What the hell is happening in Dover ?

[alittlebitfrench]

http://news.sky.com/story/twelve-hour-delays-as-dover-security-tightened-10510139

Is this really heightened security checks ? ????????

Anyway, glad I am not going in any direction through the straits this summer. 12 hour delay !!!!!!! with kids !!!! I would have turned back. Stuff that for a game of soldiers. France is not worth the hassle for a holiday.

[woolybanana]

French immigration want extra security checks, it is the beginning of the school holidays, oh, and the French have not put any extra staff to deal with it all.

All down to Brexit, of course.

Oh, free movement of people across frontiers is now dead so we dont have to leave the EU.

[DerekJ]

And French fishermen are blockading Calais and, I believe, Cherbourg.

France is a basket case really. Good job the scenery is nice otherwise I'd not bother.

[NormanH]

The UK isn't in the Schengen zone so can expect any tightened security with respect to non-Schengen countries to apply.

Or is "control over our borders" only supposed to work one-way?

"Fog in the Channel Continent cut off " anyone?

[Chancer]

I was pulled over to the vehicle search shed at Dover which was expected, usual checks but now they have a walk through Rapiscan portal so its off with belts, buckles, boots etc, keys plus wallet in panier, boots off and walk through scanner, I have carried a Pocket knife for 12 years and this was the first time it was scrutinised, the blade length was borderline but as it was not a lock-knife it was OK.

 

I'm all for increased security checks given what is going on these days, we had a partial lockdown here today for the centenary of the battle of Pozières although not as extensive as for the 1st July, no surface to air missile batteries this time!

[Chancer]

Having read the report its almost certainly a reaction to Flamby saying that the Le Touquet agreement would remain, the French border control staff had been looking forward to working back on their own soil closer to home, they would have heard Flamby and said "we will see about that matey" [:P]

 

Natacha Bouchart probably had a hand in it as well.

 

And the great irony of it is all the stranded continentals are blaming the British [:D]

[alittlebitfrench]

Given that the British represent the second largest number of tourists visiting France this is a classic case of 'cutting of your nose to spite your face' . As derekj says, the country is run by basket cases.

If I was on the M20 I would turn back and go home. Feck em.

Last time I visited the tunnel the place was empty but the French still managed to create a queue.

[andyh4]

We now have a taste of what a post-Brexit customs boundary could look like. Same situation but different excuse for holding up traffic flows.

Welcome to a new reality.

And yes, I would not put it past the French to engineer the situation.

[Rabbie]

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]

If I was on the M20 I would turn back and go home. [/quote] I read that a lot of people did not have the option to turn back. Once they were in the queue there was no way to turn back.

[PaulT]

Ooooh, could there be an opportunity? Off to Kent with a trolley, will make a fortune walking up and down the queue selling sandwiches and drinks.

But joking apart a terrible situation to be in especially with the heat. Dare say some are low on fuel - 'we'll fill up in France it is cheaper' so cannot run the a/c.

The BBC was reporting that there was one officer checking coaches and it was taking 40 minutes per coach! How many coaches pass through Dover per day?

[AnOther]

If I were stuck like that I'd have had the central barrier down a long time ago and been high tailing it in the opposite direction, it's only a few bolts !

Why the authorities don't do that anyway I have no idea, I'm pretty sure half the traffic would give up and go home given the opportunity.

[Chancer]

Good point!

 

As for wasting fuel to run aircon in an unshaded uninsulated closed metal box, well I was going to ask are people really that stupid these days but dont answer, I do know deep down.

 

The authorities should think of erecting sailshades on the hard shoulder but ANO's suggestion is better.

 

I think we will very soon see the Le Touquet agreement torn up and the border controls put back to where they belong, win-win-win, would there be any losers?

 

And as for the French border controls, well the only time you can count on them doing their job is when they work to rule, I bet most of them are now off sick with the stress of working, in 20 years all they have ever done is wave me through when they see a UK passport in my hand, thats if they even open their window, usually they are all smoking and chatting as there are always 3 in each cabin, last time one was giving the other a massage, she was loving it and he had a bulge in his trousers.

[alittlebitfrench]

I would have without doubt taken my 4x4 Yeti for a trip across the fields and got the hell out of there.

I wonder how many people who were going to France on holiday will go again next year ?

[Cendrillon]

Today U.K. border staff are going to assist and try to speed up the checks.

Pity the poor people caught up in this chaos.

[Chancer]

[quote user="Cendrillon"]Today U.K. border staff are going to assist and try to speed up the checks. [/quote]

 

Which will probably result in a walk out by the French border staff [:(]

 

I doubt that they want help and wont recieve it at all well.

 

I bet the majority of them take their holidays in July and August.

[DerekJ]

And it's all this sort of crap that has helped the Brexit cause.

[PaulT]

I suppose for some, they have paid for a non refundable ferry ticket, paid their accommodation costs in the country they are heading to so if they do turn around and go home a lot of money will be lost.

Wonder how much perishable goods are on the lorries?

[mint]

I worry about the live animals in the lorries[:'(]

Do they even get water to drink?

[AnOther]

The 2 hour lunch breaks probably aren't helping [Www]

[idun]

I have had my share of traffic jams, the longest was 8 hours of hardly moving......... but that was in the Alpes pre Albertville Olympics and the new roads that were put in.......

........ and it would seem that the french accept huge jams as part of the start and end of les vacances!

I would be so angry that I would have a good holiday in France and be stingy as hell, and not thinking, WTH we'll have a treat of this or that. They knew that the holiday makers would be en route and yet they decided to do this..... the french....... and now they have enlisted UK border control agents, so we will be paying for that.......... grrrrrr ...... angry on so many fronts.

Incidentally, used the Port of Dover for the first time in ages this year and it was abysmal, disorganised and staff more than unhelpful, used to be fine.

[NickP]

For what it's worth I don't suppose that all those idiots going on holiday the first weekend of school holidays helped. The same thing happened last year, nothing new they just never learn. Travel off peak peeps; it's much less stressful. As for the comment from one of the usual suspects, "this is what it'll be like post Brexit" less said the better.

[PaulT]

I suppose one of the problems is that gites etc are normally let Saturday to Saturday so go Tuesday or Wednesday and lose half a week, same coming back.

[Kong]

True, but more and more of those with more than one gite are getting flexible to accommodate flights to local airports that don't schedule saturday flights and for the benefit of those who avoid the bouchons by travelling mid week.

[Chancer]

Flexible? Not round here for another 1000 years or so.

Saturday to Saturday, must arrive between 16.00 and 17.00, must leave by 10.00.

 

Must sign a 8 page contract and etat des lieux, must pay a huge caution, must pay for end of stay cleaning, must bring own bedding, patati, patata...........

 

Still they get up to 5 weeks of lettings on a good year.

 

I have to content myself with 52 weeks times 5 apartments for the same surface area never dropping below 95% even in December.

 

The fact that 98% of visitors to this region stay one or two nights might just tell them something [I]

 

In fact its probably 75% one night, 20% two nights, one percent longer stays and less than one percent taking the gîtes.

[Judith]

The French have yet to work out that many other nationalities not only DON'T go on holiday in July or August, or indeed, for whole weeks with short breaks beginning to be the norm.  Even when I was limited in the holiday I could take, I always planned if at all possible to travel mid-week ... but then, the last time I stayed in a gite, was, well, at least 10 years ago!!!