Shun France, tourists told as Folkestone ‘becomes hell’
‘It’s no fun to spend seven hours in a traffic jam. Glad my summer holiday is booked for England’
‘Dover has now recovered, but Folkestone has become the hotspot of holiday hell’
BRITISH holidaymakers should shun France if the country does not “welcome” them, a former minister has said as tourists faced further delays.
The Channel Tunnel had become the new “hotspot of holiday hell” by yesterday, as families queued for 21 hours to get to the train at Folkestone.
It came as Dover finally managed to clear two days of backlogs, which had been blamed on the French failing to send enough border officials to carry out checks as the school holidays began.
Amid warnings that delays may be repeated throughout the summer, John Redwood MP, a former Cabinet minister, said: “If France carries on blocking entry people should go somewhere else on holiday.
“It’s no fun to spend seven hours in a traffic jam. Glad my summer holiday is booked for England. Go somewhere that welcomes you.”
Therese Coffey, the Work and Pensions Secretary, also criticised the actions of the officials across the Channel, saying that the delays were “unacceptable”.
She told Times Radio that it is “a lot harder to get in and out of France” than Portugal and that systems had worked “a lot more smoothly elsewhere”.
Queues at the Port of Dover were reduced to an hour yesterday, after two days in which holidaymakers endured gridlocked roads and lengthy waits as the summer getaway began.
But the disruption at the port left lorry drivers stuck and led to the closure of the M20 coastbound to nonfreight traffic as part of Operation Brock. National Highways warned of “severe delays” in Kent yesterday.
Jack Cousens, the head of roads policy for the AA, said Eurotunnel-bound motorists were trying to find alternative routes and warned that “many are waiting for several hours” to get to the terminal. He said: “Dover has now recovered, but Folkestone has become the hotspot of holiday hell.
“Drivers heading to Folkestone need to be prepared.”
Last night, the AA said there were signs the gridlock around Folkestone was easing, as the time to reach the check-in desk at the Eurotunnel terminal dipped under two hours.
Kent county council highways manager Toby Howe warned that there were likely to be further delays today
‘We joined the back of the queue for what was the worst 21 hours experienced. We moved metres in hours’
and next weekend and “it’s a possibility” that it will continue over the summer holidays.
Families who set off on Saturday morning were unable to board a train until yesterday, after spending the night in their cars.
Manesh Luthra, a father-of-three, told the BBC that his family had left their Essex home at 4am on Saturday and made it to the Folkestone terminal in two hours, but rather than boarding their 7.50am shuttle they were stuck in traffic for 21 hours.
“We joined the back of the queue for what was the worst 21 hours experienced,” Mr Luthra said. “We moved metres in hours.”
He said there was no information or supplies and other drivers were cutting the queue, adding: “It was savage, I was worried there would be an accident.”
Last night, drivers said that it was still taking around eight hours to get from the A20 in Kent on to a train.
Eurotunnel said it was running a normal service, with processing time from check-in to boarding estimated to be about 90 minutes. John Keefe, director of public affairs, said: “We cannot do anything more than what we are doing.
“We do not manage the roads and we do not manage the motorways.”
There has been a war of words over who is to blame for the backlogs at Dover. Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary and Tory leadership hopeful, said disruption at the port was the fault of French authorities, when asked if Brexit was the reason for the transport chaos.