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Dover officials have hit back at claims made by the home secretary that it was “not fair” to blame disruption at the port on Brexit.
A spokesperson for the port said that processing times for each passenger had increased since Britain left the EU and it was a factor behind the disruption.
It comes after Suella Braverman said in general “things have been operating very smoothly at the border” and she does not think “this is the state of affairs to go forward”.
“What I would say is at acute times when there is a lot of pressure crossing the Channel, whether that’s on the tunnel or ferries, then I think that there’s always going to be a backup and I just urge everybody to be a bit patient while the ferry companies work their way through the backlog,” she told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme.
Meanwhile, queues at the entrance to the Port of Dover have cleared after a weekend of disruption, according to one of the ferry companies hit by delays.
Dover officials dismiss Braverman’s claim that queues ‘not caused by Brexit’
Port of Dover officials have hit back at claims by the home secretary that long queues at the port are not a result of Brexit.
A spokesperson for the port said the processing time for each passenger had increased since Britain left the European Union, and that this was a factor in the disruption.
Suella Braverman had earlier said that Brexit was not to blame for several days of travel chaos at Dover – insisting that traffic gridlock would not be a regular occurrence on the border with France.
Our political correspondent Adam Forrest reports:
Lack of government planning to blame for queues - Labour
A lack of planning by the government contributed to the large queues seen at the Port of Dover over the weekend, Labour has suggested.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said ministers should work more closely with France to avoid further delays in the future.
Pressed on how the opposition would act differently on cross-channel traffic, as it has suggested it would not to restore freedom of movement with the EU, Ms Cooper described the situation as "a total nightmare for people trying to travel this weekend".
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: "We can’t have this every time there is an Easter holiday, every time there is a summer holiday.
"It is particularly the lack of planning around coach parties and that really affects school children as well."
Pressed for solutions, Ms Cooper added: "I would urge the Home Office, the transport department, to talk with Dover and also with their French counterparts to make sure that we don’t get a re-run of this."
Coach passengers finally get in to Port of Dover after huge delays
Coach passengers who have been stuck in queues of up to eight hours in Dover have finally made it in to the port.
Traffic delays began on Friday and passengers hoping to get away for their Easter break on Sunday night will face a few more hours waiting to be processed at border controls and then get on a ferry.
Full report:
Watch: Simon Calder explains Port of Dover queues
The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder has explained why there were queues at the Port of Dover.
He said that passport checks were slowing down the process and that the scenes at the weekend which “very sadly, could have been predicted”.
Watch the full clip here:
Brexit has made traffic control harder - Port of Dover CEO
Brexit has made managing traffic at the Port of Dover more difficult, its chief executive has said.
Doug Bannister said all passports had to be checked before vehicles could leave the UK for France.
He said this Easter had been busier than last year following the lifting of Covid restrictions. More comments below:
Re-cap: why was there gridlock at Dover again?
Post-Brexit passport rules mean it typically takes 20 minutes to process passengers on a coach – far longer than before, writes travel correspondent Simon Calder.
Read Simon’s full piece here:
Port of Dover queues clear after weekend of disruption
Queues at the entrance to the Port of Dover have cleared after a weekend of disruption, according to one of the ferry companies hit by delays.
Coach passengers were forced to spend hours waiting to enter the port, be processed and board ferries over the weekend.
This morning P&O Ferries tweeted: “There are no longer any queues at the entrance to the Port of Dover. We apologise for the wait times experienced this weekend.”
‘Forty coaches awaiting immigration processing’ at Port of Dover
There are currently about 40 coaches in the Port awaiting immigration processing at the border, tweeted Port of Dover travel. “The current waiting time for these vehicles is around 4 hours.”
‘No longer queues at entrance’
UK’s largest ferry operators P&O Ferries issued a statement notifying that “there are no longer any queues at the entrance to the Port of Dover”.
“We apologise for the wait times experienced this weekend,” it posted on Twitter.
ICYMI: ‘Frustrated’ Dover officials blame ‘lengthy French border processes’ as travellers stranded for over 16 hours
Officials at the Port of Dover say they are “deeply frustrated” about significant traffic delays that have seen thousands of travellers queueing for up to 16 hours as the Easter getaway begins.
A critical incident was declared overnight on Friday, and operators P&O Ferries and DFDS Seaways reported delays to ferry and coach services, citing bad weather and hold-ups at French border control as partly responsible.
In a statement on Saturday, the port blamed the delays on “lengthy French border processes and [the] sheer volume” of people travelling.
More in this report:
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2023-04-03 08:20:07Z
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