Ferry passengers faced travel chaos at Dover with holidaymakers hit by two-hour queues as early summer holidays got underway.
Long lines of vehicles were seen snaking back towards the seaside town on Friday, with port authorities warning passengers of wait times of at least 120 minutes for cars and coaches.
Those who missed their departure time would be accommodated on the next available service, the port said.
Schools across the UK are due to start their summer holidays around Friday 21 July, but as dates vary between state and private schools, many families appeared to have made an earlier dash on Friday.
Vehicles queue for ferries at the Port of Dover, Kent, where passengers are facing up to a two-hour wait for checks by French border officials— (PA)
One Twitter user became stuck behind a lorry, rendering their day trip to France cancelled.
“Lorry stuck trying to turn around … massive queue either side. No French day trip today now for us”, they wrote, sharing a photo of their stationary view behind the vehicle.
“We’re sitting in a queue that hasn’t moved in the last 90 minutes”, another wrote. “So if you have any alternative to travel through Port of Dover then you should take it ... we are expecting another 90 minutes further wait if lucky. French sent enough customs/passport staff for winter Wednesday.”
They later added that the French customs staff increased their number of open booths to five to try to speed up processing. “So only 60 extra minutes in the end ... Just 2.5 hours to get through.”
One passenger was left waiting for over 170 minutes.
“My coach reached Dover city/port entrance at 12.25pm and am still in the coach waiting to be processed”, they tweeted at 3.15pm.
“The wait time has been 170 minutes and counting ... Not sure if the times have reduced.”
Dover is experiencing a high volume of tourist traffic with passengers beginning the summer getaway early and heavy freight traffic— (PA)
Holidaymakers last faced lengthy queues at Dover over the Easter weekend, with some passengers stuck on coaches for more than 10 hours.
Delays in processing passengers have been blamed on French border officials carrying out extra checks and stamping UK passports following Brexit, something which home secretary Suella Braverman previously denied.
“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”, Ms Braverman said.
Delays in processing passengers have been blamed on French border officials carrying out extra checks and stamping UK passports following Brexit— (PA)
“At acute times where there is a lot of pressure crossing the Channel, whether that’s on tunnel or ferries, then I think there’s always going to be a back-up.”
Doug Bannister, chief executive of the UK’s main departure point for continental Europe, has previously denied claims by senior Tory MPs that French officials were responsible for queues during the Easter holidays.
He claimed that the Police aux Frontieres had been “very, very good” at responding to the build-up of traffic, noting that “there is clearly no doubt that the processing through the border takes more time now than it did before.”
“When they knew that we were having challenges, they actually turned up with more people to better support us”, Mr Bannister told The Independent.
“Having said that, [the new border arrangements are] still a constraint on getting traffic across the short straits.”
