Stranded lorry drivers 'given just one cereal bar'

Lorry drivers stranded in the UK waiting to cross the Channel following a French ban on British freight have been offered just a single cereal bar, it has been claimed.

More than 1,500 lorries are stuck near the port of Dover, Kent, after France banned British hauliers for 48 hours over the emergence of a new strain of coronavirus in the UK.

More than 40 countries have banned UK flights and travel because of the faster spreading new coronavirus variant.

On Monday, prime minister Boris Johnson urged people not to panic buy amid fears the ban could cause a Christmas food shortage, while supermarkets insisted they have enough supplies for the festive period.

The M20 in Kent was closed on Monday night to allow for the implementation of Operation Brock – contingency measures which involve using a moveable barrier to keep traffic moving on the motorway whenever there is disruption at the Channel. Lorries may park at disused Manston Airport.

Lorry drivers have spent two nights trapped in Dover and a trade association said on Tuesday that little is being done to support them.

Rod McKenzie, managing director of the Road Haulage Association, told BBC Breakfast: “Clearly those drivers have spent a second night parked up somewhere, possibly on a motorway, possibly somewhere else, trying to get across the Channel, and many of them are European drivers trying to get home for Christmas, and their morale is very poor.

“Yesterday, Kent County Council offered each of them one cereal bar, which is a pretty poor effort, I think, in terms of maintaining their morale, and their spirits.”

McKenzie said toilet facilities were also a “big issue” with concerns over health and cleanliness.

“We are not treating them well as a country, we are not treating lorry drivers well in these very difficult conditions that they are in at the moment,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Kent County Council said: “With the help of Kent Resilience Forum agencies, we were able to give out snacks and drinking water through Monday ahead of drivers being able to access welfare facilities at Manston as part of Operation Brock planning.

“Though hauliers are routinely well prepared for disruption, while French borders remain closed it remains important that people avoid travelling to Kent.”

Shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Rachel Reeves said lorry drivers are essential workers and should be treated “a lot better”.

“We’ve had 24 hours or so now of this chaos in Kent, both in Dover and the Eurotunnel, and we need to get that fixed,” she told BBC Breakfast.

“Those basic facilities have got to come, whether it’s that we get drivers to the airport, where those facilities are supposed to be available, or just get those essentials down to people, whether those are food and drink, toilets and the facilities to wash your hands – absolutely essential – but also medical facilities as well, recognising that not all of these drivers are British and won’t all be registered with the NHS.

“The welfare of these drivers should be on top of our minds at the moment, we should be treating them much better than we are because they are essential workers that keep our supermarkets stocked, keep our manufacturing sector working, but also get our British goods to market around the world.”

There are more than 1,500 lorries stuck near Dover, it has emerged.

On Tuesday morning, home secretary Priti Patel told BBC Breakfast: “I’ve just been told that currently on the M20 there are 650 lorries, and there are 873 lorries at the inland site in Manston.”

Talking about the welfare of lorry drivers, she said: “We have now opened up and we have our Operation Brock where basically we divert and have a contraflow process now for lorries to go to one of our inland sites, which is at Manston, where we do have welfare facilities and support for those hauliers.

“And that is all part of the plans, our normal operational plans, that have now been activated.”

She also told Sky News: “I think it’s important to recognise the figures fluctuate. The number one message has been to avoid Dover.”

She said the government was “working to get a resolution” as talks continued with France on reopening full trade and transport across the Channel.

“It’s in both our interests, both countries to ensure that we have flow and of course there are European hauliers right now who want to be going home and quite frankly it’s in both our interests to carry on those discussions and negotiations and we will see what materialises today.”

On Monday, Johnson said the two countries were working “to unblock the flow of trade as fast as possible”.

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said the “borders really need to be running pretty much freely from tomorrow to assure us that there won’t be any disruption”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There is a problem potentially directly after Christmas and that is really in fresh produce, so we’re talking here about things like salad, vegetables, fresh fruit, of which the vast majority come from Europe at this time.

“The problem actually is empty lorries, so the empty lorries which are now stuck in Kent, they need to get back to places like Spain to pick up the next consignment of raspberries and strawberries and they need to get back within the next day or so otherwise we will see disruption.

“As long as it can be cleared today there’ll be minimal impact for consumers – remember the shops are shut on Christmas Day which takes one day of buying out of the equation, but those lorries that are stuck in Kent, they do need to get back within the next day.

“Whatever is agreed we need to be careful it doesn’t add too much friction to the supply chain which in itself causes disruption by causing delays to the drivers whilst they’re being tested.”

Watch: How Dover delays are affecting food supply chains