Brexit could cause tailbacks and food shortages

Imperial College London research commissioned by the BBC has indicated that longer vehicle checks at the UK border after Brexit would result in motorway tailbacks of up to 29 miles, and the Port of Calais boss, Jean-Marc Puissesseau, has claimed that tailbacks up to 30 miles in all directions could hit the facility, and shortages of groceries could occur in Britain, if a Brexit deal involves obligatory customs and sanitary checks at the port.

Concerns raised

The Imperial College research discovered that a mere two extra minutes spent checking each vehicle could more than triple current queues, with further customs checks adding around 10 miles to the tailbacks at peak times for every extra minute’s worth of examinations.

The university’s work used traffic simulations deploying data from sources including the Port of Dover, Highways England, the Department for Transport and maps, with different types of vehicles considered.

Meanwhile, Mr Puissesseau has pleaded for the UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, and the European Chief Negotiator for the United Kingdom Exiting the European Union, Michel Barnier, to immediately implement plans to avert congestion in both Calais and Dover.

In a private meeting at the European Parliament, the boss of the Port of Calais warned the facility could go back to the chaos of July 2015, which saw truckers stuck in their lorries, for three days and in very hot weather, with 30-mile queues from Calais to Dunkirk, 25 miles inland to Saint-Omer and 20 miles west to Boulogne.

He also warned of food shortages, saying: “At the moment, 70% of food imported comes from the EU.

“Even if that goes down to 50% after Brexit because of controls, it still needs to flow smoothly; people still need to eat.

“If there are delays, it could end up rotting on the side of the road.”

Mr Puissesseau also said that the Port of Calais’ three-year, £625m expansion plan had been calculated before the advent of Brexit, with this event throwing up “a new problem”.

At the same meeting, president of the Hauts-de-France political region Xavier Bertrand said that what was going to happen in France was ten times greater than the economic problems in Ireland.

DHL and Airbus also voiced their concerns at the meeting, with DHL warning it might look at a solution away from a port if major issues arise there.

At their peak, the ports of Dover and Calais can process between 250 and 300 trucks per hour, and delays could entail 15-mile tailbacks building up over 10 hours, according to The Guardian.