Port bosses have blamed drivers “not adhering to management plans” for huge delays in Dover - and there are still hold-ups today.

Yesterday, on the first day of the half-term getaway, there were severe processing waits for holidaymakers heading to France.

Frustrated motorists stuck in the gridlock in the town reported waiting up to seven hours leading to the port.

One X user said: “This is chaos! Appreciate it’s a bank holiday and we’ve left Europe but come on Port of Dover, this is crazy!!!”

This morning, the Port of Dover announced that queuing times at its passport processing booths were up to two hours, but this has now eased to an hour.

In a statement about yesterday’s chaos and delays a spokesperson said: “We had a high degree of port-bound traffic that did not adhere to the management plans in place.

“This unfortunately affected everyone’s journey and created congestion in the town and surrounding area. We ask that traffic sticks to the main routes, thank you.”

Drivers were advised to stick to the M20/A20 and M2/A2 to reach the docks.

However, residents and motorists in the area disagreed.

One said on X: “Surely you can't blame people when you clearly don't have the infrastructure?”

Another said: “No, the hold-up was at the port passport control, as usual.

“Watching a tiny drip of cars making it through per hour it's obvious that traffic backs up.

“You know what level of booking causes complete gridlock, stop being greedy and put limits in place.”