Brits ‘face six-hour delays at Dover this summer’ due to post Brexit checks, MP says
Port of Dover blames French ‘tech issues’, as new border checks and extreme heat could cause chaos for travellers setting off for summer break
Brits should brace for six-hour delays at the Port of Dover this summer, an MP has told LBC.
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Sir Roger Gale, the Conservative MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich, says “in the current kind of heatwave that we've been experiencing, for many people that would be intolerable.”
The delays are inevitable due to the European Union’s Entry/Exit System, which was rolled out in April, Sir Roger suggested.
The new checks require travellers from third-party countries such as the UK to have their fingerprints registered and photographs taken to enter the Schengen Area, which consists of 29 European countries, mainly in the EU.
For most passengers, the process is done at foreign airports – but it is also carried out at the Eurotunnel's terminal in Folkestone, London’s St Pancras Station, and the Port of Dover.
A new Western Docks facility in Dover has been equipped with 84 kiosks to record biometric details and handle the process efficiently.
“The port has delivered all of the infrastructure that we were required to do,” says the port’s Chief Executive Doug Bannister.
“We were ready to go in Easter. We've reclaimed land from the sea. We've invested over £40 million of the port's capital to make certain that it can go as smoothly as possible.”
But Port of Dover officials say they are “still awaiting the technology from the French side,” which has not been activated due to technical issues.
“The kiosk element of it, regrettably, is not the port's responsibility,” argues Mr Bannister. “It's the responsibility of the French and the European Union authorities to deliver the technology that will allow us to open the site.”
It is not known when the kiosks will be operational.
Instead, it means the French authorities are reverting to conducting registration at the existing French frontier controls in the Eastern Docks ferry terminal, which is close to capacity during peak periods.
The crisis comes less than a week before more than 14 million motorists are expected to embark on their summer holidays.
Most schools in England and Wales break up at the end of this week or early next week, while the academic year has already ended in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The Port of Dover expects to have about 7,500 outbound cars on Friday, rising to nearly 10,000 on Saturday.
The end of next week will be even busier, with about 10,500 outbound cars on both July 24th and July 25th.
CEO Doug Bannister says people should expect “repeated episodes of severe congestion,” like what thousands experienced in a few months ago.
The port declared a ‘critical incident' during the May half-term period after waiting times reached four-and-a-half hours.
The French authorities have offered some extra police presence to process passports ahead of the upcoming summer rush.
But Sir Roger Gale MP has told LBC that “won’t make a big enough difference,” especially for those who are vulnerable. "We're talking about elderly people, we're talking about children, we're talking about animals.”
“If we have as is predicted, long traffic jams leading up to the Channel ports, then freight will be disrupted as well,” Sir Roger adds. “There is a possibility of live crayfish suffering and boiling in heat. Those products will perish very fast indeed.”
The Port of Dover is the UK's busiest international ferry port. It handles £144 billion in trade per year, accounting for a third of Britain’s trade with the EU.
The Conservative MP is urging the EU to suspend new border checks until the autumn “when passenger numbers are much lower.” But the bloc has rejected calls to postpone implementation.
The British government is trying to allay fears, promising £20 million of fresh funding aimed at reducing queues. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander recently met her French counterpart Phillippe Tabarot and says she “wants everyone to have the summer holidays they deserve.”
Yet Kent County Council’s leader, Linden Kemkaran, says “until the schools break up and we get the heavy traffic trying to exit the country, we won't really know” whether that will be possible. “Hopefully it won't be as bad as everyone is anticipating.”
Passengers are being urged to follow travel advice and not turn up more than two hours before sailing.