Company axes Channel Tunnel route after 8-day hold-up

A CHADDERTON company has stopped using the channel tunnel following an eight-day halt for three wagons caused by the chaos in Calais.

FFG International of Brook Street transports large quantities of tiles from Spain to customers in the UK.

A routine shipment was stranded in Calais as strikes and hopeful migrants caused chaos and huge tailbacks. The tunnel has become a magnet for thousands of migrants hoping to make it to England.

Kent has been gridlocked as Operation Stack closed the M20 and thousands of lorries queued to get to Dover.

FFG’s three containers were supposed to pass through the tunnel for collection the following day. But there were tailbacks for many miles on the A16 south of Calais.

Gary Lumb, operations director for FFG International, said: “The train our carriages were supposed to travel on was cancelled for three more nights. They were stranded in Calais.”

The company, founded in 1982, made the decision to send the containers to Bruges in Belgium then by ferry to the UK. Two arrived in Purfleet and the other in Teesport eight days late.

Mr Lumb added: “We have never encountered a problem on this scale before. For the foreseeable future or until we have assurances the tunnel is operating smoothly again we are just not going to use it.

“Rearrangements have cost us money but we are also obviously reassuring customers who want to know why they haven’t got their products. We don’t like letting people down, or losing money.”