Dover queues 'worst seen since Christmas 2020'

Traffic disruption seen around Dover is the worst it's been since 2020, one local body has told the BBC.

The Kent Resilience Forum, which manages emergency planning for the county, said it was down to a number of problems creating a "perfect storm".

Toby Howe, the tactical lead for the forum, said bad weather, Easter holiday demand and P&O Ferries routes being suspended had all created congestion.

Broken down trains and custom clearance problems have also contributed.

The Kent Resilience Forum manages Operation Brock, the traffic management plan which allows lorries using the M20 into Dover between junctions eight and nine to use one side of the motorway, allowing other traffic to flow in both directions. It's been extended today to junction 11 to deal with the extra congestion.

Mr Howe said Operation Brock normally has the capacity for around 2,000 lorries, but it's now holding up to 4,000.

"Generally, Operation Brock would deal with any incidents we have at the port and at the tunnel and has been doing so, but this is probably the worst incident since Christmas 2020 when the French closed the borders and we couldn't release any traffic across the channel at all," he said.

On Thursday, Dover District Council said it was prepared to declare a "major incident" in the area if the disruption continued over the weekend.

Easter holiday pressure

Mr Howe said the Easter holiday getaway was adding to the pressure around the port.

Thousands of people heading abroad for the Easter holidays have faced long queues, delays and cancellations already.

"It's the second week of busy tourism with more schools breaking up for the holidays. Overnight and into tomorrow, we will have a high peak of traffic", he said.

"We don't know how many tourists will come down but that will add to the problems we're having."

However, he said there were plans in place to keep traffic moving for cars and holiday-makers at least.

"Generally HGV lorries have the facilities on board so they can be delayed a bit longer than, say, a family of four heading on their holiday so we try and make that space to let tourist traffic through, so we've extended Operation Brock beyond its normal parameters", he said.

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• P&O Ferries preparing to restart Dover-Calais route

On Friday, ferry company DFDS reported delays of two hours on its services from Dover to Calais.

The company's director of capacity, Chris Parker, told the BBC tourist traffic through Dover was currently "free-flowing" but he warned the port would be "extremely busy" this weekend.

He added that it would take longer to clear the backlog of freight traffic.

P&O Ferries hopes to get two ships back in action on the Dover-Calais route next week, subject to inspection by the coastguard.

Richard Ballantyne, chief executive of the British Ports Association, also said it would take several days for the disruption to ease.

Freight queues have also been affected by IT problems, Mr Howe of the Kent Resilience Forum suggested.

GVMS is the government's IT system which deals with all the customs, transit and security declarations needed since the UK's exit from the European Union.

HMRC said the system had experienced an "outage" last week, but the problem has now been resolved.

A spokesperson from HMRC said: "Following an outage last week, we have successfully made changes to the HMRC network to allow availability of the GVMS.

"Contingencies will remain in place over the weekend to continue to ensure the movement of goods and allow continued testing. From Monday midday, Goods Movement References will be required for all movements using GVMS."