With thousands of lorries lining more than 20 miles of motorway, concerns about the impact weekend holiday traffic will have are growing.

The M20 coastbound heading for Dover remains closed today, with the motorway continuing to be used for Operation Brock between J8, Leeds Castle and Maidstone Services, and J11 at Hythe.

Local traffic, as well as Eurotunnel cars and holiday traffic, are to use the A20 instead.

However, one coastbound lane is closed due to the Dover Traffic Assessment Project (TAP) from the Roundhill Tunnel to Dover.

As well as this there are waiting times of up to one hour to Freight Eurotunnel service at Folkestone due to high demand.

P&O Ferries services between Dover and Calais remain suspended.

Passengers with a P&O booking will no longer be accepted on DFDS sailings, which is also seeing delays of up to two hours due to high demand.

A2 Jubilee Way coastbound in Dover is also closed to prevent lorries from trying to bypass the holding areas.

There remains queueing traffic this evening on the M2 coastbound before J7 at Brenley Corner, where lorries heading for the Port of Dover, trying to bypass the holding areas, are being turned around.

To the north of the county, there are long delays at the M25 following a crash.

Leader of Dover District Council, Trevor Bartlett, has threatened to declare a major incident and warned people to prepare for disruption.

The senior Conservative has written an open letter in which he states Dover 'deserves better' and says more problems this weekend will 'not be tolerated'.

He has voiced his concerns about how emergency services will access roads, or how businesses will endure another weekend of no customers.

Cllr Bartlett said: "This weekend (April 8-10) is again likely to be challenging on the local road network.

"With P&O Ferries still not operating from Dover, the port will be under severe pressure throughout the busy Easter getaway.

"It would be remiss of me not to warn you to expect, and prepare for, some disruption again this weekend.

"But I have made it clear to the Kent Resilience Forum, Kent Police and Kent County Council that we will not tolerate another weekend of gridlock in Dover.

"We will be monitoring the situation closely throughout the weekend and I will not hesitate to authorise DDC Officers to declare a major incident if we see signs of the sort of congestion witnessed last weekend.

"Declaring a major incident would force the issue and trigger a more robust response."

The town's residents have been unable to use their cars to leave Dover or to head out for shopping or medical appointments.

While those unfortunate to be stuck in the stagnant queues have been stationary for hours with no sign of movement.

Taking to Twitter, Rob Howbrook said: "People cannot get to work due to lorries blocking every route through town.

"It’s a continuous failure by all agencies to manage the traffic into Dover when there are issues in the channel."

Further afield, residents of Maidstone have been urged to avoid using the A20 or M20 this weekend in the lead up to the Easter getaway.

Operation Brock has caused congestion in the town over the past week as traffic has been diverted on to the A20 at Hollingbourne.

Maidstone Borough Council's chief executive, Alison Broom, said today: “We realise that this has been a very difficult time for our residents and the issues on the M20 have impacted our communities, but we are asking them to not make journeys unless it is absolutely necessary this weekend.

“Please think about if you really need to make that journey as if you don’t you will be avoiding what could be potentially long delays and helping to keep our roads clear for essential traffic including the emergency services.”

A mum who became stuck in the jam on the M20 yesterday described the scene as “armageddon”.

Rachel Williams was trapped with her 11-year-old daughter before the turn-off at Junction 8 for more than three hours.

The pair, who had been travelling back from Bluewater, usually turn off at the junction on their journey home to Bearstead, and had expected to be able to do so with Operation Brock moved down to Junction 11.

Speaking in the car while trapped, she said: “Ordinarily, it would be a 40 minute journey home from Bluewater, but it has been about four and a half hours so far.

“We have nothing to drink or eat; my daughter is really hungry because we thought we would be home by lunchtime.

“The woman in the car next to me has got two or three very, very young children and she looks like she’s losing her mind.

“The lorry drivers are all using the verge to go to the toilet so we’re having to try and not look at that.”

The Bearsted resident said that the measures taken in Brock Zero “simply aren’t working,” and that the situation is the “worst it has ever been”.

“It looks like armageddon, thousands of people sat here, nothing has moved and I can’t see this shifting any time soon,” she said.

“I know they’ve got a headache doing all of this, but this simply isn’t working. We were here a year or two ago when things were happening at the port; this process does not work, they need to filter the lorries off at a much earlier stage.”

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