Post-Brexit ‘mess’ as Italian driver’s lorry held for 55 hours at UK border post

[Still Waters]

An Italian lorry driver has described the UK’s new post-Brexit controls as a “mess” after his lorry was held at a government-run border post for more than two days.

Antonio Soprano, 62, who was stopped while bringing plants into the country from central Italy, said he was offered nothing to eat during his 55-hour ordeal and instead was told by border officials that he should walk to a McDonald’s more than a mile away to get a meal.

After eventually being released from the Sevington facility in Ashford, Kent, in the early hours of the morning, he was then clamped and had to pay a £185 fine after difficulties finding a place to park in the middle of the night.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/10/brexit-italian-driver-lorry-uk-border-post-sevington

[L.A.T.1961]

Unfortunate for the driver but the story, given column inches by the 'G', is showing how obsessed they are to find anything negative about brexit.

The 'G' is now reduced to discussing one trucker and a load without a proper manifest. 😉  

[pellinore]

18 minutes ago, L.A.T.1961 said:

Unfortunate for the driver but the story, given column inches by the 'G', is showing how obsessed they are to find anything negative about brexit.

The 'G' is now reduced to discussing one trucker and a load without a proper manifest. 😉  

Our 'world-beating import controls' are a disgrace, and you think it is just a blip? We've had 8 years to prepare, have been a third country for 4 years, and you think this a case of "nothing to see here"? Crazy! The damage is just beginning. It's not reported in the UK because what is newsworthy about it?

 

Edited June 10 by pellinore

[L.A.T.1961]

11 minutes ago, pellinore said:

Our 'world-beating import controls' are a disgrace, and you think it is just a blip? We've had 8 years to prepare, have been a third country for 4 years, and you think this a case of "nothing to see here"? Crazy! The damage is just beginning. It's not reported in the UK because what is newsworthy about it?

 

It looks to me to be a problem with the haulier. If a company shows they are more likely to have issues with goods carried they will be targeted by officials.

What appears to be happening is trucks with problem loads are being identified and pulled up. So the system is working.

There was apparently 25 wagons in the compound for 15hrs at the same time, very few considering the traffic through the port.

The question not asked is how many trucks coming through dover would have been pulled up when we were in the EU, because it would not be zero or close to it.

And there are other inspection points on the UK road network that have been doing the same thing for decades and well before brexit.

You might think all this is new but its not.