STILL GETTING CAUGHT IN QUEUES 30 YEARS ON...

Operation Stack first came into use more than 30 years ago.

It is usually used during times of severe weather, industrial action or fire or derailments in the Channel Tunnel.

The black and white photograph, taken on February 8, 1988, shows lorries queued up on the M20 because of a docks strike in Folkestone. It was one of the first times the queuing system was introduced.

The 1988 scene stems from a countrywide National Union of Seamen strike that began that January 31, in support of 161 crew sacked by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company for refusing to accept new terms and conditions.

After three days of stoppage the NUS bowed to a High Court order to end the action but individual groups of seamen defied the union’s call to return to work.

With the action continuing, tailbacks of up to 300 lorries built up in roads to ports up and down the country.

Protests shifted to more localised concerns and there was a bitter struggle between

P&O seafarers and management at Dover. Folkestone, which then had a ferry service to Boulogne, also suffered a knock-on effect.

The M20 in 1988 was closed for 14 weeks between Junctions 9 at Ashford and 13 at Folkestone.

Capacity to store lorries was limited because the motorway between Junctions 8 and 9, then locally called the Missing Link, had not yet been built.

In the following years Operation Stack has recurred, causing chaos on east Kent’s roads.

Neighbouring main roads are clogged up as drivers search for alternative routes.

Before last week, the system was most recently used during the summer of 2015, causing chaos to motorists in Kent when it was in force for more than 30 days due to disruption at the ports, caused by strikes in Calais.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: The first lorry queue on the M20, caused by the docks strike at Folkestone in 1988 and right, Stack’s back causing misery last week