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Vegetables held up at Dover in beef search
Page 10
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• An Essex haulier has made an official complaint to Kent police after officers ordered one of his drivers to open a trailer to show blockading farmers he wasn't carrying beef last week.
John Mead, operations manager at Continental Express Transport, claims that on 4 December one of his vehicles was stopped inside Dover Harbour by farmers wanting to check its contents.
Fearing his driving time was nearly up after being held up in Calais during that day, the driver opened the sealed container, containing cucumbers and courgettes at the request of a police officer. Mead says the produce was unaffected, but adds that if the trailer had been carrying broccoli it would have been different.
A spokeswoman for Kent police says: "Our policemen were not doing this." However, the Dover Harbour Board says: "On that evening a delegation of farmers was allowed to access the Eastern Docks accompanied by Kent County Constabulary."
The Freight Transport Association, which represents Mead, says damage to produce has occurred during the blockades. It has been in contact with the National Farmers' Union insisting that vehicles must not be impeded by demonstrators.