Craig welcomes Conservative Government’s new ‘Plan for Drivers’ measures

Craig Mackinlay MP has welcomed new measures by the Conservative Government to tackle anti-driver road schemes and overzealous traffic enforcement, helping to reduce journey times for motorists as part of its long-term Plan for Drivers.

The South Thanet MP and Chairman of the pro-motorist All Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Fuel UK had previously successfully lobbied against a so-called Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) scheme Kent County Council briefly introduced in Albion Street, Broadstairs - much to the annoyance of local residents back in the autumn of 2020.

Draft statutory guidance for councils has been published on LTNs setting out that there must be community engagement and support for proposed schemes to ensure every LTN has local consent before it is implemented. The guidance - which will come into force this summer - aims to prevent councils having to reverse poorly implemented or locally unpopular schemes, as occurred in Labour-run council areas in Jesmond, Newcastle and Streatham Wells, London, often at significant cost.

Councils are also receiving strengthened guidance on setting 20mph speed limits, reminding them they should only be used in sensible and appropriate areas such as outside schools, and where safety and local support is at the heart of the decision. Alongside driving schemes, consultations are being launched to tackle overzealous enforcement and prevent local councils from turning drivers into ‘cash cows’ by profiting from traffic restrictions.

Meanwhile Welsh Labour are spending £40 million to roll out blanket 20mph speed limits which will cost the Welsh economy billions and is causing huge disruption to drivers, while also refusing to build any new roads, taking the nation back to square one. In London, Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan is raising millions of pounds every month through his ULEZ expansion, which unfairly targets businesses and those on the lowest income with a £12.50 tax every time they want to use their car.

Craig Mackinlay MP said:

“People across Thanet rely on car journeys every day to get to work, visit the shops, and see friends and family. So, I understand the frustration when those journeys are delayed by unwanted LTNs and 20mph limits.

“That’s why I successfully lobbied Kent County Council to promptly remove the ill thought out traffic scheme they previously imposed on residents in Albion Street in Broadstairs.

“This new guidance from national Government will allow local authorities to find workable ideas to address congestion issues in and around Thanet, while ensuring that the views of local residents form the backbone of any future plans.”

Transport Secretary, Mark Harper MP added:

“We want local people to have their voices heard, and any traffic schemes to have the consent of those they impact.

“Well thought out schemes, like 20mph limits outside schools, can make our roads safer, but we are raising the bar to help ensure all traffic schemes work for everyone in the community.

“We’re on the side of drivers, and these latest measures show we’re getting on with delivering what we promised in our Plan for Drivers – making their lives better, fairer and cheaper, and helping people travel in the way that works best for them.”

My regular update

It’s been some time since I’ve penned my regular update for you.

Many readers will know that, at the end of September, I was rushed into hospital after feeling very unwell at home the preceding day. I was diagnosed with Sepsis and placed into an induced coma with multiple organ failures shortly after. Treatment by the NHS has been exemplary and I’m extremely lucky to be alive. I can’t thank my doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals enough for the care I’ve received. The road to recovery is underway which has included some extreme surgery. I’m sure I’ll have lots more to say about the experience over the months ahead. For now, I’d like to send my heartfelt thanks to the many constituents who have sent their good wishes. I’ve been overwhelmed by the kindness of friends and strangers. Thank you all.

The antics of some of the opponents of re-opening Manston Airport have continued. Hopefully not for too much longer. A single justice of appeal will decide whether the application for permission to appeal be granted after previous legal machinations at hearings in September and October were unsuccessful. The people of Thanet have voted overwhelmingly in three General Elections for candidates that support the re-opening Manston Airport. Investment in that airport will be the single biggest East Kent has received since the Channel Tunnel. Once re-opened, the Airport has the capacity to create hundreds and then thousands of jobs in airport-related businesses in an area which perpetually lags behind the rest of the South East.

The ongoing issues concerning the Port and Harbour at Ramsgate continue, frustratingly, to raise more questions than answers. But the establishment of the new Partnership Board to oversee the implementation of the various government supported Levelling Up projects hopefully means progress can be demonstrated in the coming months. Reports are that progress is also being made on the possibility of hosting the Tall Ships Regatta and Festival, led by the Ramsgate Regeneration Alliance with the support of the Ramsgate Society.

Great news that the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill is progressing through Parliament. Stopping once-and-for-all the foul and unnecessary export of live animals, a totemic issue for me that I’ve raised repeatedly in Parliament. This Bill delivers on another key manifesto commitment – only possible now we’re out of the EU.

Whether Christmas for you is a deeply religious time, a time to be spent with family, or one of indulgent festive fun, I wish you all the compliments of the season and a very happy 2024.

My regular article

All will know me not to be one for holding back. I say it as it is across many topics. I examine issues with the odd mix of experiences and training that I’ve had across too many decades. To have a degree in Zoology and Comparative Physiology and then to become a Chartered Accountant is indeed slightly peculiar but allows me to look at scientific issues with the cool head of cost and plausibility.

This is why I’ve become so involved with the analysis of the Net Zero project and my concerns that we won’t improve technology or encourage the public by simply banning things. Great products sell themselves. I always give the example of a smartphone. We didn’t need to ban the Motorola or Nokia to encourage us to buy the new generation of phone that nearly all of us now use – we bought them because they had functions we wanted at the right price. We made a consumer choice on the back of technological advances that capitalism is singularly good at creating. You’d have to be of a certain age to remember the East Germany produced Trabant car, the supposed pinnacle of small car engineering across the old Eastern Bloc. State direction of production rarely ends well. This is at the heart of my concerns about the nudges and bans proposed on the route to Net Zero. Technology will lead the way with consumer products we want at a price we can afford.

I am therefore pleased to be part of the commonsense victory to allow the sale of new petrol and diesel cars beyond the proposed 2030 date for them to be banned now pushed out to 2035. Most of our friends and competitors around the world from the EU to Australia and many US States are on the 2035 date, so what is proposed, merely to align with an international norm is hardly revolutionary. Similarly with gas and oil-fired boilers. Doubtless heat pumps will improve, perhaps, but unlikely, hydrogen boilers will prevail, or if scaled up nuclear ambitions can be realised, pure electric heating might be the simplest way forwards. Investment is being made into Carbon Capture and Storage; if this is achievable at scale and moderate cost then the existing way we live can remain unchanged for a long time yet until the fossil fuels run out. No-one doubts the end point, if not because of the finite amount of fossil fuels within the earth, that we will need to evolve to a new source of power. I have been putting my points about how and the time-frame.

These national issues translate entirely into how we all live in the South Thanet Constituency. It’s why I take an interest in these things.

I am seemingly at odds with the new Thanet District Council leadership about ferries and the Port of Ramsgate. I hope that after all these years, the fits and starts, promises and dreams, that indeed a ferry can be found. Of course I do. We’ve been waiting ten years since the expensive failure of TransEuropa ferries in 2013. Dover has new capacity; older, smaller ships have been taken out of service on the basis of economies of larger vessels – carrying more for little increase in fuel use, and the obvious savings in numbers of crew across fewer bigger ships rather than a larger number of smaller ones. But what do I know? A fellow MP, a senior Minister, wants to replicate what we’ve been doing on the Ramsgate Regeneration Appliance over these past years – bringing together local groups, engaging the public, liaising with potential external investors and bringing a commonsense reality check to plans.

I can hardly bring my regular article to a close without expressing my great joy that a further legal impediment to Manston’s aviation future fell away last week with the High Court’s refusal of a limited judicial review application by local campaigners. I’ll say it again, RSP’s Manston proposals come at no cost to the national or local taxpayer, it will achieve success or otherwise on the strength of its business plan and ability to attract new customers. Levelling Up Fund grants, of which the £20m received from central government can do so much for Ramsgate and other grant funds for the rest of Thanet (now totalling £50m) are great news but to have private investment of many hundreds of millions from entrepreneurial investors is to be doubly celebrated. A great week for Thanet and East Kent, and my thanks to RSP Strategic Partners for seeing it through when others may have folded and walked away to other jurisdictions which welcome investment more warmly. We need a revolution of our planning and judicial system else we will simply be left behind internationally with a big negative tick in the UK plc box saying ‘don’t bother, it’s just too hard to get things done’.

Embassy Truck Park in Sandwich to receive £150,500 to improve the site for lorry drivers

The Government have confirmed that the Embassy Truck Park on Ramsgate Road in Sandwich will receive £150,500 from the first tranche of the HGV Parking and Driver Welfare Match-Funding Grant Scheme which launched in November 2022. The scheme provides match funding to support Lorry Parking operators to improve HGV driver welfare and means that the projected value of improvements will be in excess of £300,000.

The Minister for Roads and Local Transport, Richard Holden MP, confirmed that successful bids for the first funding window will result in approximately £19 million investment in improvements with £8 million Government funding, leveraging £11 million of industry investment. Tranche one will deliver around 660 additional HGV parking spaces nationally.

Craig Mackinlay MP, commented:

“This funding is very welcome and will mean improvements to toilets, shower facilities and rest areas, lighting systems, CCTV and security, as well as additional parking spaces. For too long UK facilities have lagged behind what is offered abroad leading to use of lay-bys and haphazard overnight parking causing aggravation to communities across East Kent.

“Welfare facilities and security for our HGV drivers is of the utmost importance at what is a challenging time for our road hauliers, especially as we need to encourage a new generation of heavy goods drivers into the industry. Poor facilities have undoubtedly detracted from this as a career choice."

Roads Minister, Richard Holden MP, added:

“Craig has been campaigning hard for this and I’m glad that Embassy Truck Park now has a significant capital sum for a safer, more secure, lorry park to improve driver welfare, reduce crime with greater security and ensure there are better places for lorries to stay when they need to stop, rather than at the roadside.”

A second bidding round will commence in early Autumn 2023 and further information on application procedures and priority themes for this round will be available on gov.uk in due course.

My regular update

Parliament returned last week with something of a bang. The unbelievably weighty and complex 420 page Energy Bill returned from the Lords on Tuesday for further consideration known as Report Stage followed immediately by Third Reading. Thereafter, as it was a Bill originating in the Lords, the Lords will have a final opportunity to either agree or refuse the amendments coming from the House of Commons. In the event all amendments passing back to the Lords were Government amendments, no other amendments either from myself, the various opposition parties and other Conservatives were either not selected by the Speaker, not pushed by the originator, or refused by a vote.

I had laid, with others, approaching 100 amendments to this Bill. I have to say I really don’t much care for it. I spoke robustly particularly against the future ability for the government to create criminal offences by Statutory Instrument relating to Net Zero. We will see if any final changes are possible in the Lords. I caused a Third Reading division on the Bill, comprehensively lost but I wanted my concerns duly recorded.

On Energy issues, I keep a watching eye on how the UK’s electricity is provided. Over the wonderfully hot weekend we’ve had, electricity use was fairly low at 29-30 GW, doubtless as BBQs were lit and we enjoyed some outdoor life. It was virtually windless both here and across Europe. Solar did quite well despite the ever-shortening days, peaking at 15% of electricity provision on Sunday. Despite 30 GW of installations of onshore and offshore wind around the country, there was barely 1/30th of this potential produced, hovering around 1 GW all weekend and just a few percent of the UK’s electricity needs, electricity itself being a mere 20% of entire energy use. Burning imported pelletised wood (mainly from North America and transported across the Atlantic on diesel powered ships) accounted for approximately 5% with predominantly gas turbine produced electricity, remaining nuclear, coal would you believe, and interconnectors bringing electricity from abroad ensuring that the lights stayed on. Relying on others for guaranteed energy does seem like a fool’s errand as we’ve learnt from Putin’s Russia. It is not uncommon for Winter demand being closer to 50 GW so I am sure you can see the problem with the future energy plan of even greater reliance on renewables. It’s why I am focusing on this issue.

It was with great pride to be part of the successful official opening of Thanet Parkway station, the first new station in East Kent for 100 years. I am pleased to have been instrumental, following a Prime Minister’s Question in July 2021, in ensuring the last tranche of funding to make it happen was made available from government, else the project would likely have failed.

For some in Cliffsend the whole concept of this station is not supported. There are complaints of light pollution and excessive noise by the annunciator. I’m sure we can work together to alleviate these issues now that the concept has moved from a planner’s drawing to reality. Others in Cliffsend are enthusiastic because of the convenience it brings and also with the knowledge that house buyers generally see a local station as a significant plus point. Others moan about the cost of £35m and that it won’t receive the footfall to make the investment worthwhile. I’m always the first, as a former Member of the Public Accounts Committee, to have concerns about costs of government projects. DWP spend on non-pension benefits now amounts to £470 million per day if big numbers of government expenditure turn your head as they do me. President Lincoln’s use of poet John Lydgate’s phrase springs to mind:- “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.” What is unique in planning terms is this: for the first time in my memory, a project being delivered that is ahead of the curve, rather than laggardly behind it. The benefits to the growing Discovery Park, the ability to serve Manston as my preferred future use as an airport, or indeed whatever emerges, and to service appropriate new development and businesses, are obvious.

The pieces of significant investment into Thanet and East Kent are falling into place. We just need to get plans for Ramsgate Port further forward, and I must say at this point, that hoping for a ferry, however nominally desirable is becoming ‘pie in the sky’. I may have concerns about energy policy, based upon our supposed 100% reliance on unreliable renewables but I’m not opposed to the concept that there is a role to play in the mix of old and new technologies to make up the jigsaw of the whole. And so I am looking at more exciting job creating opportunities around the ‘green hub’ proposal as part of the Levelling Up £21m allocated to Ramsgate, concentrating on skills in the new energy sector which are not being met. I hope to bring together a new consortium, with even more funding to put on the table to put to the Thanet Levelling Up board and start to turn the page on a costly but redundant port facility.