Brexit! Do you remember when that was top of the hit parade? Those were the days eh? Well, it seems we might be getting something of a resurgence of that nostalgia as we cruise? Slide? Careen? I’m not sure what is the correct word to be honest, but as we move in the direction of the end of the transition period on 31^st December this year.

On Monday, the Government published their plan for the operation of the UK-EU border after that momentous date. It’s a monster of a document, 206 pages detailing all the new bureaucracy and procedures that those moving goods across the border will need to comply with to ply their trades legitimately. We do not yet of course know the precise detail of the processes, that’s still dependent on the outcome of the ongoing negotiations, but government officials estimate an additional 215m necessary customs declarations a year. Some elements of the plans are absent due to ongoing public consultations, and a new consultation this summer on the use of the Smart Freight Service in Kent has also been presaged in the papers.

It is not the only Brexit related-news that the people of Kent might be concerned about. Earlier this week it was revealed that the Government had secretly bought 27 acres of land on the outskirts of Ashford, potentially to be used as a site for the first customs clearance site between the UK and EU for 27 years. Although plans have not yet been finalised as to how the land will be used, it seems likely that in any of the planning consultations that will be needed there will be stiff opposition from the locals.

The first local councillors knew about this was when they were informed on Friday and given letters to rush out to locals, informing them that preliminary clearing and surveying work would be beginning on Monday. Not even the local MP, the Tory Damien Green had been informed of the major project. Local Councillors have criticised the project, with one suggesting that the scale of the site meant it would be like “Operation Stack every day”. Operation Stack is the procedure used to park lorries on the M20 in the event of disruption at the Port of Dover or Channel Tunnel.

Although the Government remains insistent that no decision has yet been made on whether the site will be permanent or temporary, with our exit from the transition period in whatever form that comes under five months away, they’re going to need to accelerate plans soon to be sure that key infrastructure is in place.

To ensure that this infrastructure is in place however will require consultation, and the lack of transparency on this occasion is unlikely to have won them any friends amongst local stakeholders, already predisposed against the use of the site. With the timescale involved, it will be interesting to see how they go about undertaking all the necessary engagement.

The lack of engagement on the infrastructure in Kent is of course not the only place where the Government’s approach has been criticised. Business and industry remain irate at what they see as a lack of engagement with them on important Brexit matters. Even the aforementioned border plan has come under criticism, with industry in many sectors expressing concerns at the opaque process, and more practically, the apparent lack of training of new customs officials (though it is acknowledged 50,000 will be needed, in the last year only 2,500 have been trained).

The issue has also been raised in Parliament, many times, and yet much of the decision-making is still taking place behind firmly closed doors. If the Government wishes to retain the confidence of the public, it must take consultation and engagement seriously, not only to ensure a firm basis for good policy-making, but also on more selfish grounds. It is a (perhaps unfortunate, depending on your perspective) reality that one of the functions of consultation can be the diffusion of responsibility. By being closed and limiting the amount of external input they are receiving, the Government are assuming all responsibility for their decisions. If things go well, then that will be good for the Government. If they don’t, then they have no-one else to blame when the next election comes round.

Whether the Government will come round to this idea remains to be seen. In his Tuesday Topic this week, Rhion considered Michael Gove’s Ditchley Lecture from the beginning of the month, in which he highlighted the ‘deep sense of disenchantment on the part of many of our citizens’. Perhaps this heralds a new approach, where disenchantment is tackled by giving the people more of an opportunity to have their voice heard. The cynic in me says the evidence leans against that proposition. I very much hope that I am proved wrong.