EES farce as £1.6m spent turning race tracks into car parks – that were never used

Résumé détaillé

Circuits converted to cope with border queues have not been needed after expected Entry-Exit System delays didn't happen ...

Two emergency car parks built at racetracks to handle traffic from post-Brexit Entry-Exit System (EES) border checks in Dover cost the taxpayer £1.6m – despite never being used.

A temporary traffic holding site was set up next to Lydden Hill motor racing track to handle 1,200 tourist vehicles stuck in EES traffic. Another at the derelict Folkestone Race Course was earmarked to manage 1,000 cars.

But both sites were stood down in August after anticipated border delays over the summer failed to emerge, despite modelling indicating potential queues of six to eight hours at Dover.

French kiosks to scan car passengers’ EES biometrics are still not working a year after the EU’s controversial scheme was launched.

Buying, converting and staffing the sites had cost £1.6m, revealed the Department for Transport (DfT) following a freedom of information request by The i Paper.

But the DfT said the cost of some remedial works had been excluded from the figure as they are ongoing – meaning the total spend could be even higher.

Kevin Mills, the Labour leader of Dover District Council, said: “You’ve got to have facilities, and you need to have a standback. There’s going to be a cost, but that is an awful lot of taxpayers’ money when we’ve got other services that are struggling for something that’s not been used.”

However, Kent MPs and council leaders have warned of the potential for long delays if full EES checks are carried out at Dover and Folkestone’s Eurotunnel next year.

Sir Roger Gale, Conservative MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich, told The i Paper: “This is a train that’s coming down the tracks, and we don’t know what it’s going to hit.”

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