Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of level crossing closures in East Tilbury on the ability of emergency services to respond to incidents.

Responsibility for level crossings and their operation lies with the infrastructure manager – in this case, Network Rail – who are aware of the downtime issues at East Tilbury crossing. In line with their duty under safety legislation, Network Rail must operate the crossing in a way that ensures no one is put at risk. This means that the barriers are automatically lowered when trains are approaching and will only open when the crossing is clear of all trains, to avoid the very significant risk of a collision.

Concerns about the current volume of train traffic through East Tilbury, as well as plans to increase the number of freight services here, have been raised by local residents and Network Rail are currently listening to the feedback from the community.