... AND DOVER DISRUPTION GOES ON AND ON
THOUSANDS of lorries were stuck in gridlock near Dover for a fourth day yesterday as ports were overwhelmed by a perfect storm of Brexit stockpiling, Christmas toys and Covid medical supplies.
The logjam stretched back for ten miles along the A20.
There were also long queues of lorries on the M20 where highways officials tested out a new moveable central reservation to allow HGVs to queue on the 50mile motorway while keeping nonport traffic flowing. The gridlock has been blamed on a deluge of ports traffic as companies stock up ahead of Brexit.
This has combined with the usual pre-Christmas build-up and the additional transport of medical supplies and PPE related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It has placed Britain’s ports under huge strain, with some ships reportedly now bypassing the UK altogether and heading instead for Rotterdam. Felixstowe, which handles 40 per cent of UK container traffic, has been hardest hit, but problems are spreading to Southampton and London Gateway.
Companies i ncluding Apple, fashion chains Primark and River Island, sofa firm DFS and the folding-bicycle manufacturer Brompt o n have warned t hat t hei r products now face lengthy delays and may not arrive for many weeks. Lorries were also queuing for ten miles in Calais on the French side of the Channel yesterday. French officials said there has been 50 per cent more heavy goods vehicles on the roads leading to the Channel crossing in the last three weeks.
‘Normally we have about 6,000 trucks, but now it is about 9,000,’ a port official told the Guardian.
According to Eurotunnel, delays around Dover are expected to continue for the next three weeks.
Its contingency plans are based on a No Deal Brexit scenario involving 7,000 lorries queuing in Kent. The four-day trial of the new M20 barrier will be used to change the layout of the motorway to allow cars to travel up the wrong side of the opposite carriageway and avoid getting caught up in t he l orry queues around t he Port of Dover or the Eurotunnel at Folkestone.
The barrier is part of Operation Brock, a series of measures that aims to keep the M20 open in both directions during busy periods af t er Brit ai n l eaves t he EU on January 1.