P&O Ferries boss calls for action on future blockades

P&O Ferries has taken action to try to avoid future blockades of ferry ports by fishermen by writing to the French prime minister.

Alain Vedel, the ferry company's port manager at Calais, contacted Francois Fillon following the recent industrial action that caused severe disruption to ferries from Dover to Calais, Boulogne and Dunkerque.

Mr Vedel said that P&O Ferries considers itself important to the port and town of Calais and therefore felt entitled to some degree of protection from the French government.

He added: "The port of Calais is the target of recurrent blockades which impede our activity, in conflicts which originate elsewhere and with which we are not concerned. Our customers and staff are regularly made hostage to people and organisations which appear uninterested by the common good."

In his letter, which was published on KentOnline, the P&O Ferries representative went on to call for a public assurance from Mr Fillon that port blockades will "no longer be tolerated".

Following the recent industrial action, it was reported that P&O Ferries was considering Ostend in Belgium as an alternative European port should its Dover to Calais ferry route be disrupted in the future.

Written by Mark Robinson