Kent keeps waiting for Europe’s new border regime
Long-promised changes still haven’t fully arrived, plus Cliftonville votes, Medway borrows, and the rest of Kent this week
This week’s Kent Current leads with the delayed rollout of Europe’s new Entry/Exit System, which is officially due to begin but still not fully operating for most cross-Channel passengers using Dover and Folkestone. We also look ahead to Thursday’s Cliftonville by-election, cover major council decisions including Medway’s latest housing purchase plans, and round up the stories shaping Kent this week.
Kent keeps waiting for Europe’s new border regime
Kent has spent years being warned that Europe’s new biometric border system could mean delays, queues and chaos at Dover and Folkestone. The EU still says the Entry/Exit System should be fully in place from Friday 10 April. But for most cross-Channel passengers using Kent’s main gateways, the old passport stamp will still be doing the job.
That is the position after another delay in the long rollout of the Entry/Exit System, or EES, which is meant to replace manual passport stamping for non-EU travellers with a digital record based on passport details, fingerprints and a facial image.
According to the Guardian, passengers using Le Shuttle, cross-Channel ferries and Eurostar will not face the new biometric checks in the coming weeks, despite the looming deadline. Sources at the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel told the paper that France has still not provided the technology needed to collect and process biometric data for those passengers.
So while the system is officially meant to be in place, the practical reality in Kent is that, for most tourist traffic heading to France, stamping continues.
The French border for ferry, Le Shuttle and Eurostar passengers heading to France sits on this side of the Channel. If checks take longer, the effects do not stay neatly contained at passport control. They turn up in Dover traffic, on east Kent roads and in the long-running fear that one more bit of border friction can once again cause wider disruption across the county.
That has been the argument around EES all along. It is why the Port of Dover has altered layouts and built new facilities, why Getlink has spent millions on kiosks at Folkestone and Coquelles, and why Kent has been repeatedly told to brace for disruption from a border regime that still cannot quite get going.
The irony is obvious enough. Kent has spent years preparing for a border future that remains stubbornly theoretical. The kiosks are there, but the system itself is still only half here.
There has been some rollout. Lorry drivers, coach passengers and ferry foot passengers have already been going through EES formalities. Eurotunnel says there will be a further step from Friday, with French border police beginning to create EES files, but that this will not involve biometric data collection for Le Shuttle customers. Eurostar says enrolments are currently being completed manually by French border officers at St Pancras.
For travellers, that leaves a messy message. Official advice still says EES is being fully implemented from Friday, and people should allow more time. But Eurostar and Eurotunnel are also saying passengers should continue to arrive at the time on their tickets, because there will be no immediate change for them.
Kent has spent years being told this was the border change that could snarl up Dover and send the knock-on effects spreading across east Kent. The kiosks are in, the roads have been reworked, and the deadline is now here. For most passengers, though, the border still looks much as it did before, and the long-promised new regime remains something Kent is still waiting to actually meet.
Three big reads
1️⃣ The Mirror's subscription to the Kent Current must have lapsed, because they breathlessly reported last week in an 'exclusive' that Reform's administration at County Hall was chaotic, aggressive, and that cost-saving measures had backfired.
2️⃣ Travellers moved into a Kent village over the Easter weekend in what the Daily Mail have described as a 'military operation.' The report claims that once the council was closed for the weekend, hampering enforcement, they paved over a field in Sundridge, with families already moving in before one mobile home got wedged in a lane.
3️⃣ Devi Sridhar, writing in the Guardian, managed to find a reassuring message in last month's meningitis outbreak in Canterbury. She writes that despite backlash against vaccines and public health interventions, the government's advice was calm and clear, and people followed the guidance, with young people leading the way.
Council matters
By-elections:
- Kent: Cliftonville by-election is on Thursday. The candidates are Joanne Bright (Labour), Lucy Gray (Independent), Charlie Leys (Conservative), Marc Rattigan (Reform), Mo Shafaei (Liberal Democrat), and Rob Yates (Green).
Meetings this week:
- Medway: Cabinet meets tonight (Tuesday) to discuss borrowing £45m to buy nearly 600 homes, updates to the petition scheme, refurbishing Gun Wharf, and lots more.
- Tonbridge & Malling: Cabinet will tonight (Tuesday) discuss retendering waste services, planning enforcement, the Local Plan, and lots more.
- Medway: Planning Committee will decide their position on 690 homes in Hoo on Wednesday, despite the decision already being taken out of their hands.
- Gravesham: Planning Committee meets on Wednesday to decide on 40 new homes proposed for Buckland Farm in Higham.
New planning applications:
- Kent: Application for a waste-to-hydrogen facility between Margate and Manston.
In brief
🚰 In a recurring theme, nearly 6,000 homes around Pembury, Lamberhurst, and surrounding villages lost water supply from South East Water for up to three days over Easter.
🚧 Three years on, there seems to be no sign of progress on resolving the Swanscombe Hole, caused by a landslip on the A226.
🏚️ Developer Hodson has gone into administration, leaving the future of 6,000 new homes at Ashford's Chilmington Green development at risk.
🏘️ Medway Council are considering borrowing £46m to purchase nearly 800 properties from a social housing provider.
➡️ Former Ebbsfleet Development Corporation boss Simon Dudley has been sacked from his role as Reform's housing spokesperson after saying "everyone dies in the end" in response to the Grenfell disaster.
🎥 Sky News have produced a short documentary on 'The Kent Conman,' a fraudster who has allegedly committed dozens of offences from Kent villages to Tenerife. To make himself even more obvious, he went by the name Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise's character from the Mission: Impossible films.
🚓 Faversham far-right activist Harry Hilden had a warrant issued for his arrest after not turning up to a court date, choosing to spend the morning posting antisemitic conspiracy theories instead. The police quickly found him, and he, in his own words, spent a "couple of days in a cell and in court over some absolute bullshit."
Kent is large, messy and often faintly absurd. The Kent Current is backed by readers, which means we can report on it properly. An annual subscription costs £1.15 a week and helps make that possible.
🛢️ Kent is 'drowning in mountains of waste' from fly-tipping.
🪂 A skydiver has been confirmed dead following an incident at Headcorn Aerodrome.
🏖️ Scammers have been listing beach huts they don't own for sale on eBay.
🚒 Seven fire crews attended a suspected arson at Arlington House in Margate.
🅿️ Parking machines in Queenborough have been vandalised a day after Swale Borough Council started charging for car parking.
🚍 Kent's Fastrack bus network recently turned 20, and will shortly have to move back in with its parents after graduating.
🚌 Stagecoach has launched an open-top bus route of Kent's seaside destinations, allowing you to jump on and off along the coast between Birchington, Margate, Broadstairs, and Ramsgate for £8.
🚄 Southeastern claims that more trains, more space, and more connections will be available on the network with this year's timetable changes.
🧑🏫 The University of Kent has rolled out ChatGPT to all staff and students in a move that can't possibly go wrong.
💎 Some people in Canterbury are very upset that Canterbury Christ Church Gate has been restored to its original look.
🛒 Lidl will open in Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey, despite Tesco and Aldi's best efforts to block it.
🌳 Residents of Langley Park in Maidstone are being asked to pay £33,000 for new trees after the developer failed to keep the first two plantings alive.
🏗️ Margate Football Club have proposed building a new stand and a 59 bedroom 'co-living' facility that definitely isn't a HMO.
🏆 Folkestone Invicta have won the Isthmian Premier Division and will now be promoted to National League South. Hopefully, Rhys of the Folkestone Dispatch will have calmed down enough to get tomorrow's edition published.
🏆 Whitstable Town have won the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division and will be promoted to the Isthmian League South East.
🦽 Accessibility upgrades have been installed at Trosley Country Park to make the site more accessible for those of all abilities.
🦬 A herd of bison introduced to Blean Woods has had a 'great impact' on nature at the site.
🐮 Highland cows at Hothfield Heathlands near Ashford have had to be moved after they went a little too viral on TikTok.
🥔 Kent Crisps have launched a new flavour in collaboration with Shepherd Neame and Chatham Historic Dockyard.
🐭 The original Mother Clanger puppet, stolen in the 70s, has been returned and is now on display at the Beany in Canterbury.
Property of the week
This week’s property is Buckler’s Hard, a 1972 architect-designed one-off just off Kingswood Road that was built for the former Mayor of Tunbridge Wells, which is a strong start for any listing. It’s unapologetically of its era, all vaulted timber ceilings, light, and a slightly Scandinavian feel, but it also looks genuinely liveable, with the main accommodation arranged mostly for single-storey living and three bedrooms plus a garden room that can double as a bedroom or workspace, alongside two bathrooms and an updated kitchen with a utility room. The other headline is underneath it, a vast undercroft with a carport, double garage and three storerooms, with the agent already hinting it could be incorporated into the main house, subject to consents, if you fancy turning 'storage' into 'expensive extra space.' It sits on about 0.4 acres at the end of a private drive, with mature wraparound gardens, has no onward chain, and is on the market for £1,365,000.
Events this week
🎸 Thu 9 Apr - Lande Hekt // One of the UK's best indiepop songwriters. Ramsgate Music Hall. Tickets £14.50.
🎤 Sat 11 Apr - Stevie Martin: Clout // New show from comedian promises 45 million jokes. Marlowe Studio, Canterbury. Tickets £22.
Footnotes
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