The Department for Transport (DfT) has been accused of announcing Brexit 'preparation' cash for UK ports that can't be spent in time to actually provide help before Brexit day.
Industry, lawyers and local authorities bemoaned a lack of clarity and organisation behind the latest attempts to prepare the UK for the impact of no deal.
With just two months to go before the October 31 deadline for leaving Europe and no sign of a deal in sight, major transport providers are bracing themselves for border disruption.
No assessment
To try and boost confidence, the DfT committed a further £30m for infrastructure preparations for ports. When questioned on whether there had been assessment of what infrastructure was needed to cope with no deal, the DfT appeared to concede it had not carried one out.
A spokesperson said: 'The priority is projects that contribute to more resilient handling of traffic and freight at maritime ports during possible periods of disruption. Projects need to be in place by 31 October.'
However £15m of this cash is allocated to the speculative proposal of 'longer-term projects to boost road and rail links to ports and ensure more freight can get where it needs to be faster'.
This suggests it may not even be intended for use before 31 October. Transport Network understands further details of these schemes are due to be announced in the coming weeks.
Another £5m is allocated to four key Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) - made up of emergency responders, councils and other public services - in areas with key freight ports.
This will help them 'build infrastructure improvements to minimise any potential traffic disruption at the border'.
The £5m is being split between Humber, Essex, Hampshire Isle of Wight and Merseyside forums for the ferry ports of Harwich, Portsmouth, Liverpool and the Humber ports. Each LRF will receive up to £1.25m from the fund.
Works might include mitigations like signalling, signing, contraflow arrangements and other changes to road layouts or additional HGV parking space.
Are you bidding me?
The deadline will be tight to put this to use, but even more challenging is the announcement that the final £10m will be dedicated to a Port Infrastructure Resilience and Connectivity (PIRC) competition, which only launches on 6 September.
DfT states: 'Successful bidders will be given up to £1m each to deliver infrastructure improvements. For example, this may include providing more HGV parking and container storage space or developing traffic systems to ensure the free flow of cars and lorries.'
Jonathan Branton, head of public sector at DWF, a global legal business, said: 'This funding is not going to be able to deliver any material new infrastructure in advance of 31 October.
'Of course, many other preparations have been undertaken, and only time will tell if they have been anywhere near sufficient to deal with the disruption of changing the trading basis for goods entering from and travelling to the EU.'
He added that the funding was 'only scratching the surface of the task ahead for the UK'.
Reaction
The Road Haulage Association (RHA) chief executive Richard Burnett said: 'Of course we welcome government’s commitment to making ports Brexit ready but, as with all infrastructure improvements, they take time and that is a commodity that we do not have.
'Our concerns are much more immediate. There is still a lack of clarity as regards the paperwork and processes needed to maintain free flowing traffic. If one haulier is found to have the incorrect documents then the knock-on effects will be catastrophic. No amount of infrastructure improvements will be able to cope with tailbacks of traffic resulting from one truck having incorrect or missing paperwork.'
The RHA added traders have not been supported with clear and accurate instructions on how to ensure all shipments are 'border ready'.
Cllr Steve Pitt, deputy leader of Portsmouth City Council, said: 'We are very disappointed that where the government has said Portsmouth should receive a quarter share of the money given to local resilience forums, they are only offering a maximum of 10% [£1m of the £10m competition fund] of this further pot and we are insistent that we should get £2.5m that would be the rightful quarter share.
'Throughout this entire process local councils have been doing their very best to work together and plan for the situation should a no deal Brexit happen, at every stage the government has played catch-up with tiny amounts of money instead of helping us to plan properly from the beginning.
'This new announcement while welcome indicates that they are still catching up and we are all left to wonder if they will finally get up to speed in time for 31 October.'
A DfT spokesperson said ports must submit their bids by 23:59 on Friday 6 September for the £10m and successful ports will be notified on week commencing 16th September with projects starting soon after.
'The Department will ensure that grants are provided to projects that have a realistic potential of delivery within the timescales stated to provide the required resilience by 31 October 2019.'
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