• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Dover Lorry Queue So Long It Can Be Seen From Space

Home> News

Updated 14:52 7 Feb 2022 GMTPublished 12:23 22 Jan 2022 GMT

Dover Lorry Queue So Long It Can Be Seen From Space

The backlog has been blamed on new customs checks introduced following the UK's exit from the European Union.

Hannah Smith

Hannah Smith

Dover Lorry Queue So Long It Can Be Seen From Space (Alamy/Google Maps)
Dover Lorry Queue So Long It Can Be Seen From Space (Alamy/Google Maps)

Tailbacks of lorries queuing at the Port of Dover are so long they can be seen from space, as new satellite images reveal enormous queues stretching as far as nine miles.

The backlog has been blamed on new customs checks introduced following the UK's exit from the European Union.

Thanks to satellite imagery captured within the last year, long lines of lorries can be seen queuing along the A20 between Dover and Folkestone, making clear the scale of the delays that have reportedly become routine over the past year following extra controls implemented as a result of Brexit.

Advert

Tailbacks seen on satellite images (Google Maps)
Tailbacks seen on satellite images (Google Maps)

Over recent days, locals and passers-by have shared footage of the tailbacks amid concerns that further checks slated to come into force in 2022 cause more chaos on roads throughout Kent.

One driver claimed that checks were now taking up to 20 minutes per vehicle, leading him to push back deliveries after being caught in queues. 'It’s entirely Brexit – you can’t blame it on anything else but Brexit,' he told The Independent.

On social media, anti-Brexit campaigners have used the queues as an example of what they claim were false promises made by the Leave campaign, and subsequently the Conservative government. '30km of lorry queues at Calais yesterday, the same at Dover. Seamless trade anyone?' one person wrote.

Advert

'It is absolute carnage,' one person purporting to be a Dover customs worker tweeted. 'The sheer volume of red tape is baffling and the confusion grows everyday due to contradictory guidance.'


Amid ongoing delays, the Department for Transport has introduced a temporary traffic scheme – the Travel Access Protocol – in the Dover area to reduce traffic build-ups, with measures including a 40mph speed limit for vehicles approaching the port and the use of the A20 as an overflow lorry park.

Advert

Earlier this month, Port of Dover CEO Doug Bannister said that the government needed to be 'better prepared' for the possibility of tailbacks, citing extra Covid checks as adding to the longer processing times.

In an interview with the BBC, he called for port workers and ship crews to be included in the list of key workers offered daily lateral flow tests, praising their efforts to '[maintain] the operations and the critical flow of goods into the nation' throughout the pandemic.

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]

Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Google Maps

Topics: UK News

Hannah Smith
Hannah Smith

Hannah is a London-based journalist covering news and features for UNILAD. She's especially interested in social and political activism and culture.

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

3 hours ago
4 hours ago
  • 3 hours ago

    'Terrifying' footage shows moment Delta Airlines jet sets fire shortly after take-off

    The plane was carrying over 200 people at the time of incident

    News
  • 4 hours ago

    New investigation launched after health experts find potentially fatal side effect of taking weight loss drugs

    Mounjaro and Ozempic have seen increasing popularity amid reports of side effects

    News
  • 4 hours ago

    Expert issues travel warning about the items you should never put in your checked luggage

    Listening to these tips could save you a whole lot of stress in the long run

    News
  • 4 hours ago

    Doctor responsible for Pope Leo's first miracle breaks silence after saving premature baby with prayer

    The premature child was born in 2007 and wasn't expected to survive

    News
  • Disturbing reason lakes are developing eerie green swirls so intense they can be seen from space
  • ‘Worst disease possible' explained after right-to-die activist ends life by starving herself so kids won’t see illness
  • Man drops egg from space and it miraculously doesn't crack
  • Why universe's most expensive material costs $62,500,000,000,000 per gram and how it can aid space travel