Dover delays could be worse than nightmare 14 hour fears as tourists avoid UK

31 January 2024 , 16:37

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MPs heard new post-Brexit checks could pile more misery on holidaymakers (Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Frustrated holidaymakers could face even longer queues than feared in Dover this year - with international tourists already avoiding the UK as a result, MPs heard.

New post-Brexit border controls requiring people to provide fingerprints and photographs are set to come into force in October. Earlier this month Ashford Borough Council in Kent said 14 hour queues are a "reasonable worst case scenario" - but a local leader said the situation could be even more grim.

Roger Gough, leader of Kent County Council, told MPs: "Some of the figures I think you've heard quoted around 14 hour delays are being cited. that does not seem to us unrealistic. In fact, in some ways that could under some circumstances, you had an extra aggravating pressures, it could be worse. Certainly when we go back again to, I think it's the summer of 2022, we were looking at I think it's 15 hour delays at that point."

MPs heard previous long delays at the Port of Dover are having a devastating effect on tourism, with European travel firms excluding the UK from tours altogether. Deirdre Wells, chief executive of Visit Kent, said: "I was at a trade fair with hundreds of buyers from all over the world really keen to feature Kent, but for key markets like Holland and Scandinavia, a number of them has said that they've taken Kent and the UK out of their itineraries because they were worried about congestion."

She went on: "I think any further delays that we might see could be really worrying particularly in the back of a very, very difficult period last year. when we saw up to 19 hours of delays."

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Experts have long warned there will be trouble when the EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) is introduced. People entering the EU will be required to have their fingerprints scanned and a photograph taken to register them on a database the first time they enter a member state.

The Port has previously said it doesn't have enough space to set up the required booths to carry out checks. Tory MP Sir Bill Cash, who chairs the European Scrutiny Committee, said the Government "is just not taking enough interest in this".

He told members: "You've got this massive, great influx of people and you've got an enormous economic opportunity. You've got problems in Dover, because of the space there. I don't know what the answer to that is. Some people might even suggest you start building into the sea. I don't know about that.

"But what I am saying is, there is a really serious problem. And the impression I've got is that the government are simply not engaging."

Dave Burke