HAMPSHIRE has been included in a list of areas where the Government can build a Brexit lorry park without needing consent from local officials.

The move comes after Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick gave himself new powers to construct the pens should they be needed to avoid issues at England's ports.

Hampshire County Council is named on a list of 29 local authorities in a statutory instrument laid before Parliament on Thursday, September 3.

The United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union is now less than four months away and the lorry parks could play an important part in plans to limit delays at the borders from January 1, 2021.

An explanatory note accompanying the instrument says: “This Order grants temporary planning permission for development consisting of the use of land for the stationing and processing of vehicles (particularly goods vehicles) entering or leaving Great Britain.

"The development must end by 31 December 2025, and all reinstatement works must have been completed by 31 December 2026."

The instrument includes some restrictions on where the pens could be built, with the sweeping powers not applying to land within a national park, any battlefield, garden or park of special historic interest, a World Heritage Site, a scheduled monument and sites of special scientific interest (SSSI).

It comes after a checkpoint and lorry park was planned to open on the A31 between Winchester and Alresford to hold HGVs in case of delays at Portsmouth International Port last year.

Work was carried out to allow the park to open if Britain crashed out of Europe without a deal.

The Hampshire Local Resilience Forum (LRF) had been preparing for a worst case scenario in the event of a no deal.

Operation Transmission was a multi-agency plan developed to mitigate the potential disruption with the creation of checkpoints on the approach to Portsmouth to prevent the arrival of non-border ready vehicles.