French authorities have suspended extra EU border checks at Dover after thousands of holidaymakers heading to the port faced long queues in soaring temperatures.
The port said they had escalated the “challenging situation” with border authorities, and the change would help clear queues at the terminal and congestion on surrounding roads.
Travellers had earlier faced up to two hours’ delay reaching the port and up to a further two and half hours to complete processing at the terminal on Saturday morning.
By lunchtime traffic was “slow moving” and the processing time at check-in was under an hour, the port said. Just after 14:00, it said traffic was “free-flowing”.
Before boarding a cross-Channel ferry at Dover travellers have to go through French border checks.
Under the European Union’s new digital system, known as the Entry/Exit System (EES), biometric checks including fingerprinting and facial scanning are due be introduced for non-EU travellers.
French authorities have not yet switched on the machines that will be used for these checks at the port but border officials at Dover were still having to take details from travellers to enter into a database. This in turn led to longer waits this weekend.
Now these additional measures have been suspended and traffic delays are starting to ease. Conventional checks at the border are still in place.
Passengers who miss their ferry crossing due to waiting times will be able to travel on the next available crossing, the port said.
Port of Dover’s CEO, Doug Bannister, told the BBC it was expecting more than 8,000 cars to travel through the port on Saturday.
He added that 84 kiosks had been installed to accommodate the new digital system and “handle these peak volumes efficiently and safely”.
But “despite having assurances from authorities, from our government, from the French around how this would work it really was slow processing this morning,” said Bannister. “I think we’re all quite frustrated”.
LeShuttle, which operates the Channel Tunnel service, has also reported delays of around one and a half hours to train services between Folkestone and Calais. It said there were longer processing times at the border.
On the railways, major engineering works are taking place between London St Pancras International and London Blackfriars, York and Darlington and Bristol Parkway and Newport, with services not running or significantly altered as a result.
Industrial action is also affecting West Midlands Railway services on Saturday.
As of about 15:00 on Saturday, Traffic England had issued 22 severe congestion alerts across motorways and major A-roads.
At the same time, Traffic Scotland’s website showed some heavy traffic around areas in the central belt, while Traffic Wales reported severe disruption on the A40 Eastbound.
It comes as the UK is forecast for an unusually hot May bank holiday.
Temperatures are due to continue to increase on Saturday after the warmest day of the year was recorded on Friday, with a high of 28.4C at Heathrow in west London, Cranwell in Lincolnshire and Cambridge.
Daytime highs are forecast to reach the upper 20s Celsius in many areas, with the low 30s Celsius likely in the week ahead.
Amber heat health alerts are in place for parts of England with temperatures forecast to continue to climb above 30C over the weekend. The May record is 32.8C.
