Anger in the UK cargo sector as strikes in Calais left the motorways closed and ports halted in the area
After hitting the hundreds of illegal migrants UK ports in the last couple of weeks, Calais is on strike, where ferry workers and protesting farmers have closed the motorways leading to the Calais port and halted all the operations at the port as well. All this specter of port congestion has left the cargo and freight sector pinched with £0.75million every day.
This self-created congestion has had a massive knock-on effect on the cross-channel freight system and there is an almost 35 miles long trucks and lorry queue on the M20 motorway in Calais.
This motorway connects Dover where transport authorities form Operation Stacks. The FTA (Freight Transport Association) has said that the congestion at Dover and Calais and even cross-channel ferry and euro tunnel links, was costing the country’s supply chain and cargo sector a massive £750,000 a day.
Yesterday cleared some factors that can intersect to cause the strike, French farmers who were protesting against the price of commodities like meat and milk, set fire to tyres and closed the motorway and several main roads connecting south with Calais. During the night, rail freight service through the Channel tunnel was suspended as well, because there were 100 migrants trying to enter the UK and officials found a dead body of a teenager at the top of the Eurotunnel train.
The busiest weekend of the year for Europe and on British roads as millions of people begin their annual holidays. Deputy chief executive of FTA James Hookham has said that the value of perishables destroyed was in millions and the figures show that operation stack is not a big deal for Kent and South East of England, but it is a serious national strategic problem. This kind of queues cost the country a lot and it is the GDP in other words stalled in the queues on the roads of Calais.
It is not acceptable that any kind chaos in France directly impacting on the economy of UK through English Channels, Calais has a direct impact on UK economy so this area must be made a strike-free zone to move the economy of both countries forward. It must be implemented immediately so that the traffic in English Channel starts flowing.
