Trawler blockade causes TIR chaos at French ports
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El As we went to press this week (Tuesday) TIR operators were facing major problems in getting vehicles across the channel, following the setting up of blockades at Calais and Boulogne by French fishermen protesting at changes in UK territorial waters.
On Monday 26 October ferry services from Dover and Folkestone to the two major French ports were suspended from mid-morning after the P&O European Ferries ship Free Enterprise IV was prevented from leaving Boulogne.
The action was mounted without warning and ferry companies were unaware of its purpose for most of the day. As a result, however, a number of UK operators were left with vehicles stranded in France while others had to divert trucks to alternative continental ports to beat the blockade. The action was lifted on Monday evening, but was resumed on Tuesday morning. P&O European Ferries was putting extra sailings to Zeebrugge and Ostend after it had been forced to suspend its sailings to Calais and Boulogne.
The protest by the French trawlermen follows an extension of UK territorial waters to match the limits adopted by most EEC countries.