The strike by officers on SeaFrance cross-Channel ferries ended on Friday afternoon - after 17 days of widespread traffic misery in Kent.

The strike, which began on February 27, was settled with the French officers receiving a pay award of less than £1,000 a year each.

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SeaFrance was operating to normal schedules again on Saturday.

Operation Stack, which sees coastbound sections of the M20 used as a stacking area for hundreds - sometimes thousands - of lorries, has been implemented every day since February 28. It continued until the backlog of freight traffic was cleared on Saturday.

Kent's Chief Constable Mike Fuller said it was a chronic problem and unprecedented in Kent's transport history. He thanked the public for their help and patience.

He said: "Closing part of the M20 and using it to queue lorries because of disruption to cross Channel services is an emergency provision for Kent Police.

"It is not something we want to do, any more than the travelling public want to endure when it is running because of the associated disruption and congestion it causes for so many of us.

"People living and working in Kent, businesses, those travelling through the county, hauliers, lorry drivers and our partners have all been tremendous in supporting the effort we've put in to minimise the problems as best we can by running as flexible a system as possible.

"I would like to thank everyone for doing their bit to try to keep the county moving."

Mr Fuller said he was pleased to support Kent County Council's proposal for a lorry park close to the M20 at Aldington which he hoped would one day help absorb freight traffic when cross-Channel services were disrupted.

A statement by Seafrance said: "The management and the officers have today, 14th March, signed an agreement which enables the company to resume sailings between Calais and Dover.

"Regarding the salary claim, management and officers agreed on a 100 euros per month increase for chief officers, second engineers, and second officers in return for productivity gains.

"Last week, following advice from the internal health & safety committee, the management agreed to amend working conditions. As a result, officers can now work three days in succession and live more than two hours away from Calais.

"This agreement allows crossings to resume in the next few hours and a full service will run from tomorrow onwards.

"SeaFrance apologises again to their customers for the inconvenience of recent days and are preparing to resume their service as soon as possible."