Dover

I have never used Dover Bill, always the tunnel, so can’t speak for Dover lack of facilities, it appears to be the perfect storm, maybe time for a relocation of passed its sell by date port?
I have always found the tunnel a very slick operation, would appear good luck Scottish schools and colleges finish their semesters earlier than our English counterparts.
 
Are the other South of England ferry ports suffering same issues as Dover?
 
runnach said:
I have never used Dover Bill, always the tunnel, so can’t speak for Dover lack of facilities, it appears to be the perfect storm, maybe time for a relocation of passed its sell by date port?
I have always found the tunnel a very slick operation, would appear good luck Scottish schools and colleges finish their semesters earlier than our English counterparts.
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It’s all about the additional checks required now Terry.
Yes 6 French customs officers were 1hour 15mins late yesterday, but the booths are fully manned today.
Dover could cope when checks were simpler, but the additional time needed is causing serious issues.
Lorries are taking an average of 18 hours to get through, it’s a total shambles.
 
Fisherman said:
It just go a whole lot busier.
Apparently Dover lacks enough space to deal with the new customs and passport controls. They added 4 additional booths in what space was available, but in busy times like this it’s simply not enough. Also there are reports of problems at the tunnel, and Felixstowe.
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Dover port asked the government for 33 million in 2020 for more passport kiosks and facilities to cope with more demand. The government said no and gave 33,000.
 
Derekoak said:
Dover port asked the government for 33 million in 2020 for more passport kiosks and facilities to cope with more demand. The government said no and gave 33,000.
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These issues are also taking place at the tunnel, and Felixstowe. Car drivers trying to cross at Felixstowe have spent the night in their cars. And yet our government are attempting to blame the French for this shambles, it’s embarrassing. Ok 6 French border guards were delayed by just over an hour on Friday, are we really to believe that this alone is to blame. They are treating us like idiots.

They have completely underestimated what’s involved in these checks, and it’s obvious our ports cannot cope with them. This is a national disgrace, affecting not only these poor holidaymakers, but important trade with the EU.
 
Derekoak said:
Dover port asked the government for 33 million in 2020 for more passport kiosks and facilities to cope with more demand. The government said no and gave 33,000.
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Yep. Here it is https://www.cityam.com/govt-rejects...s-at-dover-leaving-longer-queues-more-likely/

Covid hid all this but most of us knew it was going to happen. This would have happened in 2020 and 2021 had we not been in lock down or restricted. They couldnt have had more time to prepare. Six years actually now.
 
barryd said:
Yep. Here it is https://www.cityam.com/govt-rejects...s-at-dover-leaving-longer-queues-more-likely/

Covid hid all this but most of us knew it was going to happen. This would have happened in 2020 and 2021 had we not been in lock down or restricted. They couldnt have had more time to prepare. Six years actually now.
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I just think it’s time for us to get in with things, make the best of this situation. Be honest and stop blaming others for what we have created. The fact is we had years to prepare, and it’s clear now that our preparations were inadequate. If I was French reading comments from our government, I would be really angry right now. We need their help, winding them up, will only make matters worse.
The blame for this quite clearly lies this side of the channel, get this sorted asap, and stop all this nonscence.

But let’s spare a thought for all those who have suffered due to this.
 
Fisherman said:
It’s all about the additional checks required now Terry.
Yes 6 French customs officers were 1hour 15mins late yesterday, but the booths are fully manned today.
Dover could cope when checks were simpler, but the additional time needed is causing serious issues.
Lorries are taking an average of 18 hours to get through, it’s a total shambles.
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Morning Bill, I can only speak from our recent tunnel experience, it was plain sailing through French customs, we got pulled over by Brit side to check gas bottle off, which is the norm. I did note cars behind me, I’m guessing these were random checks? No one asked for access to our MH.
I guess the current issues right now is the sheer volume trying to cross the channel.
 
Morning Terry, Yes its obvious we cannot cope with the higher demand.
Heres hoping we will learn from this.
 
Lets see in one or two weeks time when the flow should be reversed. We are able to suit ourselves these days regarding travel so returned before the "rush". One thing I will mention is, when we got to Calais tunnel port and went through the return booths, I pulled up for the checks at the French booth but the operative was sound asleep. Chair reclined and feet upon desk. I revved the engine a bit but no sign of life. Do I hit the horn? SWMBO says, look inside, there are two more sound asleep. Stuff this, I proceeded to the Brit booth and mentioned to the guard, "they are fast asleep back there" to which he replied "Yep, we had heard that laughing. Now I need to go and check my passport as I cant remember if it got stamped on return. :cautious:
 
myvanwy said:
Lets see in one or two weeks time when the flow should be reversed. We are able to suit ourselves these days regarding travel so returned before the "rush". One thing I will mention is, when we got to Calais tunnel port and went through the return booths, I pulled up for the checks at the French booth but the operative was sound asleep. Chair reclined and feet upon desk. I revved the engine a bit but no sign of life. Do I hit the horn? SWMBO says, look inside, there are two more sound asleep. Stuff this, I proceeded to the Brit booth and mentioned to the guard, "they are fast asleep back there" to which he replied "Yep, we had heard that laughing. Now I need to go and check my passport as I cant remember if it got stamped on return. :cautious:
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Indeed . Being able to travel out with peak times is one of the great advantages many (most?) of us on here have .
 
Maybe port boss is inept and looking for a cop out? Anyway, putting things into perspective, the world is being held to ransom by Putin, who also continues to this day to barrel bomb innocents in Syria. Grain being used as a powerful weapon, with no end in sight. And we moan about being held up for a few hours at a port. We have it better than many others right now!
 
runnach said:
Maybe port boss is inept and looking for a cop out? Anyway, putting things into perspective, the world is being held to ransom by Putin, who also continues to this day to barrel bomb innocents in Syria. Grain being used as a powerful weapon, with no end in sight. And we moan about being held up for a few hours at a port. We have it better than many others right now!
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Terry at no time in my life has there ever been no wars, starvation, genocide, or something horrible going on somewhere in the world. Yes the comparison you offer is stark, but if we were to refrain from “moaning” every time something nasty was going on on our planet then we would never be able to highlight injustices that are going on all around us.
I am sure that those who have endured hours of delay will concur that their inconvenience is inconsequential in comparison to what’s going on elsewhere in our world, but that does not and should not preclude them from complaining about what happened to them.

As for the port boss, I just happened to pick that one out of many online. There are many others which draw the same conclusions, who are not employed within any of the ports involved.
 
Fisherman said:
There‘s loads online, I just took this one Steve

https://www.lbc.co.uk/opinion/dover-port-boss-******-delays-travel-chaos/
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The only thing I can see is different Is having to stamp the passport. They had to be checked before...

I think it's other incompetence that they can hide while also having a good remoaner rant. I don't know who "they" is, but I'm assuming the port because they wanted a load of government money to build extra booths but didn't get it.

If it were genuine it would affect every journey, by every means, though every border. It's simply not, so hence I call b0ll0x.
 
st3v3 said:
The only thing I can see is different Is having to stamp the passport. They had to be checked before...

I think it's other incompetence that they can hide while also having a good remoaner rant. I don't know who "they" is, but I'm assuming the port because they wanted a load of government money to build extra booths but didn't get it.

If it were genuine it would affect every journey, by every means, though every border. It's simply not, so hence I call b0ll0x.
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It wasn’t just Dover, the tunnel was affected, and today Felixstowe is the worse affected. I don’t know all of the ins and outs, but I am sure many who have been severely inconvenienced are ****** supporters. Today there was over 1,500 lorries parked up. I would think that the checks involved for them would be much more time consuming.
If you think it’s Bollox, that’s fine Steve.
 
st3v3 said:
The only thing I can see is different Is having to stamp the passport. They had to be checked before...

I think it's other incompetence that they can hide while also having a good remoaner rant. I don't know who "they" is, but I'm assuming the port because they wanted a load of government money to build extra booths but didn't get it.

If it were genuine it would affect every journey, by every means, though every border. It's simply not, so hence I call b0ll0x.
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Its the same at airports which is why there have been longer queues there also, its not just stamping a passport, its checking people, what they are carrying and their details etc from a "third country". This is the French doing what they do for all third countries, controlling their borders. Even if it takes just a minute longer per person the shear volume of traffic which is tens of thousands of people a day is enough to cause this kind of chaos without putting the proper resources that they knew would be required in place. It will be magnified also by freight which now has a mammoth amount of paper work to comply with. Thankfully now much of it is prepared away from the ports but if its not right then it causes further delays.

The clue was in the name why it worked perfectly before. "Free movement" we no longer have it.

Not so smug now I bet, except she probably is

https://twitter.com/x/status/1551206394686218240
 
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