A largely empty border facility is “too far away” from the Port of Dover to process travellers heading to the continent, according to highways bosses.
Chiefs at the port want to make more room for new post-Brexit biometric security checks by reclaiming land from the sea and building a facility on the nearby Granville Dock.
But instead of constructing the new site in Dover, there have been suggestions the Sevington Inland Border Facility (IBF) next to Junction 10a of the M20 in Ashford could be used.
The idea was floated at Ashford Borough Council’s joint transportation board meeting earlier this month with the hope it would put the multimillion-pound site to use.
Former Ashford Borough Council leader Cllr Paul Bartlett (Con), who represents Sevington, said the site is “perfectly set up for dealing with coaches”.
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“There is an obvious solution to this if you are looking for space to process coaches outside the port,” he said.
“There are substantial parts that are not being used at the Sevington IBF. Admittedly it is 20 miles from Dover, but it could support the idea.”
But Toby Howe, strategic resilience manager at Kent Highways, said while the suggestion has been noted, it has already been ruled out.
“The trouble is, the French authorities require the security of the vehicle once it has been checked before it goes into the port,” Mr Howe said.
“They would put in a CCTV system between Granville and the port because it is only a mile or so.
“Vehicles could be secure at Sevington, go down the road to Stop 24 [the M20 services at Junction 11] and load on more people.
“I think Sevington is probably currently out of reach for that.”
The new controls, known as the Entry Exit Scheme (EES), are set to come in next year and mean people going to the European Union will have to register their fingerprints and a photograph alongside their passport.
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As a result, it will take longer to process passengers heading to Europe leading to fears it will cause delays on Kent’s roads.
The IBF, which is currently being used for customs checks, was built in order for assessments to be carried out on HGVs transporting particular goods in and out of the UK.
But the government has delayed the introduction of certain border tests four times and it is not yet clear when they will be brought in at the facility.
Aerial images taken earlier this year showed the 230-acre site – which has space for 1,700 lorries – looking deserted.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has spent £13.3m on the construction of the border control post at Sevington, after the site was purchased by the Department for Transport (DfT).
Ashford MP Damian Green (Con) says while he supports finding a use for Sevington IBF, he believes using it to process travellers is not the way forward.
“I think it’s important to use Sevington to the full, but it would be best used for goods coming into this country rather than people leaving it,” he said.
“The facilities are there for the proper checks on food and some other animal products coming into the UK, and when these checks are brought in next year I hope Sevington is the venue used to carry them out.”
An app which could help speed up new EU checks may be developed for part of the registration process before people arrive at the port, but this has not been developed yet.
If Granville Dock is used, the designs could be completed by the end of this year with construction work starting next spring.
Eurotunnel’s owner Getlink is also preparing for the checks, spending £100 million to create a new space where people heading for the continent can register their data.
The company, which operates the Channel Tunnel terminal near Folkestone, has developed technology to process customs controls digitally.
The aim is to get goods crossing the Channel as rapidly as before Brexit.