Brits warned of 14-hour queues at the border for the next three years due to new EU rules
HOLIDAYMAKERS are being warned of huge queues at both Dover and the Eurostar for the next three years due to the new EU checks being introduced.
Kent County Council has said that the Brits could face being stuck in 14-hour queues during the busy season, as seen in recent years.
Neil Baker, Kent County Council’s cabinet member for roads said the Entry/Exit system (EES), set to be rolled out later this year, will cause a "serious mess".
The EES system will replace passport stamps and check biometric data instead, and is set to be introduced by October 2024, after years of delays.
He told fellow cabinet members on January 4: "I don’t think we can downplay how big of an impact it could well have on Kent and over an extended period.
“We are not talking about just going into October and there being a bit of a blip and everything will being back to normal.
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"I think we have got to be realistic here – we could be looking at the equivalent of three years solid of Brock being in place.
“We know how bad life is when Brock is in place for a day or two – imagine that infinitely worse.
"This is going to be a serious, serious mess."
Operation Brock, originally developed in the event of a no-deal Brexit, is a traffic management system to allow the flow of travelling to and from Dover.
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However, locals said they were left trapped in their homes after the lorry queues snarled up the roads for miles.
A number of European countries have already warned that the new EES system will result in huge delays.
The Slovenian government warned the new process takes up "up to four times longer" while Austria warned that processing times would "double compared to the current situation".
Mr Baker also warned that the problems won't just affect the border in Kent, with the long queues also expected at the Eurostar terminal at London St Pancras.
He added: "It is not just Kent – we are probably going to look at, potentially, 12 to 14 hour queues up at the Eurostar terminal in London. It’s going to be grim."
Eurostar passengers have already faced problems in recent weeks, which saw trains grind to a halt when French workers went on strike at short notice.
And during the Christmas period, flooding across the UK halted all Eurostar trains to and from Europe.
Mr Baker said: "We cannot be accused come October, if everything snarls up as badly as I fear it might, of people saying ‘why didn’t you warn everyone about this?’
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“Frankly, we are."
A new visa-waiver called ETIAS is also set to be introduced by 2025.
