (SDO), The Town and Country Planning (Border Facilities and Infrastructure) (EU Exit) (England) Special Development Order 2020. This was made on 1 September 2020, laid before parliament on 3 September and came into force on 24 September 2020.
The information includes a drawing/plan which provides details of the exact position of the Dover Inland Border Facility, and it relates to an area that “would be located off the Whitfield Interchange between the A2 and the A256, providing access to the Port of Dover and the M2 motorway. The site is approximately 15.2 hectares in size, comprising two parcels of land, divided by the Roman Road which runs through the area north to south.” Although this HMRC development is considerably smaller than the original design, which no longer includes DEFRA development, the exact area of the whole site is considerable and is currently owned by Department for Transport. Ongoing ownership of the unused section of land is currently under debate and no confirmation at this stage can be provided as to its future use, although “in the Dover District Local Plan this site is allocated to be developed for employment use.” This currently unused section will potentially leave residents with yet another period of anxiety whilst plans are formulated and submitted.
The information also states that “initial strategic traffic modelling assessments have taken place which show no significant impacts as a result of the scheme and Traffic impacts on the local and strategic road network are being assessed and managed in conjunction with local and national stakeholders.”.
This is the first time any such development of this nature has been proposed in our parish and continues to cause great concern to the Parish Council and the residents the Parish Council represents.
Special Development Order
The Special Development Order allows the Government to grant temporary planning permission for the urgent delivery of these facilities. The use of the land for the facilities must end by 31 December 2025, and all reinstatement works must be completed by 31 December 2026.
On 27th October 2020 we were informed that the site was an emergency, and the additional facility was required to accommodate the new border controls commencing 1 July 2021. Dates concerning new controls and dates concerning the operational timescales for this site have been frequently extended. In this period all HGVs have been sent to Sevington via the A20 which we are informed have more than adequate space to deal with the level of HGVs currently expected to pass through the Port.
We are also now informed by HMRC that the Dover Inland Border Facility is most likely to be a 15-year project which will not be covered by the temporary nature of the SDO. As this forecast has been disclosed at such an early stage and before any development has commenced, we would like to question if the SDO is the correct legal tool to be used for this facility, and in fact believe that this development should go through normal planning processes. It is not acceptable to Guston Parish Council for HMRC to use an SDO and then apply for retrospective planning to extend the term of the facility.
Public Engagement
Whilst we appreciate that the size and nature of the development has been amended since earlier engagement Guston Parish Council is disappointed to learn that all comments that have been made through the previous engagement periods will now be disregarded. Many of the comments that have been made by our solicitor Temple Bright, our residents and Guston Parish Council in previous months are still very much relevant to this design and overall development. It is likely that as we are now on the 3rd round of engagement HMRC will receive a significantly lower number of responses from interested parties, which is in HMRC and the Government’s advantage.
Once the engagement period expires, the design of the scheme will need to be finalised and documents submitted to the Secretary of State in accordance with Article 4 of the SDO (and which will include copies of the representations made).
We note that the documents for submission for “relevant approval” under article 4 of the SDO are not required to be shared with any of the engagement parties. In the interests of transparency and fairness, we requested on numerous occasions in writing, including through our solicitor on 3 December 2020, that you commit to share any documents submitted to the Secretary of State under article 4 with Guston Parish Council and all other engagement parties and confirm that if any responses are made in relation to those documents they will be considered. This request has never been confirmed or agreed to and we are therefore raising this significant request again.
Transport Statement
We note that the SDO requires a Traffic Statement to be submitted. Transport Statements are a ‘lighter-touch’ evaluation to be used where this would be more proportionate to the potential impact of the development (ie. in the case of developments with anticipated limited transport impacts).
Guston Parish Council is very concerned about the traffic impact of the Dover IBF and the traffic impact to the neighbouring DEFRA site which we have been led to believe will also be housed on the White Cliffs Business Park. Congestion on the A2 at the Duke of York’s roundabout, with the A258 and then the Whitfield roundabout is already an acknowledged issue by KCC and DDC and causes much disruption especially at peak times. We are anticipating a significant rise in congestion on all these road networks, along with additional congestion at the White Cliffs Business Park. If we are correct many established businesses will be affected.
In addition, we are also anticipating HGV’s that visit the DEFRA site to continue their route through the business park past Tesco, the Rock Rose restaurant and back onto the A2. There will be no traffic measures to stop this from happening.
The submission of a traffic statement is grossly inadequate.
EIA
On 8th February 2020 Guston Parish Council wrote to The National Planning Casework Unit to request the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government undertake a Screening Direction under Article 3 (4) of the Town and Country Planning (Border Facilities and Infrastructure) (EU Exit) (England) Special Development Order 2020. We felt that the development at this time was significant in size with DEFRA and HMRC being located on the same site and the overall environmental impact on the local landscape would therefore be considerable.
We highlighted also that the proposed site lies within the Chalk aquifer recharge: groundwater protection zone 3 and it was later confirmed to us by the Department for Transport that it was in fact this reason that DEFRA was no longer to be housed at this site.
It has been suggested that DEFRA will now be housed at an alternative location within the same business park, it will be a neighbouring development. The environmental impact therefore remains significant, and therefore we raise the point that under EIA regulations there is a need to describe and assess the whole development as one.
CJEU in Ecologistas states that: “the purpose of the directive cannot be circumvented by the splitting of projects and the failure to take into account the cumulative effect of several projects must not mean in practice that they all escape the obligation to carry out an assessment when, taken together, they are likely to have significant effects on the environment.”
The SDO requires merely a report which considers the likely environmental effects, this is dramatically inadequate. The information from your engagement leaflet suggests that “The Inland Border Facility proposals are temporary under SDO requirements and are designed to ensure no significant long-term environmental effects”, this is simply not the case due to the proposed more permanent nature of this facility.
Future use of the remaining land
Dover District Council declared a climate emergency in Jan 2020 and has the indicated the desire to become a net zero carbon emitter by 2030. Guston Parish Council has therefore introduced Greentech with whom we already have a close working relationship and who, we hope, you will engage with to lease the remaining land, to allow them to install a sustainable and resident friendly solar park.