Grant Shapps has admitted the Government doesn't know how long the back log could take to clear
Credit: PAUL GROVER
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Furious lorry drivers stranded in the UK by the French travel ban clashed with police on Wednesday as they vented their frustration at delays in being tested and getting home for Christmas.
Drivers blocked the entrance to Dover port in anger at not being allowed to cross the Channel without a negative coronavirus test from the UK Government.
To get that test – which is self-administered – they had to travel nearly 20 miles to Manston airport but refused to do so for fear of losing their place in the queue to get home.
A mobile testing unit was eventually brought to the protesting drivers from Manston where some of the 3,800 hauliers parked up at the disused airbase also clashed with police.
There were running battles with officers. Three were arrested for alleged assaults on police officers and obstruction of a highway.
Fewer than 200 tests an hour had been completed by mid-afternoon on Wednesday and it was not until 6pm that police finally cleared a way through the protesting drivers to the port, allowing the first lorries to board ferries to France.
The border chaos could last until the New Year as the Army and NHS face a race against time to test 10,000 lorry drivers stranded in the UK after the French travel ban.
Some 170 soldiers from 36 Engineering Regiment and the 1st Battalion Irish Guards joined the 100 NHS staff on Wednesday night to ramp up the testing from 10 mobile units set up at Manston Airport, on the M20 and on the approaches to Dover port.
Ministers were also in talks with their counterparts in France over the possibility of cancelling the scheduled 36-hour shutdown of Dover, Calais and Dunkirk ports from Christmas Eve through to Boxing Day morning.
Both Governments, ferry companies and French unions and port officials are understood to be in favour of operating through the Christmas period to clear the backlog but there was no final agreement on Wednesday night.
Asked if the backlog chaos could be cleared by New Year, Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, admitted: “We don’t know how long it will take to resolve, [I am] very hopeful it will be done before the New Year.
“[It’s] an enormous operation, it’s not something that can be done instantaneously and one of the reasons why we continue to appeal to people to stay away from Kent and from the ports.”
Mr Shapps, who chaired a Cobra emergency meeting on the crisis on Wednesday, added: “I want to apologise to people in Kent, there will be a lot of disruption being created and caused by the French closing their border.”
Natalie Elphicke, Dover’s Conservative MP, warned that it would take at least three to five days to test and clear all the hauliers and their lorries which would mean disruption into next week unless the ports were open through Christmas day.
“For me it underlines the irresponsibility of this action by the French. I have some very angry residents who are not having the Christmas they wanted and on top of this they have drivers tooting their horns outside their houses all night,” she said.
Retailers said further chaos could lead to fresh food shortages next week. Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said: “Until the backlog is cleared and supply chains return to normal, we anticipate issues with the availability of some fresh goods.”
German airline Lufthansa flew in 80 tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables into the UK for Tesco, Sainsbury’s, the Co-op and Aldi to replenish supplies lost due to the freight chaos.
The delays could also continue into the New Year because of the French insistence that mandatory testing of hauliers and passengers at the border is extended until January 6, and potentially beyond.
Up to 8,000 lorries are thought to be stacked in Kent with at least another 2,000 outside the county after heeding ministers’ warnings to stay away until the chaos started to ease.
A Spanish driver sits in his van as he waits at the entry to the port
Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe
The French lifted their travel ban on Tuesday but only for hauliers and passengers with negative Covid tests from up to 72 hours before departure. All the first 200 tests came back negative, according to Government sources.
The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Rochester, Dover and Tonbridge issued a statement condemning the "unacceptable" lack of food and sanitary facilities for seasonal workers, families and some truck drivers following the travel ban.
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