UK port declares 'critical incident' as long queues snarl travel plans

By Muhammad Mussa

LONDON, UK (AA) – With the British summer travel season in high gear, a major UK port declared a “critical incident” on Friday as travelers faced a massive traffic gridlock and queues of up to six hours.

The Port of Dover in southeast England blamed the mess on “woefully inadequate” staffing of French border control booths.

“Despite the Port of Dover and key stakeholders within the Port community preparing over several months for the busy summer period, we are deeply frustrated that the resource at the French border overnight and early this morning has been woefully inadequate to meet our predicted demand,” the port authority said in a statement.

It said the port had “increased French border control booths by 50% as an interim measure for the summer and has improved traffic systems to build resilience and capacity in time for the summer.”

“Regrettably, the Police Aux Frontieres (PAF) resource has been insufficient and has fallen far short of what is required to ensure a smooth first weekend,” the statement said.

It said officials will continue to work with local authorities, as well as the British government and French border police, to clear up the delays and ensure that traffic across the Channel resumes smoothly and efficiently.

Any shortages in French border staffing have a direct impact on the Kent port, as officials from across the English Channel man border where travelers wanting to cross the Channel have to meet French entry requirements before crossing and entering France.

Earlier this week, residents of Kent were warned by local authorities of the expected uptick in traffic as the summer getaway begins, and told to prepare their journeys in advance to avoid significant delays and traffic.

“This is the busiest holiday getaway weekend and everyone has been planning really hard for it to try and make sure we haven’t got these sorts of delays,” Dover’s MP Natalie Elphickle said.

“What happened is quite simply the French border officers didn’t turn up to work and they were supposed to be fully manning all of the passport control booths to meet the holiday surge and they didn’t.”