"Never ever have I seen such chaos."

"Another example of the Government not being able to control their roads."

Two reactions from KentOnline readers to the traffic chaos experienced near the Port of Dover over the weekend.

Vehicles queued back for miles on the approaches to Dover on Saturday. Cars were at a standstill for several hours and Operation Stack was brought in for the whole day due.

Thousands of people heading for the continent for Christmas, or just Christmas shopping - many of them without having made reservations - were said to be to blame.

But motorists angry at the chaos have been contacting KentOnline with their views.

Kate from Scunthorpe wrote: "I've lived in England for 10 years,and have been travelling back to France every Christmas. NEVER EVER have I seen such chaos.

"I booked my ticket back in September, as usual - but missed my 4.40pm ferry due to appalling organisation."

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Scott Rudderham from Germany said: "I saw signs on the motorway saying that queing had started and to divert to the A20. We did this and hit a jam eight miles from dover and stayed there for three hours!

"My eight-month-old son really apreciated the delay and I was at one point close enough to Dover to see my ferries disappear."

Saturday was probably the busiest winter day the Port of Dover ever for outbound traffic, according to Dover Harbour Board chief executive Bob Goldfield.

The port handled 77,988 passengers - an increase of 6.4 per cent compared with the same day in 2007 - 15,960 tourist cars (up 14.1 per cent), and 517 coaches.

But it was the freight traffic that increased dramatically, up 128 per cent to 4,841.

The increases are being blamed on a combination of reduced capacity at the Channel tunnel, large amounts of unbooked traffic, Christmas holidaymakers and shoppers, and lorry drivers wanting to be home for the festive break.

“We regret there were long delays on the approach roads to the port but the lack of available Eurotunnel capacity meant the port having to handle a much larger volume of traffic,” said Mr Goldfield.

“This was probably the busiest winter day the port has ever experienced for outbound traffic.”

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