Kent’s expensive border is being redesigned again
Plus 300 jobs at risk in Dover and Manston, another Bobbing delay, fire service cuts and a rare Kent fungus
Kent has spent tens of millions building, closing, and abandoning parts of the post-Brexit border, and another redesign is already underway. Plus KCC ends translation services, 300 jobs at risk in Dover and Manston, another delay for 2,500 homes near Bobbing and warnings of fire service cuts.
Catch up
Kent wants electric ferries, more homes and new businesses. First, somebody needs to work out how to plug them all in. A study of a fully electric Dover ferry fleet estimated average demand of 60 megawatts, against the port’s current 4.5MW connection. We examined how electricity capacity is shaping what Kent can build, and the awkward choices involved in expanding a network that everybody needs but few people want built near them.
Meanwhile, ministers are promising Kent more control over transport, housing and investment, potentially through an elected mayor. The catch is that the county’s future councils must be 'compatible' with having one, a requirement nobody has yet explained. Our briefing untangled the announcement, the formal withdrawal of the four-council plan and KCC’s growing enthusiasm for a regional authority it previously argued would be unnecessary.
We also returned to our visit to Spellbound in Sandwich, where Steven had found author Felicity Epps signing books and naturally went over for a chat. The Broadstairs writer’s debut gothic mystery became a Waterstones Book of the Month before she had quite got used to being published. She spoke to Steven about Victorian séances, writing for younger teenagers and following an unusually successful first book with a second.
Steven Keevil
Kent’s expensive border is being redesigned again
When the government needed somewhere to put part of Britain’s post-Brexit border, a car park at Ebbsfleet International became a customs facility. The Treasury puts its construction cost at £4m. According to HMRC figures reported by the Guardian on Sunday, closing it cost another £6m.
The facility operated from January 2021 until November 2022. It was always intended to be temporary, and HMRC said Sevington near Ashford and Holyhead in Wales could handle the traffic without it. That explains why it closed, if rather less about why shutting it down apparently cost more than opening it.
Ebbsfleet is one stop on a surprisingly extensive tour of Kent’s discarded border plans. Further east, land was bought for a facility that never materialised, and premises were fitted out for checks that never began. Now Sevington, where substantial work actually happens, faces changes of its own.
For a county routinely reminded of its importance as Britain’s gateway to Europe, Kent has spent a lot of time accommodating revisions to the design of the gate.
The challenge was that Dover and the Channel Tunnel were built to keep goods moving. Brexit introduced paperwork and inspections requiring space the crossings could not readily provide, so parts of the border spread inland. Customs procedures and the separate checks on food, animals and plants acquired sites around the county.
Some became unnecessary before they opened. In its 2024 examination of the border, the National Audit Office identified £62m spent procuring or developing White Cliffs and Bastion Point near Dover, which were later deemed unnecessary under a revised inspection regime.
At White Cliffs, the government bought land and prepared it for an abandoned project. Bastion Point was leased and fitted out for checks on animal products, but never became operational after the government consolidated inspections at Sevington. These decisions predated the current negotiations with the EU. Even then, Kent’s collection of redundant border projects was already growing.
Nor does having paid for a building make using it sensible. Defra estimated that renewing Bastion Point’s lease and operating it for five years would cost around £30m. It would need fresh planning permission and was poorly configured for checking the small vans used in illegal meat imports. Ministers approved an early surrender of the lease.
Sevington is a different proposition. Ashford Borough Council is responsible for checks there on specified food imports arriving through both Dover and the Channel Tunnel. Ashford Port Health said in July that officers had prevented more than 226 tonnes of unsafe food entering the food chain since November 2024. It also reported providing professional development for more than 100 employees. Alongside the buildings, Kent has acquired specialist expertise that takes rather longer to assemble than a ministerial announcement.
The Treasury put the cost of creating Sevington at £154m, including £70m for its border control post. But the work done there is already being rearranged.
HMRC expects customs checks to move to alternative facilities provided by Dover and Channel Tunnel operator Getlink from early 2027, although the exact timing remains unconfirmed. It says government-funded inland customs facilities were temporary, with border operators always intended to provide the infrastructure eventually.
Food and plant checks will remain at Sevington until further notice. Their future depends on the proposed UK-EU agreement on agricultural and food trade, which would remove much of the routine checking and certification for trade with the EU.
For businesses exporting food through Dover or the tunnel, less bureaucracy would be welcome. Logistics UK estimates savings of £150 to £250 per affected export consignment, with particular benefits for mixed loads accumulating separate charges. Having bought expensive inspection sheds is no reason to keep requiring unnecessary paperwork.
Ashford Port Health welcomes easier trade too, but the council doing the checking wants to know what replaces it. Its statement last week warned that “removing a check does not remove the risk it was designed to manage.”
It also asks where responsibility for food safety will move, who will pay, how problems will be detected and what happens when something goes wrong. It also wants claimed savings to include any costs passed to councils or businesses.
Defra’s proposed safeguards include shared rules, access to EU agencies and databases, and cooperation against health threats. Customs controls would remain. Easier trade need not mean abandoning protection, but Ashford needs enough detail to plan its service.
An August letter from the Freight Liaison Group complained that repeated meetings with officials had produced too little operational detail about Sevington’s future and the replacement system. The Food Standards Agency’s September board paper records wider concerns about staffing and funding. For the workforce in Ashford, uncertainty has consequences well before the final rules change.
White Cliffs may have at least a second life. An October contract notice shows the Department for Transport examining its potential for lorry parking and electric HGV charging. It is a feasibility study, but those would be useful things to build beside a major freight crossing.
White Cliffs could finally serve passing lorries, while Ashford needs a funded plan for the checks that remain. Both would be welcome results from the next redesign. Kent already has plenty of experience of what it costs to change the government’s mind.
A bit of good news
We've been awarded £43,040 through the government’s Local News Fund.
That’s a lot of money for a small operation like ours. Over six months, it will fund specialist help to reach new readers, grow paid subscriptions, and develop advertising and sponsorship income. It gives us time and expertise to work on things we’ve mostly been fitting around producing everything you read here. There is always another council document.
Our paid supporters make the reporting possible, week after week. This funding will help us find more people willing to join them, and build other income alongside subscriptions. Getting that right means more capacity to follow up on your tips, stick with difficult stories, and give things the time they need.
We know there’s an audience for proper reporting about Medway because you’re already here, reading and supporting it. This is a chance to build on that, so we can cover more of what’s happening in our towns.
In brief
🚆 The Rail Accident Investigation Branch has revealed its findings following a fatal accident at a level crossing between Sittingbourne and Teynham last year.
🚓 A man from Gillingham has been jailed for sending death threats to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.
🤷 Kent County Council has passed a motion to end translation and interpretation services for non-English speakers.
🚘 Two people have been seriously injured in a 30-car crash in fog on the M20 on Saturday.
🪪 300 jobs are at risk at Manston and Dover migrant centres following a change of operator.
🚧 Swale Borough Council has once again deferred making a decision on a 2,500-home development west of Bobbing.
🏘️ 17 new-build shared ownership homes will be converted to social rent after a lack of demand.
🚉 Ticket barriers will be introduced at Margate station to crack down on antisocial behaviour and assaults.
🏗️ A crematorium could be built on a former hospital site in Darenth.
🏥 Kent's first intensive care unit for women with serious mental health issues has opened in Dartford.
🚒 Kent Fire and Rescue Service has warned that service cuts will be necessary next year without additional funding.
🍄🟫 A rare coral fungus has been found on a fallen tree at Wildwood near Canterbury.
🦬 Support is growing for adding Blean Woods to the Kent Downs National Landscape.
Council matters
Meetings this week
- Tonbridge & Malling: Cabinet meets on Tuesday to talk finances, warning flags, and contaminated land.
- Tonbridge & Malling: Planning Committee will decide on 435 new homes in Aylesford and 65 new homes in Kings Hill.
- Tunbridge Wells: Full Council will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the development of Royal Victoria Place.
- Ashford: Cabinet meets Thursday to discuss finances, housing, and digital infrastructure.
- Maidstone: Planning Committee will meet on Thursday to decide the fate of 53 new homes at the ever-expanding Hermitage Park development.
New planning applications
- Dover: 17 new homes in Preston.
- Tunbridge Wells: Screening opinion for solar farm in Lamberhurst.
Property of the week
This week's property is Silverhill, a ten-acre smallholding just outside Bearsted, where £675,000 buys you a fairly substantial chunk of Kent countryside to call your own. Two detached one-bedroom homes sit here: one with a wood-burning stove and a veranda overlooking the fields, plus three stables, an agricultural barn, fenced paddocks, woodland, and a series of ponds. There's even a covered seating area overlooking the water. The whole thing sits in a shallow valley, with Bearsted village nearby and Maidstone only a few miles away. It would be ideal for someone with horses, grand plans for a smallholding or simply a particularly enthusiastic attitude towards owning land. The accommodation is relatively modest, but when your garden is effectively an entire field, it's probably reasonable to spend most of your time outside anyway.
Events
📸 Until 24 Nov - Sakura: A Journey Through Japan // Oliver Bryant’s first solo photography exhibition travels through Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Aomori, accompanied by two Edo-period prints loaned by Maidstone Museum. Creative Maidstone. Free.
🎸 Thu 12 Nov - Firestations // Shoegazey alt-pop from London five-piece. Where Else? Margate // Tickets £10.
📚 12 - 22 Nov - Folkestone Book Festival // Eleven days of talks featuring Sir Tony Robinson, Philippa Perry, Lynda La Plante, Ben Okri, Cory Doctorow and Billy Childish. Various locations, Folkestone. Various ticket prices.
🎸 Fri 13 Nov - Barbican Estate + Dez Dare // Tokyo-formed trio combine experimental rock, noise and Brutalist imagery, supported by Australian electronic punk musician Dez Dare. Ramsgate Music Hall. Tickets £12.50.
🎸 Sat 14 Nov - Railcard + Swansea Sound // New indiepop band plays alongside indiepop supergroup. Ramsgate Music Hall. Tickets £14.50.
🏛️ Sun 15 Nov - Grand Shaft Open Day // Final chance this year to descend Dover’s extraordinary triple-helix staircase, built through the cliffs to connect the town with its Napoleonic barracks. Western Heights, Dover. Free.
Footnotes
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