Long tailbacks on the roads to Dover have started to ease, after hundreds of people were forced to spend the night in their vehicles.
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Heightened French border security checks caused massive disruption for many hours Saturday as some thousands of travelers tried to make the journey into France.
Port of Dover said that the “exceptional security situation” had been made worse on Saturday morning by French border control booths being “seriously understaffed overnight with only three booths available for tourists out of a potential seven”.
The Freight Transport Association has warned there is a danger of Operation Stack being triggered in Kent if French border authorities do not address the backlogs seen at Dover this weekend.
They had initially predicted severe disruption could last into Monday.
Holidaymakers attempting to get away for a summer break spent hours at a standstill while police helped deliver water supplies by helicopter.
The Port of Dover said it had raised concerns over French staffing levels with the United Kingdom government earlier this week, which were then brought up with its French counterparts.
The UK Home Office said it sent UK Border Force to help French authorities.
Highways England said they had been working hard to keep people informed of progress on their routes.
A spokesman said that a large volume of holiday traffic is “anticipated over the next few days” as holidaymakers set off for Europe.
“We sympathise with those caught up in the traffic and would like to reassure everyone that we have worked around the clock with our partners to minimise the delays as far as possible”.
“Our electronic message signs are warning of the delays all the way up to the Midlands, we are tweeting regularly and have issued press releases to local and national media, and website channels”.
Ms Deeble added: “We would nevertheless like to apologise to the passengers whose holidays were affected and assure them that we will be talking to the British and French authorities this week to ensure that there is no repetition of this disruption”.
“And if the French police is obliged now to control because of all the terrorism we are facing, I can understand it but what I cannot understand is that they don’t put enough policeman to controls”.
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The traffic jams, on possibly the biggest travel weekend of the year, saw more than 11,000 bottles of water handed out by British police and aid workers to travellers stuck in the queues in sweltering heat.
