Review into Dover gridlock over holiday weekend

One motorist said they were stuck in queues for about five hours

A review is set to take place into the "extremely high levels of traffic" in and around Dover and its port at the weekend.

Drivers reported "gridlock" in the town on Saturday due to an increase in traffic trying to get to the port.

One motorist claimed to have been stuck in queues for about five hours.

Toby Howe, head of operations at the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum, said the review would see if any "tweaks" could be made to the systems in place.

He said one of Saturday's issues was that Friday had been "very, very busy" with a "huge number of tourists", so there was a "knock-on" impact.

He added: "What we found was quite a heavy influx of freight, plus Saturday was the busiest tourist day for the Port of Dover.

"So those two things added together meant that there's a huge influx all at once, which unfortunately the road network cannot cope with."

There was a "heavy influx of freight"

In a statement, the Port of Dover said more than 7,000 cars had been booked to cross the Channel throughout the day - and that this was expected to increase to 10,000 in the summer.

A spokesperson said: "We became aware that there was a high amount of non-port traffic in the area, but also that some port-bound traffic did not adhere to the plans in place.

"These circumstances together unfortunately compounded the local congestion."

Mr Howe said the forum would look to see if there were lessons to be learned from the weekend, such as potentially bringing in more resources or changing the traffic management.

He added that a conversation is carried out after every "event".

A forum spokesperson said it would continue to work with the government to find "long-term and more effective solutions to prevent delays on the routes through Kent to Europe".

Before busy periods the port says it works with the forum and partners to establish a traffic management plan.

The spokesperson said there was a "smoother, quicker operation" on Sunday.