Important Warning For Anybody Traveling By Ferry Soon

[ukstitch]

Just seen this on the bbc news site (link). Basically Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk are being blockaded and operation stack is underway on the British side of the channel:

French fishing boats have mounted a blockade of three Channel ports, interrupting ferry and freight traffic in a dispute over fishing quotas.
At Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk fishing fleets are preventing ships entering or leaving the harbour.
Stranded passengers say they have been given no indication of when the blockade might be lifted.
British police have warned of serious delays and have started parking lorries on the M20 motorway.
<!-- E SF --> At the port of Calais, one British traveller said the fishermen appeared occasionally to be letting a ship in and out of the port, but in a "very sporadic" fashion.
Richard Barclay, returning from an Easter break in Belgium with his family, said some passengers had showed signs of frustration towards the port authorities, but "most people are just resigned to wait".
"The main problem is there is nothing to do, and only one facility, with an hour's wait to buy a sandwich," he told BBC News.
French fishing unions say they are protesting at ever tougher EU-imposed quotas, and are demanding that the French government take a stand on their behalf or offer more financial assistance.
They have not said how long their protest will last.
The EU says limiting the size of fishing catches is the best way to stop stocks being wiped out through over-fishing.

 

[Cyrano]

Just reading this Hopefully no one here gets caught up in the delays

 

[ukstitch]

Bump - it's all still going on. There's an updated article here (bbc).

 

[Rachie B]

My eldest son was supposed to be going via ferry to calais yday morning,on way to germany for a school trip

he txt yday morning to say change of plan,they had to go via eurotunnel instead

a poor family on MSE were stuck in france with small children and P&O not being very helpful apparently

 

[tennisfan]

My eldest son was supposed to be going via ferry to calais yday morning,on way to germany for a school trip

he txt yday morning to say change of plan,they had to go via eurotunnel instead

a poor family on MSE were stuck in france with small children and P&O not being very helpful apparently

The strike has been called off & services are back to normal, although they could call it on again like they did yesterday.

With regards being stuck in France the Ferries & tunnel have an aggreement that if one cant operate they should give a voucher to allow travel on the other, so they should have been able to travel via Eurotunnel if the deal has been enforced. Eurotunnel were running extra services to help. I think a big problem was they didn't know when it was going to end as it was a wildcat strike & none of the operators were informed it was going to happen.