Chaos has hit the UK’s roads after the Port of Dover becomes gridlocked with Britons scrambling to get away. Ahead of the Easter weekend, thousands took to the roads and headed to Dover to begin their holiday. However, the sheer weight of traffic has left Dover gridlocked.
The gridlock came as the Port of Dover announced it was limiting Good Friday coach travel for holidaymakers as it tries to minimise disruption for holidaymakers.
The Kent port said one of the reasons for the measures was to avoid a repeat of the “horrible situation” last weekend when coaches were delayed for several hours before boarding ferries.
The port said that in order to “reduce coach volumes” on the busiest day of the Easter Weekend that ferry operators DFDS, Irish Ferries, and P&O Ferries are “working with their coach customers to spread the travel” across the three-day period from Thursday to Saturday.
Furthermore, they added that “temporary border control infrastructure” has been installed.
Other measures have also been brought in to try and reduce congestion this weekend. This includes French border control authorities providing a large group of officials to process outbound travellers.
Drivers have also been advised not to arrive early so as to “avoid unnecessary bottlenecks”.
In a statement, the Port of Dover said: “All Port of Dover stakeholders are acutely aware that last weekend was a horrible situation for many travellers, including the elderly and schoolchildren.
“It is the top priority of all parties to ensure a better experience for travellers this weekend. These additional measures are intended to significantly improve traffic throughput and give travellers a better start to their holidays.”
