It seems a lack of manpower is behind this weekend’s dire warning that there could be gridlock at the UK Borders
The UK Border force says it has a “very solid plan” in place and disruption would be kept to a minimum during the Easter weekend and the weekend after. The UK Border Agency is planning to recruit extra staff to help with the holiday demand.
Last year, it seems the UK Border Agency relaxed certain immigration checks (and in some cases, abandoning them all together), causing embarrassment to the government, as well as UK Border Agency.
As a result ministers ordered full checking be restored.
Staff cutbacks were made, and all of a sudden, UKBA is short of manpower as full checks are needed.
Whilst most EEA/EU countries should be fine, most of the problems are expected to be beyond the European Union.
Estimates put over 370,000 passengers will fly from Heathrow airport between Good Friday and Easter Monday, and 200,000 will travel through Gatwick.
Whilst I wouldn’t expect massive delays over the Easter Weekend (I’d expect them the week after when everyone returns from holidays), this is a problem that is only going to get worse with the big events occurring in the UK in 2012.
All in the name of “saving” money… of course.
