Dover Calais border crossing delays - deliberate?

Dover Calais border crossing delays - deliberate?

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Discussion

CoolHands

Original Poster:

18,496 posts

194 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
So whaddya reckon - reports of just three of the seven passport control booths open etc has led to massive delays for Brits travelling to Calais as of the beginning of summer hols.

Do you think this is deliberate by the French?

I have no axe to grind either way but I know if I was sitting in that queue I would be furious with the froggies. Water had to be dropped in by police helicopter to people caught in the chaos - imagine the cost! Also terrible stress if you are stuck there with small kids on some of the hottest days of the year. Awful

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3704887/Po...

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
Deliberate for what purpose?

To ps off British holidaymakers? No
To do what little they can following another significant death toll from another terrorist attack? Yes

rustyuk

4,568 posts

210 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
Think they are worried they might need to work more than 5 hours a week now that we are no longer subsidising them. I voted remain too!

Lost count the number of times I have been to France on holiday and have come back saying never again!

Getragdogleg

8,737 posts

182 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
We have seen these type of delays before and its often the result of the actions of the French.

I firmly believe we will see more of this sort of thing in future. I cant think of one thing I need from France nor a single reason to go there while these silly petulant gestures are being made by them.

Don't go there or buy their stuff until they learn to stop being tts. You might be in for a wait though.


Sheepshanks

32,530 posts

118 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
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Is the ferry capacity there to shift them if they got through at a faster rate?

Sheepshanks

32,530 posts

118 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
rustyuk said:
Lost count the number of times I have been to France on holiday and have come back saying never again!
Once was enough for me.

ChemicalChaos

10,360 posts

159 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
Doofus said:
Deliberate for what purpose?

To ps off British holidaymakers? No
To do what little they can following another significant death toll from another terrorist attack? Yes
Yes, because of all the borders France has, ours is definitely the one that's a security risk...

///ajd

8,964 posts

205 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
Its probably just incompetence.

Its only self defeating for the French - a bet a whole load of people were in that queue googling the price of flights to somewhere other than france for next year!!

If the bottleneck was lack of douane resources the ferry companies will have been jumping up and down - it will impact their business at the end of the day. They've already had to put on more ferries.

I wonder how the queue built up though - did the french start cancelling ferries as they couldn't cope with flow?

CoolHands

Original Poster:

18,496 posts

194 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
Doofus said:
Deliberate for what purpose?

To ps off British holidaymakers? No
To do what little they can following another significant death toll from another terrorist attack? Yes
But we've all been places on holiday etc where anyone with any sense would put more staff on. So in this example, why would they not have all passport controls open? Why not - I dunno - put on extra if you want to run more stringent security checks? That's why I ask is it deliberate(ly to cause upset to the Brits)

craigjm

17,909 posts

199 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
There is too much traffic going through one port simple as that so as soon as something breaks down it all goes nuts. New routes need to be opened up to deal with the increased traffic

Cobnapint

8,596 posts

150 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
ChemicalChaos said:
Doofus said:
Deliberate for what purpose?

To ps off British holidaymakers? No
To do what little they can following another significant death toll from another terrorist attack? Yes
Yes, because of all the borders France has, ours is definitely the one that's a security risk...
This is the question nobody seems to be asking - why the Dover-Calais route..?

Are they doing the same checks on all the other routes into France via Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Lux and Switzerland......I very much doubt it.

ClaphamGT3

11,269 posts

242 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
Getragdogleg said:
We have seen these type of delays before and its often the result of the actions of the French.

I firmly believe we will see more of this sort of thing in future. I cant think of one thing I need from France nor a single reason to go there while these silly petulant gestures are being made by them.

Don't go there or buy their stuff until they learn to stop being tts. You might be in for a wait though.
So you don't need electricity, insurance, basic foodstuffs, gas, petrol etc, etc?

Cobnapint

8,596 posts

150 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
Just found this..

http://www.dailysabah.com/europe/2016/07/15/german...

But wasn't the tt in Nice already living there...?

Crush

15,077 posts

168 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
Have they taken tips from UK border control? Only delays I have ever had on a ferry crossing were at the UK end.

s3fella

10,524 posts

186 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
Doofus said:
Deliberate for what purpose?

To ps off British holidaymakers? No
To do what little they can following another significant death toll from another terrorist attack? Yes
bks. Of course it's deliberate. When was the last atrocity in France or Europe committed by someone crossing from the UK? There is still a state of emergency in France, if it had the SLIGHTEST thing to do with finding actual terrorists, theyd have the road crossings at Belgium and Germany manned and checked. And when was this policy adopted? Straight after Nice, or a few weeks later just as UK schools break up?

They are trying to "show" the UK what it will be like after Brexit, well good luck to them, Brits will just go somewhere else.

And the French authorities should be ashamed of themselves using this atrocity committed by some tt they let in from North Africa as an excuse to reek hovoc on families trying to spend their hard earned in their wonderful cultural melting pot.

The French, st 'em.

B'stard Child

28,322 posts

245 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
I Posted this in another thread bearing in mind the trip was before Nice

Going to and coming back from Le Mans Classic this year was "interesting" too

8 lanes to the French border checkpoints/cabins just two were manned on the way home on Monday afternoon after the racing and we sat on the autoroute approaching Calais for best part of an hour

I have a simple solution to this issue if the French want to play silly buggers - don't travel there and vote with your feet - I'm sure UK PLC could do with some home grown tourism

BigLion

1,497 posts

98 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
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I think it's a combination of being deliberate but also incompetence, based on what I have seen over the years.

It's obvious to predict the peak volume weekends during July and August, but even on the Calais side they still don't seem to be able to deal with it effectively at all - 8 to 10 hour delays are not uncommon.

This year we decided to fly elsewhere and also do a UK holiday (in lieu of the France trip).

Alucidnation

16,810 posts

169 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
So, if the tables were turned?

RYH64E

7,960 posts

243 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
B'stard Child said:
I have a simple solution to this issue if the French want to play silly buggers - don't travel there and vote with your feet - I'm sure UK PLC could do with some home grown tourism
If you want to take your car into Europe then it's difficult (though not impossibe) to avoid France, all the short crossings land there. Holidays in the UK can be great, they can also be pretty cold, wet and miserable, mostly I prefer to drive down to a villa somewhere in southern Europe (though not this year, thankfully).

Robertj21a

16,475 posts

104 months

Sunday 24th July 2016
quotequote all
Whether it's deliberate, or security related, I think most people on here have already highlighted the solution - simply don't go to France !
There's nothing new about the French - lazy, incompetent, militant, arrogant etc etc. It was the same 20-30-40 years ago and nothing's changed.

My trips to France ended decades ago, there's far better places to go in the world.