Shropshire lorry firm stopping journeys via Calais

More than 4,000 migrants are living in Calais, hoping to clamber aboard UK-bound lorries, with some saying they will do whatever it takes to cross the Channel.

Each week Grocontinental, based in Whitchurch, sends three or four lorries through the tunnel, carrying cheese, dairy products, meat and frozen chips mainly to the Netherlands and Germany. After delivering, they turn around and bring stock back into the UK.

But now due to the problems in Calais, Simon Thompson, Grocontinental distribution manager, said the number of trips had been reduced, costing the company thousands of pounds.

He said: "We have reduced the number of vehicles we send out to Europe to a minimum.

"We normally send three to four a week and now we are sending one or two. From this weekend we are not going to send any more out until the problem is under control. Things just seem to be getting worst and are very difficult.

"It is a mixture of the migrant crisis and the French industrial action which is ebb and flowing every day and making the situation worse.

"It has led to lorries queuing through Kent as part of Operation Stack, and the problem is being made worse by French industrial action.

"You can leave Shropshire when Operation Stack is at a minimum and your truck can get through to Europe. But then they might encounter long delays on the way back."

Haulage firms have complained the Government has not done enough to tackle the problems at Calais with lorry drivers being fined more than £4 million after migrants were found in their vehicles – with the number of fines up 50 per cent on last year.

More than 3,300 fines were issued by UK Border Force staff in 2014-15, up from 2,177 in 2013-14. The fines can be as much £2,000 per migrant and can be levied against both drivers and their employers.

Mr Thompson said the company has not been fined and no migrants have recently attempted to board a Grocontinental lorry, but they have tried in the past.

He added: "It is not nice for the drivers. They do not know if a migrant gets under the lorry and if they find them they may have a knife. We have special locks for the trailers. There is a heartbeat monitor at Calais, and a C02 monitor to check for people on board – this is optional but we ensure our drivers go through this.

"Drivers are fed up that they can't get on with the job. The costs are £750 per day per truck, so with each delay, costs quickly mount up."

Mr Thompson added that he hopes the French will start to take control of the migrant situation and the industrial action.