TRUCKER FURY ERUPTS
Police clash with hauliers seething at new delays in Kent ports logjam
lorry drivers stranded in Kent clashed angrily with police yesterday amid growing anger over delays in clearing the huge backlog of trucks.
More than 5,000 have been stuck in and around Dover for days after France banned anyone from entering without proof of a negative coronavirus test taken within the previous 72 hours.
Hauliers desperate to get home for Christmas complained about lack of information and the slow rollout of rapid testing.
Scuffles between police and 100 truckers broke out at the port and at a disused airfield in Manston 20 miles away, where most of the lorries are parked. Two men, aged 24 and 35, were arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker.
Around 3,800 lorries were still being kept at Manston yesterday, with a further 1,200 snaked along the M20 and surrounding A-roads. There were reports last night that the backlog had reached up to 10,000 across the county.
Around 100 NHS Test and Trace staff sent to clear the immense number of drivers causing gridlock only started arriving in the late afternoon after getting stuck in traffic.
About 170 military personnel from 36 Engineer regiment and 1 Irish Guards were also sent to help administer tests, but didn’t arrive until around 6pm.
NHS staff numbers are due to rise so up to 500 tests an hour can be carried out.
Communities Secretary robert Jenrick said it would take at least ‘a few days’ to clear the backlog.
Food industry bosses warned there
‘It’s all guns blazing – a top priority’
was a real risk of a shortage of fresh produce from next week.
A Government source said officials were working flat out to clear the backlog, adding: ‘The sense of urgency is enormous. It’s all guns blazing. It’s top priority.’
one driver was arrested on a blocked roundabout outside the Manston site yesterday morning after the clash with police. The drivers left their lorries to complain no Covid testing was taking place. They said officials and police had failed to provide any clarity.
As tempers became increasingly frayed, police held back angry drivers chanting: ‘Go home!’
At one point, six officers were needed to bundle one protesting driver into a police van. officers also sent incoming hauliers away from the site to a holding bay on the M20 to ease traffic around the airfield.
However, this angered drivers who were trying to get themselves tested and had been driving around in circles having been told to go to the airport by police at the Port of Dover.
Violent clashes also broke out in Dover, where streets were gridlocked with lorries and vans.
Hundreds of drivers walked along the A20 to the port, shouting: ‘open the border’, ‘We just want to go home’ and ‘F*** you, Boris!’
Some showed police negative Covid tests, but officers said many of them were fake.
Drivers receive rapid lateral-flow tests that give results within an hour. If they test negative they are texted in their cabs and are allowed to enter France within the following 72 hours.
The French demand for test results – which came after President Emmanuel Macron caved in on Tuesday night following a complete ban on road, rail and air arrivals from Britain – will be reviewed at the end of month.
Polish expats travelled to Kent from as far away as Worthing in West Sussex and Southampton yesterday to answer pleas on social media for fresh food and water from their compatriots stuck in the gridlock at Manston.
But as drivers bedded down for a fourth night, many were resigned to spending Christmas in the cabs of their stranded trucks. Greg Baranski, 39, said the distance home to Poland meant he wouldn’t arrive in time, adding: ‘It is too late – 100 per cent now we won’t make it home for Christmas. My family are waiting for me.’ Van driver Emil liveu, transporting parcels to romania, has been stuck in Dover since Sunday
night. He said: ‘I don’t think I have any chance.’ Last night, 150 drivers an hour were being tested by 6pm, with checks set to run all night. Ten testing sites were expected to be up and running by this morning. Sources said all tests carried out last night were negative.
The backlog began to ease last night as drivers honked their horns passing through the gates at the Port of Dover, where ferries started taking the first vehicles to France.