Dover holidaymakers told to expect getaway delays

Some coaches queued for more than 14 hours at the Port of Dover at Easter

Holidaymakers sailing from the Port of Dover are being warned to expect to wait up to two-and-a-half hours to pass border controls.

The Kent port issued the alert ahead of many schools in England and Wales breaking up for summer later in the week.

Enhanced post-Brexit passport checks by French border officials have significantly increased processing times, port officials said.

At Easter the port blamed long processing times for delays for some coach passengers of more than 14 hours.

Installation of an additional booth for French border officials is expected to be completed before Friday, and hour-by-hour traffic flow projections have been created, the port said.

It is also continuing to use a new system for processing coach passengers, involving advanced passenger information checks being carried out away from the main port facility during busy periods.

This was first introduced for the May half-term.

Dover is one of the busiest ports for summer getaways in Europe

The port urged car passengers embarking on summer getaways from Friday not to arrive more than three hours before their booked sailing.

Doug Bannister, Port of Dover chief executive, said: "Our modelling indicates that processing times may be up to two-and-a-half hours during the peak hours of 06:00 to 13:00 during the first couple of Saturdays and Sundays of the summer holidays, due to the extreme popularity of these days."

Operation Brock, a traffic-holding system for lorries queueing to cross the English Channel, was put in place last week on the M20 ahead of the summer getaway.

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