Thousands of truckers could spend Christmas in Kent’s backward traffic

THE FERRIES WILL RUN on Christmas Day and French firefighters are in the UK to help drivers test for the coronavirus as thousands of truck drivers wanting to cross the English Channel remain stranded in the Port of Dover , Kent.

Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps said the ferries from Dover to Calais would run on Christmas Day and St. Stephen’s Day as French firefighting teams and the British Army work with NHS Test and Trace to continue testing the thousands of parked carriers waiting to cross.

Drivers from the UK must return a negative coronavirus result made in the last 72 hours before crossing into France.

The head of the Road Transport Association has accused France of treating drivers as “pawns in a bigger game” as the UK is about to negotiate a deal with the EU, an accusation that the French have repeatedly denied.

Sound on! Hundreds of drivers trapped in a giant truck park that was once Manston Airport shout their horns in frustration #Truckers # COVID-19 pic.twitter.com/46ZHP6Y62L

– Rebecca Barry (@BeccaBarry) December 22, 2020

Richard Burnett was sympathetic to the carriers, a small number of whom clashed with police this week after being prevented from heading to the mainland, adding: “It appears to be a lever that the French have used specifically around negotiations. of Brexit “.

He told the BBC: “We understand that we don’t want the virus to spread, but I think we have to pretty much think about some of the reasons why this has happened.”

Burnett added that he was “relieved” that carriers could move after French authorities demanded a negative test following the emergence of a new, more transmissible strain of coronavirus in the UK, but added that it would “take some time” to remove the delay.

It takes an hour per driver to complete a test, which is longer than they expected.

He added that the coronavirus infection rates of truckers are much lower than those of workers in other sectors, between 3% and 6%.

Source: PA

Shapps said France and the UK had agreed to keep the border at Dover, the Eurotunnel and Calais open “over Christmas” so that citizens and carriers were cleared “as soon as possible.”

He promised that the ferries will sail on Christmas Day and St. Stephen’s Day, as 26 French firefighters brought 10,000 additional tests to the port today to speed up the process.

France’s ambassador to the UK Catherine Colonna added that the two countries were “neighbors, partners, allies and (yes) friends.”

A disused airfield in Manston has become the main testing center for carriers, and drivers must self-administer swabs in their cabs under supervision.

Trucks began entering the Eurotunnel again yesterday after drivers began producing negative Covid-19 results, but it is feared that it could take days to run all the tests.

Around 170 servicemen, including those from the 36th Engineer Regiment and the Irish Guard, are helping with the tests.