Motorists face weeks of mayhem at Dover
HOLIDAYMAKERS face weeks of disruption at Dover following France’s decision to beef up security checks in the wake of terror attacks.
Up to 250,000 people were hit this weekend, with some forced to spend two nights in 14-mile traffic jams.
To ease the backlog French border guards relaxed the checks yesterday, eventually resorting to waving travellers through the controls on to ferries without even a glance at their passports.
A solicitor heading on holiday with his family described his annoyance when they finally reached the border checkpoints at the Channel port and found no one there to check their documents. Luke Harrison, 35, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, said: ‘We did see French police – one was having a cigarette, one had his hands behind his head and there was another who didn’t look particularly busy.’
Delays for motorists travelling to Dover eased yesterday but police predicted problems would continue ‘for the next few weeks’.
Chaos erupted because of the large volume of holiday traffic on one of the busiest getaway weekends of the year and tougher French border checks at the port following the massacres in Paris and Nice. But the Port of Dover Authority said the French border controls were ‘seriously understaffed’ from Friday night, which meant traffic jams formed on the A2, A20 and M20.
At the height of the mayhem only three out of seven passport control booths were open, and just one French officer was checking passengers on hundreds of coaches, taking 40 minutes for each vehicle.
Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said: ‘Why have they put extra checks on our border given our security record compared to theirs?
‘We wouldn’t exactly be considered the weakest link when it came to European security checks.’