Dover delays today live: Queues at ferry port as Calais Easter holiday chaos begins

Coach operators have claimed their vehicles were “unfairly treated” after thousands of passengers were stranded at the Port of Dover for up to 24 hours over the weekend.

Trade association the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) called for “crisis talks” with the Government, the Kent port and ferry companies to “resolve this mess once and for all”.

Many holidaymakers traveling by coach during the weekend – the start of the Easter holiday period for many schools – were delayed entering the port and being processed.

The queues had cleared by Monday morning but there are fears the congestion could return during other peak periods due to French border officials carrying out extra checks and stamping UK passports following Brexit.

As well as delays at the Port of Dover, a general strike in France in a row over pension reforms is causing further travel disruption.

Many flights to, from and over France have been grounded due to air traffic controllers joining the walkout.

British Airways focused at least 20 flights which would have used French airspace on Thursday.

Eurostar canceled a train in both directions between London and Paris.

Meanwhile, drivers have been warned to expect long delays on popular routes over the coming days.

The RAC is predicting that up to 17 million leisure trips by car will take place between Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Major roads in south-west England and some in the Home Counties are likely to experience the worst congestion on Good Friday.

Queues are likely to be increased by engineering work on the railways, including the closure of London Euston station over the bank holiday weekend.

The more the likes of Suella Braverman try to gaslight us to believe otherwise, the more insult is added to economic injury, Sean O’Grady writes.

In a crowded field, there is no other figure in public life who lives in a bubble of their own making to the same extent as Suella Braverman. Quite apart from the abject folly and failures of her Rwanda policy, her statements around grooming gangs and her economically illiterate attitude to migration, we find she is also suffering from the Brexit Delusion. No surprise, there.

According to the home secretary, who never seems quite on top of her brief, the massive cocks at dover are nothing at all to do with Brexit:

“No, I don’t think that’s fair to say that this has been an adverse effect of Brexit. We’ve had many years now since leaving the European Union and there’s been, on the whole, very good operations and processes at the border.”

The boss of the Port of Dover has contradicted claims by senior Tory MPs that French frontier officials were responsible for border hold-ups at the start of the Easter school holidays.

Doug Bannister, chief executive of the UK’s main departure point for continental Europe, said the Police aux Frontieres had been “very, very good” at responding to the build-up of traffic last weekend.

Tens of thousands of travelers queued for 12 hours or more ahead of ferry journeys to France as a post-Covid surge of coach trips came up against tougher post-Brexit border checks.

After the backlog was cleared in the early hours of Monday morning, Tim Loughton – a former chair of the home affairs select committee – blamed short staffing among French border officials.

Out travel correspond Simon Calder reports:

As Easter weekend gets underway, the RAC is predicting that up to 17 million leisure trips by car will take place between Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Holidaymakers booked on cross-Channel ferries from the Port of Dover are facing delays at the start of the Easter getaway.

There are queues of “approximately 90 minutes” for passport checks by French officials at the Kent port, ferry operator DFDS wrote on Twitter.

The company told passengers: “Unfortunately due to high volumes of traffic there are queues at border controls.

“Once you arrive at check-in we will get you away as quick as we can.”

In response, one passenger wrote: “We have been standing for 50 minutes. No movement whatsoever.”

There are fears travelers at Dover will face more disruption after chaotic scenes last weekend when thousands of people were delayed, reportedly by up to 14 hours.

Delays at the port have been blamed on French border officials carrying out extra checks and stamping UK passports following Brexit.

Port officials said they held an “urgent review” with ferry operators and the French authorities in an attempt to avoid a repeat of last weekend’s delays.

Ferry companies are asking coach operators booked on sailings on Good Friday – expected to be the busiest day for outbound Easter travel from Dover – to “spread the travel” across the three-day period from Thursday to Saturday.

Additional “temporary border control infrastructure” has also been installed.

Transport minister Richard Holden described last weekend’s conditions at Dover as “unacceptable”.

He told Sky News: “I don’t want to see kids on coaches or families in cars queuing up and waiting unnecessarily long periods of time.”

Asked who should apologise for the situation, he added: “The port have made it clear that there is a difficult situation there, but there were some weather-related issues in the Channel as well, and there are going to be pinch points at peak times of the year, and small things can knock those best-ugly plans off as well.”

…to our liveblog where we will keep you updated on the latest on Dover travel.