Only 1,600 to go..! Kent lorry chaos begins to ease with less than 2,000 drivers waiting to cross The Channel - after British and Polish army and French firefighters find just 36 Covid cases in testing drive
Around 1,600 truckers remain stuck in the lines of lorries which line the M20 in Kent despite mass testing
Another 800 military personnel were sent to Kent as part of Operation Rose to help test the truckers
Thousands of drivers spent Christmas Day in their lorry cabs as they waited to cross Channel to France
Villagers from Mersham, near Ashford, lowered food from bridges to feed the stranded truckers
Stella Artois, cucumbers and Heinz Baked Beans passed to stranded drivers in Manston
|
More people have come out to help the drivers stranded on the runway at Manston.
While lorries have started to leave the site today as a huge testing scheme begins, there is still a massive backlog to clear.
Food is delivered to the drivers being held at Manston airport..Picture: Barry Goodwin
Drivers stuck at the site waiting for instruction have been given food, drinks and bottles of Stella Artois to keep them going.
Cucumbers were slotted through the wire, boxes of beer handed and bread launched over the top of the fences and bottles of water forced under.
Thousands of foreign drivers are likely to spend Christmas stuck in the UK after the Government indicated queues outside Dover will not move for at least another 24 hours.
Advertisement
Kent villagers are helping feed stranded truck drivers lined up along the motorway by lowering bags of food to them from bridges.
They are using rope and shopping bags to deliver goods including beans, fruit and sweets to stranded lorry drivers waiting for Covid tests.
Hundreds of hauliers are lined on the M20 as part of Operation Stack waiting for a negative test result before they can make their way to the continent.
It comes after French president Emmanuel Macron ordered the border with the UK to shut on Saturday following the detection of a new virulent strain of coronavirus in Britain.