By Prioritising perishable goods not a ‘Realistic option’
According to reports, introducing a prioritization system to help perishable goods get through long queues at Dover is not a ‘realistic option’.
George Eustice, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told BBC Breakfast such a system would be difficult to stand up at short notice and on a large scale.
On Sunday, haulers warned fresh produce was losing quality and value.
But Mr. Eustice said the backlog was now starting to clear.
According to Mr. Eustice, the beginning of the Easter holidays had caused a “sharp increase in traffic”.
“My understanding is that things are now moving in the right direction so this was a temporary problem caused by a surge of traffic around the commencement of the Easter period,” he said.
On the question of introducing a priority lane for lorries carrying perishable goods, Mr. Eustice said: “I don’t think it’s a realistic option at such short notice.”
However, he added: “You need a way of identifying the lorries… and then escort them past other traffic to get on to the ferry and it’s quite a complicated thing to pull off actually and quite difficult to do on that scale.”
According to reports, queues around Dover eased on Sunday.
Some reports had said some had waited for 24 hours or more to cross into Europe.
The association’s chief executive Nick Allen has warned the delays to mean the UK is losing business.
The Operation Brock traffic management system was put in place last week, in an attempt to ease congestion.
P&O’s Dover-Calais routes are still suspended.
Amidst the mounting issues, bad weather and problems with a key IT system have caused delays also.
Toby Howe, from the Kent Resilience Forum, said: “Currently traffic is flowing through the traffic management system to get to Eurotunnel and get to the port. But during today and over this week it will all pick up again,” he told the BBC.
