Port in a Brexit storm

I aM afraId many of the points made by robert hardman about felixstowe port ( Mail) can’t be applied to dover and the Channel Tunnel if there is a hard brexit.

felixstowe is blessed with a lot of space to handle and hold containers and trucks.

I worked in dover Port for more than 40 years and so know it relies on keeping traffic moving through the port and out on to the motorways. as we have seen on many occasions, once the wheels stop turning, the chaos that ensues makes the national news.

The solution may well have its origins in the felixstowe IT system. Its major asset is that it is already proven to work. It is not a Government system, which experience has shown would be delivered late, prove unsuitable or be out of date.

Given the time constraints, the Government should provide funding to terminal operators and their major customers to provide a bespoke system before brexit.

handing this task to civil servants would involve consultations, think tanks and a White Paper or two, which all take time.

The private sector would deliver a solution in several months; if it was up to civil servants, we would still be at the consultation phase.

standing on the white cliffs of dover you can look down on the dover Port roll-on, roll-off operation and appreciate the consequences of what might be waiting not only for Kent but the nation’s economy should things go wrong after brexit.

MICK TEDDER, Dover, Kent.