Lorries will queue for 30 miles in Kent post-Brexit, The Guardian says

Lorries will be queuing for up to 30 miles in Kent to get across the Channel as paperwork is checked for 2.6m trucks passing through the port if the U.K leaves the Customs Union, according to The Guardian following interviews with hauliers and the Eurotunnel.

In a report that seeks to understand the detailed implications for transport networks of leaving the European Union, The Guardian highlights Eurotunnel as saying that at the Port of Dover there is "no room to expand to accommodate checks" for the 2.6m lorries passing through. "On one side of Eurotunnel we have an area of outstanding beauty, so you can't build to the left, and on the right we have the motorway; then you have to look at moving up, down, or back along the motorway."

Hauliers are reported as fearing repeats of a scenario when a French ferry workers strike led to more than 7,000 trucks backed up the motorway in 2015 and "local customs experts are quoted as saying that the port will be in "permanent gridlock" if EU trucks are treated as non-EU trucks are now. PSL Freight says there is a need "to invest early" with Priority Freight suggesting multiple clearance points further inland.

Think-tank the Policy Exchange said last month that consignments would be held at ports for no more than six minutes, and that free trade zones could be established at ports in order to boost the economy.