Get ready for Brexit or face 7,000-truck queues in Kent, hauliers told
Kent #Kent
Michael Gove has written to hauliers to warn that if they do not prepare now for Brexit they could face queues of up to 7,000 trucks in Kent, confirming internal cabinet analysis of the potential disruption caused by the UK’s departure from the single market in January.
The letter also warns of two-day delays for cargo travelling to the EU through Dover or Folkestone ferry or Eurotunnel trains in what it is describing as the “reasonable worst-case scenario”.
“The biggest potential cause of disruption are traders not being ready for controls implemented by EU member states on 1 January 2021,” Gove wrote in the letter seen by the Guardian. “It is essential that traders act now and get ready for new formalities.”
The warnings were contained in confidential government documents revealed by the Guardian earlier this month.
Related: ‘Cutting it tight’: Dover port still awaiting Brexit infrastructure funds
Gove is due to outline the scenario work, which the cabinet office stressed was not a forecast, in the Commons on Wednesday.
The letter has enraged industry leaders and the haulage industry, which has been begging for details of the preparations they will have to make as a matter of urgency for the last six months.
It came the day both Logistics UK, which represents the freight industry and the Port of Dover, said the government’s efforts to shift blame for lack of Brexit preparations on to the industry was wrong-headed.
Tim Reardon, the head of EU exit policy, told the Treasury select committee that government funds had yet to be released for vital infrastructure at Dover port.
The money needed to be “issued rather than talked about”, he said.
The chair of the committee, the Conservative MP Mel Stride, said the government appeared to be leaving it “incredibly tight” and questioned why “in the latter part of September” there was still “talk about money being available for spades in the ground”.
While industry leaders were protesting that the technology for hauliers may not be ready for beta-testing until the end of November, a succession of government leaders have been pushing a narrative that it will be industry or the EU that will be to blame if there are queues in Kent.
On Tuesday, the environment secretary, George Eustice, claimed it would be down to “slipshod” EU planning even though France put the first spades in the ground for no-deal Brexit infrastructure 18 months ago.
Dover port confirmed on Tuesday that trucks that did not have the complete paperwork for EU requirements would be turned away and not allowed on ferries, fuelling fears of queues on the British side.
Gove warned changes were coming with or without a deal.
The cabinet office document, reported by the Guardian prevriously, states that, in its reasonable worst-case scenario, 30-50% of trucks crossing the Channel will not be ready for the new regulations coming into force on 1 January, while a “lack of capacity to hold unready trucks at French ports” could reduce the flow of traffic across the strait to 60-80% of normal levels.
“This could lead to maximum queues of 7,000 port-bound trucks in Kent and associated maximum delays of up to two days,” the documents said.
Such delays could be in place for at least three months, hauliers have been warned, as alternative routes are sought and supply chains get to grips with the new systems and requirements.
In his letter, Gove said: “Irrespective of the outcome of negotiations between the UK and EU, traders will face new customs controls and processes. Simply put, if traders, both in the UK and EU, have not completed the right paperwork, their goods will be stopped when entering the EU and disruption will occur.
“It is essential that traders act now and get ready for new formalities.”
But sector chiefs have accused the government of failing to do enough in recent weeks over the threat of post-Brexit border delays.
The Road Haulage Association (RHA), meanwhile, said its meeting on Thursday with Gove was a “waste of time” as it did not engage with the on the detailed actions needed to be taken.
Responding to the worst-case scenario document, the RHA chief executive, Richard Burnett, said: “We’ve been consistently warning the government there will be delays at ports but they’re just not engaging with industry on coming up with solutions.
“Traders need 50,000 more customs intermediaries to handle the mountain of new paperwork after transition but government support to recruit and train those extra people is woefully inadequate.
“The answers to the questions that we raised in our letter to Mr Gove and subsequent roundtable meeting last Thursday still remain unanswered – and our concern continues to grow.”
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