Plans to transform the M26 into a post-Brexit lorry park have been dropped.

The decision not to proceed with the £5 million scheme has been welcomed by Tonbridge and Malling MP Tom Tugendhat - who has been a vocal critic of the proposal to queue trucks on a 10-mile stretch of the motorway.

Highways England began work to prepare the carriageway in 2018 on the understanding lorries could be parked there in the event of disruption at the Port of Dover or Eurotunnel following a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Tugendhat later received an apology from ministers after he was kept in the dark about the proposals and the potential impact on neighbouring communities.

Although pleased that required capacity for holding freight bound for the Channel ports will now be created on the M20, the parliamentarian nonetheless expressed his dismay at the money wasted on the M26 plans.

"I’m delighted to hear it," Mr Tugendhat said. "The impact of this on many local communities would have been enormous, and Platt and Borough Green and places like that would have seen a massive increase in traffic and no doubt other disturbances, so I'm very, very pleased that finally they have listened to us and listened to the local community and made the changes that we need.

"We know that the lorry park would have first of all caused an increase in pollution and caused a massive increase in traffic on the A25, we know that it would have other impacts including probably fly-parking, as it were, on other roads.

"That would have almost certainly have caused a major impact for many local people and schools and businesses.

"We have been very, very clear about this right from the beginning even before they started doing the works, so I have to say I regret that they spent the money, I wish they had spent it on more useful things, junction 5 slips would have been a very useful thing to spend the money on, and I wish they had spent it there instead."

Around £5 million had been spent the M26 plans, as part of the overall Operation Brock planning which prepared for the impact of a no-deal crash out of the European Union.

Work on readying capacity for the parking of freight on the M20 closer to the coast - including a moveable barrier to manage traffic flows and parked vehicles - is still going ahead.

A Highways England spokesman said: "In February the government announced that we would install a new moveable barrier system that can be mobilised quickly to help queue lorries on the M20 if there is cross-channel disruption while keeping the road open to traffic in both directions. Highways England is taking this work forward at pace."

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