Coach passengers have finally reached the Port of Dover after being stuck in queues for more than 14 hours.
The port declared a critical incident on Friday with coaches particularly affected by the traffic as passengers – including school pupils – waited to be processed at border controls.
Those hoping to get away for their Easter break on Sunday night faced a few more hours waiting to be processed at border controls and then get on a ferry.
P&O Ferries previously advised coach drivers to head straight to the port to wait in buffer zone queues, where advance passenger information (AP) would be taken, and warned there could be a 10-hour wait.
But in a statement on Sunday night, the Port of Dover said the long queues were over.
“All of this weekend’s coach traffic is now contained in the port ready for processing through immigration controls. Coaches have been processed throughout the day along with tourist cars and freight vehicles,” it said.
“The Port of Dover continues to work with the ferry operators and border agencies to get the remaining coach passengers on their way as quickly as possible.”
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It added: “We continue to offer our sincere apologies for the prolonged delays.”
While P&O Ferries tweeted: “There are no longer any queues at the entrance to the Port of Dover. We apologise for the wait times experienced this weekend.”
Earlier, Home Secretary Suella Braverman told Sophy Ridge on Sunday that the situation at Dover was “improving”.
Ms Braverman denied that Brexit had played a part in the disruption and urged patience from holidaymakers while travel companies cleared the backlog.
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“I don’t think that is fair to say that this is an adverse effect of Brexit,” she said.
“I think we have seen we have had many years now since leaving the European Union and there’s been, on the whole, very good cooperation and processes.
“But at acute times, when there’s a lot of pressure crossing the Channel whether the tunnel or the ferries, then I think there’s always going to be a backup.
“And I just urge everyone to be a bit patient while the ferry companies work their way through the backlog.”
The home secretary also downplayed fears that delays at Dover could become a regular occurrence that risks ruining school holiday plans, suggesting things have been “operating very smoothly at the border” in general.
‘Carnage’
Extra sailings were run overnight in a bid to clear the backlog, but by Sunday morning the port still estimated some travellers would face waits of up to eight hours, depending on the ferry operator
The port previously declared a critical incident and said the delays were “due to lengthy French border processes and sheer volume”.
Port officials said they had been “working round the clock” with ferry operators and border agencies to try to get coach passengers on their way and more than 300 coaches left the port on Saturday, while the freight backlog was cleared and tourist cars had been successfully processed.
One passenger, Rosie Pearson, described the travel scenes in Dover on Saturday as “carnage” as she was stuck for 16 hours with her husband and two teenagers.
The 50-year-old environmental campaigner from Essex was travelling to Val d’Isere in the French Alps on an overnight bus.
‘It didn’t need to be this way’
Shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy said “a range of factors” have caused the delays, but said the government had not planned for what was going to happen post-Brexit.
She told Sophy Ridge On Sunday that ministers had “known for a very long time that they needed to make sure that there were resources in place to deal with additional paperwork checks”.
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“The point is not whether we left the European Union or not. The point was that we left with a government that made big promises and once again didn’t deliver,” she said.
“I really feel for the families that are trying to get away for an Easter break, people who have been caught up in this chaos, people whose livelihoods are threatened.
“It didn’t need to be this way. If the government got a grip, got down to brass tacks and started doing their actual job, all these things could be avoided.”
