The EES journey from hell via a six-hour queue, portable loos and a racetrack car park

Portable loos and burger vans next to the A2 or M20 for summer holidaymakers weren’t what anyone had in mind when Britain voted to leave the EU. But 10 years after the referendum, families heading to Dover or Eurotunnel could end up having to use makeshift facilities at two emergency sites in the event of traffic chaos caused by the EU’s new post-Brexit digital border checks. One of two locations earmarked under Government planning for Kent’s roads being clogged up by delays from the Entry/Exit System (EES) is the abandoned Folkestone Racecourse. Its derelict grandstand, now awaiting demolition, once rang to the roar of punters cheering on jockeys like Tony McCoy or Kieran Fallon. But Britons’ post-Brexit status as “third-country nationals”, and time-consuming extra border processing now needed to cross Schengen countries’ frontiers, could see weary tourists diverted onto the course if gridlock paralyses Kent’s roads. Jim Martin, the Green Party leader of Folkestone & Hythe District Council, told The i Paper: “I’ll kick off by declaring I voted to remain. I am a European. “I’m driving to Maidstone this morning for a Kent meeting. I’m closer to France than I am to Maidstone. “To me it’s bonkers. I understand why, people voted with their hearts, but this is a consequence.” The vacant racecourse near the M20 closed in 2012 and was bought by the council in 2020, with plans to turn the surrounding area into a new town by building up to 10,000 homes in the coming years. Travellers can also make a pitstop at another repurposed site next to motor racing venue Lydden Hill, yards from the A2, with both areas providing toilets, water and catering facilities for tourist traffic, if required. The contingency sites will only be used if the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum (KMRF) decides there is significant disruption at the border and extra space is needed to manage traffic safely. Signs placed on main routes and a media campaign would direct people to both areas if they are activated. Work is underway to prepare the former Folkestone Racecourse in Westenhanger, but the facility next to the Lydden Hill circuit is already in place. For Kent residents, long tailbacks during peak travel periods are a depressingly familiar tale and have caused misery long before EES came into effect last October. But people are braced for more potential disruption in the coming weeks. Gary Quartley, 70 who lives in Folkestone, said: “They’re talking about six hours, aren’t they? Lydden aren’t going to give that land free, so they must be renting it. “So that’s an enormous cost. It must be. It’s just ridiculous. There’s always been quite a bit of traffic going through Dover, and I think there has probably been more, but it’s never been queues like that.” Folkestone Racecourse, which closed in 2012, could be used as a site for tourists stuck in queues (Photo: English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images) The retired builder, who lived in France for 25 years returned to the UK just before Brexit and recently sold his home in France. “It’s just a complete mess. Nothing was thought through with Brexit,” he said. “I just wouldn’t like to be someone who booked six months ago to go to France with his family. And they ended up in that field [Lydden Hill].” Planning documents, seen by The i Paper, show the Lydden Hill site close to the motor racing track is around 500 metres long, with lighting towers to guide cars at night. The facility would have security provision and officers to direct traffic to park, with a designated dog walking area in place. Cars would drive on to temporary tracks put down to protect the grass, with room for up to 1,200 vehicles. The sites are about 16 miles apart, with Folkestone Racecourse just off junction 11 on the M20, around five miles from the Eurotunnel terminal. The Government has agreed a deal to use a site at Lydden Hill motor racing track as an overflow for traffic (Photo: Jordan Mansfield/Getty) Tourist traffic heading to Dover use both the A2 and the M20 so could be directed to either facility, although Lydden Hill – around six miles distance from the port – is closer. Operation Brock, the contraflow system for Dover-bound lorries to keep traffic flowing on the M20, is already in place. “In extremis, and that’s the key bit to stress, if people are totally stuck and cannot get anywhere, there will be a site that people can use to be safe,” a well-placed source said. Sir Roger Gale, the Conservative MP for Herne Bay & Sandwich, warned people could die if trapped in 12-hour traffic jams, a worst-case timescale modelled by Port of Dover. More recent data suggests the most severe tailbacks could stretch for six to eight hours. At the Port of Dover, red days – when traffic is predicted to reach from 7-8,000 to 11-12,000 vehicles a day – have been called over the next three weekends from Friday to Sunday. Speaking just before schools broke up for the summer holidays, Doug Bannister, the chief executive of the port, said the port had done “everything it possibly could do to be prepared”. “Including investing £40 million in a new purpose-built facility that can’t be activated,” he said. Problems with French border technology mean that kiosks to take passengers’ biometrics – facial scans and fingerprints – at a facility at the Western Docks are still not working. Instead, tourists must drive to the Eastern Docks where French border police – Police Aux Frontières (PAF) – register travellers for EES by opening a file with their passport, the first of the procedure’s two-step process. “Without having access to that facility [at Western Docks], we’ve taken further steps for the summertime, including expanding the number of border positions in our ferry terminal by nearly 20 per cent, so an additional two booths. “PAF have agreed to do everything that is within their power to support us, including providing full resourcing.” During May’s half-term, French authorities suspended EES at Dover and resorted to manual passport stamping after the port declared a “critical incident” when queues reached four and a half hours. Last weekend saw a “positive start” to the summer getaway with PAF manning the extra border posts, a spokesperson for the port said – but there was “uncertainty” about how EES may impact British holidaymakers. “If it goes wrong on the French passport control, that’s when the nightmare scenario could be triggered,” Cllr Martin said.