‘Cross-Channel bridge’ cash should be used on UK’s ‘crumbling roads’ instead, says trade body
The industry association for hauliers wants money spent on roads and more lorry parks created, after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson reportedly proposed building a cross-Channel bridge
More cash needs to be spent on repairing Britain’s “crumbling roads” says the industry body for hauliers, after proposals for a cross-Channel bridge were said to have been tabled.
The Road Haulage Association (RHA), which works on behalf of road transport and freight logistics operators, said Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s reported idea for a bridge made for “a great headline in the spirit of British and French co-operation”, but it questioned the “enormous” costs and practical implications.
The idea of a fixed link between Britain and France was apparently raised by Johnson with French president Emmanuel Macron at a summit in Sandhurst, Berkshire, yesterday.
Johnson said “good connections” were important to Anglo-French relations, adding that he believed it was “crazy that two of the biggest economies in the world are connected by one railway line when they are only 20 miles apart”.
Sources close to Johnson said Macron was enthusiastic about the idea of a new link. But the suggestion has been met with sceptical responses elsewhere.
RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said: “We’re better off spending smaller amounts of money on improving our crumbling roads and opening more lorry parks.
“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.”
Meanwhile, the UK Chamber of Shipping said in a tweet: “Building a huge concrete structure in the middle of the world’s busiest shipping lane might come with some challenges.”
This is not the first time a cross-channel bridge has been proposed. In 1985 the Eurolink bridge, a plan by four London businessmen for a road/rail bridge across the Channel, was tabled.
