Port of Dover queues clear after outage weekend

Queues at the entrance to the port of Dover have cleared after a weekend of disruption, according to one of the ferry companies affected by the delays.

Coach passengers were forced to spend hours waiting to enter the port, be processed, and board the ferries over the weekend.

This morning P&O Ferries tweeted: “No more queues at the Port of Dover entrance. We apologize for the wait times experienced this weekend.”

Earlier, the company said all coaches had passed through the buffer zone, where advance information was taken from passengers, before boarding the next crossing to Calais after border control.

Passengers next to their coaches as they wait to enter the Port of Dover in Kent on Sunday (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Passengers next to their coaches as they wait to enter the Port of Dover in Kent on Sunday (Andrew Matthews/PA)

On Sunday evening, the Port of Dover said around 40 coaches were awaiting immigration processing and a wait of around four hours was expected.

At 2:30 a.m. Monday, the port also said the A2 and A20 access roads were “operating normally.”

The logistics company DFDS tweeted that the buffer zone and border controls had been cleared at midnight.

The disruption at the port was first reported on Friday when the port declared a critical incident, saying the delays were due “to lengthy French border processes and high volume.”

Home Secretary Suella Braverman rejected suggestions that Brexit could be the cause of delays at the port, as passengers endured long queues and canceled trips.

Trainers wait to enter Dover Harbor on Sunday (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Trainers wait to enter Dover Harbor on Sunday (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Braverman said it would not be fair to view the delays as “an adverse effect of Brexit”.

She told Sophy Ridge on Sky News on Sunday: “What I would say is that at critical times when there is a lot of pressure going across the Channel, whether it’s the tunnel or the ferries, then I think there will always be a pullback. and I just urge everyone to be a little patient as the ferry companies work their way through the backlog.”

He suggested that, overall, “things have been going very well at the border.”

Additional departures have been made overnight and port officials said they had been “working around the clock” with ferry operators and border agencies to try to get coach passengers on their way.

More than 300 coaches left the port on Saturday as the backlog of cargo was cleared and tour cars successfully processed.

Coaches await in Dover on Sunday night (Gareth Fuller/PA)
Coaches await in Dover on Sunday night (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Shadow leveling secretary Lisa Nandy said “a variety of factors” have caused the delays, but claimed the government had not planned what would happen after Brexit.

She told Sophy Ridge on Sunday that ministers “had known for a long time that they needed to make sure there were resources to deal with additional paperwork checks.”

He added: “I really feel sorry for the families who are trying to get away for the Easter holidays, the people who have been caught up in this chaos, the people whose livelihoods are threatened.

“It didn’t have to be like this.

“If the government would get a grip on itself, get down to business, and start doing its real job, all of these things could be avoided.”

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