Cross-Channel travellers could face even worse disruption if the government does not take steps to ease the impact of new exit and entry rules due to come in next year.

The warning comes from the leader of Kent County Council who has set out his concerns about the introduction of new regulations that will affect all travellers from non-EU countries.

Cllr Roger Gough (Con) says without some kind of mitigation the new rules could lead to even worse disruption than caused by Operation Brock, which was reployed on the M20 today ahead of the summer holiday.

It comes amid rumours that the French president Emanuel Macron wants to delay the new system until after the Olympics in Paris next summer.

Cllr Gough, speaking at a full council meeting yesterday, said: “I think we all agree that Operation Brock is mitigation of a situation in which we find ourselves; it is not the perfect solution; in fact it is a long way off.

“But it is certainly needed when we have the pressures that we see at the moment. It seeks to manage those pressures rising through the summer; at the same time, we are pushing the government very hard to seek long-term solutions.

“If I have a particular concern, it is we have not only these chronic issues that can continue but we also have coming up the entry-exit system (EES) coming in; again that is something we are pushing very hard on because that is something that is certainly going to require mitigation when it comes in if we are to avoid still worse disruption.”

The EES will replace the current system of manual stamping of passports, which bosses say is time consuming, does not provide reliable data on border crossings and does not allow a systematic detection of over-stayers.

But opposition parties have criticised the return of the Operation Brock contraflow, which has been reinstated on the M20 between Junction 9 for Ashford and Junction 8 for Leeds Castle.

It is set to stay in place over the summer holiday, restricting drivers to a 50mph limit and narrow lanes.

At yesterday’s meeting, Liberal Democrat group leader Antony Hook said: “It is not really news as we are at a point where as every school holiday approaches, we bring it in.

“The problem is pretty straightforward - thousands of people who did not use to have their passport stamped now need to do so.”

Peers who were investigating the impact of the new system two years ago were told by Eurotunnel spokesman John Keefe that the issue was capacity.

He said: “The only proposals put forward for managing it in real time are an enormous expansion in the number of people conducting border controls and an enormous expansion in the number of available booths, neither of which is possible in the space constraints of the Channel Tunnel.”

Why Op Brock is the ‘least-worst’ option - analysis by KentOnline political editor Paul Francis

In the history of traffic management systems - should one ever be written - Operation Brock will be up there among the schemes that doesn’t exactly split opinion but manages to unite disparate groups in condemnation.

Its principal asset is that the contraflow keeps traffic moving - although some motorists dislike it because, while it does so, a 50mph limit is imposed.

That, say some, enables National Highways to secure a bonanza from speeding tickets as drivers find it hard to keep to the limit.

The chief feature of Brock is the moveable barrier which enables the contraflow to be implemented, a process that involves closing key junctions on the M20 while the barrier is moved into place.

Although developed as a contingency measure for when Brexit became official, it was used when the Channel ports were closed in December 2020 by the French authorities because of the perceived risk of Covid infection.

The scheme has been used many times since and has become an essential part of mitigating the worst effects of disruption and delays.

However, there is a growing feeling that despite its flaws and the promises made by the government, Op Brock has become the default option and that the search for a permanent solution has been sidelined.

“The only real solution is to stop lorries coming into Kent...”

Kent County Council says that its policy is that there should be more lorry parks but located outside the county.

Alarmed by the prospect of the government doing very little to find alternative solutions, Maidstone Borough Council carried out its own survey of residents’ feelings about Operation Brock last year.

Several hundred people responded to the consultation, echoing those concerns and suggesting improvements.

Leader of the council, Cllr David Burton (Con) said: “Operation Brock is not a long term solution for the border control issues.

“We cannot tolerate this becoming the ‘new normal.’ While we know that it is needed as part of the current plan to manage the volume of traffic heading to Europe this cannot be a permanent solution and we need to look at alternatives now – not later.”

Ashford county councillor Paul Bartlett (Con) says the government has given the impression that it was satisfied with Op Brock as the default position.

““There is still some hope and expectation that more lorry parks will be created but that is a massive demand and massive business activity,” he said.

“The only real solution is to stop lorries coming into Kent.”