Lorries headed for Dover were trapped in 20-mile long queues again this weekend with further delays in the pipeline as another wave of holiday-makers prepare to head for the port this week, ahead of the Platinum Jubilee weekend.
The queues began to build on Friday (27 May) with the Kent Resilience Forum reporting that there were around 750 lorries queueing in the Dover TAP and Brock traffic management systems. As the weekend wore on the queues grew longer, with drivers leaving the port reporting 20-mile long queues of trucks on the M20 in the Dover TAP and Operation Brock traffic management system.
The forum attributed the delays to increased Brexit checks, motorhalf-term tourist traffic, holidaymakers arriving too early to beat the half-term surge, reduced ferry capacity due to the continuing suspension of a number of P&O ferries, combined with Liverpool football fans headed for their ill-fated match against Real Madrid in Paris.
Travellers also reported that only two passport booths were open for French officials to check British passports, as required under Brexit rules, creating further delays.
A spokesman for the Kent Resilience Forum warned of further delays this week. He said: “With the peak of the half-term getaway behind us, we’re now looking to Wednesday and Thursday when once again we’ll see a high number of passengers travelling across the Channel – as we head into the Platinum Jubilee break.”
He added that Operation Brock will be removed at the end of the of the Jubilee celebrations, overnight on Sunday 5 June.
MP for Dover and Deal, Natalie Elphicke, raised concerns at the turmoil the queues had caused in and around Dover.
She said: “It is concerning that the half-term holiday getaway brings traffic chaos to Dover once more.
"The TAP road management system has caused overnight misery for two nights running for Dover’s Aycliffe residents. Today also sees rat-running building up through Dover town.
“It’s vital that there is a review of National Highways’ current sticking plaster approach - which increasingly doesn’t work for Dover, Kent or the UK as a whole."
One haulier, whose lorries were trapped in the queues took to Twitter over the weekend to call on her local Erewash MP, transport minister Grant Schapps and the Prime Mnister to take action. Eleanor Walker, who did not identify her company, said on Saturday (28 May): “Are you aware of what is happening in Dover right now? Lorries have been parked up now for almost 14 hours, some maybe more, trying to cross.
“We are a small family-run transport company with trailers full of produce trying to get to France. Anything you can do here?”
She added her drivers were having to run the engine whilst parked up to keep the produce chilled. “It feels like the freight industry is parked and forgotten,” she said in a tweet aimed at Boris Johnson.
