Government ‘May Have Relied On Google Maps’ To Draw Up No-Deal Brexit Port Plans

“Aspects of these seem to have been pulled together by measuring space available at ports and their connecting road networks in a very basic way,” said Ballantyne. “It’s even been suggested that this has used simplistic measures such as Google Maps, rather than any robust efforts to gather reliable information on the ground. This must be corrected.” 

It comes as nine town hall chief executives part of “local resilience forums” (LRFs) were ready to walk out on Brexit planning talks because Whitehall bosses were refusing to share data on ports planning. 

A document passed to HuffPost compiled by north east councils for the government, marked ‘official/sensitive’, said the Department for Transport (DfT) had also “instructed partners not to share information either”. 

The Commons’ Public Accounts Committee criticised the secrecy of Grayling’s department in November and accused the government of using non-disclosure agreements to ban port bosses from sharing information.

It is also not the first time Grayling has been lambasted over his Brexit planning. 

A live rehearsal of an emergency traffic system for Dover, which was aimed at testing Kent’s road capacity for extra traffic, was branded “a waste of time” by drivers and “too little, too late” by the Road Haulage Association. 

Ministers, meanwhile, have admitted to the LRFs that a no-deal Brexit could mean “reduced availability” of food and a fall in the choice of products. 

Andrew Gwynne, shadow local government secretary, has also written to the government citing “major concerns” of council chiefs.