Petition to name Brexit lorry park after Nigel Farage

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage meets locals in Barnsley. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA Wire. - Credit: PA

A petition has been launched to lobby the authorities to officially name a Kent lorry park – being created for those vehicles queuing to access the port of Dover following Brexit – after one of the leading protagonists of the campaign to leave the EU.

A new change.org petition is urging Kent Council to officially name the land, purchased by the government earlier this year in Ashford, after Nigel Farage in recognition of his support for the Brexit project.

The proposals had already been unofficially dubbed the ‘Farage Garage’ by Twitter, but now users want it to go further with official recognition.

The tongue-in-cheek petition, launched on Thursday and already signed by thousands, wants the council to recognise that “without his years of selfish grift, dissembling and misapplied zeal on the behalf of the more gullible voters of Kent this project just would not be happening”.

Launched by Gareth Evans, the petition text explains: “It is fitting that every lorry driver, every commuter and every local resident has a chance to link this fine example of civil engineering to its true hero.”

It continues: “For the foreseeable future everyone should genuinely be able to refer to this diesel soaked Valhalla as Nigel’s Folly.”

Earlier this week the government revealed it was planning to install portaloos in Kent for those impacted by the congestion sparked by Brexit around the Dover port.

Ministers had warned of 7,000 truck-long queues in Kent after the Brexit transition period ends as a worst-case scenario if hauliers fail to prepare for changes to customs rules.

The petition can be signed here.