I noticed last week a sign next to J.11 on the M20 that they are to build a new MSA there.
I do hope it’s going to be more truck-friendly than all the other dumps in the UK!
The situation is now critical in the Kent area,with no parking in Dover anymore,the truckstop just off the A2 closed,Ashford truckstop charging exhorbitant prices for parking and every lay-by and industrial estate in the area full of trucks every night.
And of course there’s Ashford council giving out parking tickets like it’s going out of fashion!
Along with that you have the curtain slashers operating on the A2 and old A20.
Why can’t these people understand,that if you give a good service with reasonably priced (and edible) food and clean facilities then driver’s will keep coming back!
Mind you,it’ll probably be another three or four years before it’s open;
The problem is brilliant in Kent. I got off a late boat over my hours. The first available parking I could find was in Birmingham at the customer, however we had to offload for the safety of the load. Had the whole of the next day off.
If there is nowhere to park just keep it rolling.
I agree Julian, i left m25 with 3hrs 40min on my tacho, to get into Sth Mimms…unknown to me there was a smash on the roundabout…
took me 15mins over my time…
Also left London with adequate time (so i thought) got held up…put 5hrs 31mins on tacho…
do you stop on red route for a 45min break or roll on…
i rolled on to Heston…did me tacho at end of day, never heard a word back…
we need more truck friendly MSA’s not rip off garage forecourts…
i only use Sth Mimms as a last resort…crap food parking gone up…rather a layby with me old camping cooker than stop there
I had a reply today to an e-mail I sent to the developers of the site, Henry Boot.
They confirmed that the new MSA has planning permission for twenty, yes 20 truck parking spaces.
That should be alright then 
It’s maddness not to have parking facilities at Dover that can handle the quantity of frieght coming through, but the land needed for trucks to park can make more money as industrial or housing and anybody trying to develop a new park has to deal with planning regulations and NIMBY’s. Planning law should have a requiment that all industrial land has overnight parking facilities. Go to say the French really seem to have motorway parking sorted with a combination of small parking areas and services with plenty of truck parking.
A few years back (just after the truck park closed) I was in Dover on a Sunday afternoon having a pint (I have a wife there somewhere but not seen her for years).
Anyway, there was a solitary tractor unit parked in an empty car park (the one near the main road); suddenly a car screached in, sweeny style. Two traffic wardens leapt out, one to write a ticket and one to look hard; they climbed up the front of the unit to put a ticket on it then jumped back in the car and were gone (without even looking at the couple of cars and a motorcaravan that were there.
When a council invests this sort of time and money into actively persecuting lorries then I dont think we are welcome.
Some other advice - dont marry a Dover girl, they change their mind every few minutes.
julian:
A few years back (just after the truck park closed) I was in Dover on a Sunday afternoon having a pint (I have a wife there somewhere but not seen her for years).
Yeah, yeah…you buried her under the patio. We know. It’s quite common nowadays.
