Dover leader’s relief at delay to EES Ian Taylor


The EU’s decision to delay the planned launch of its new border Entry/Exit System (EES) next month avoided “complete and utter carnage” in Dover, according to local government leaders, despite promises the system would have been ready. Dover District Council leader


Kevin Mills told the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee last week: “We would not have been ready on November 10. We’re more than happy there has been a delay.” The EU announced the delay on


October 11. Mills said: “The road networks are not ready. There has been no


live technology trial at Dover. None of the tech is ready. None of the infrastructure is ready. The Department for Transport has made great play of having plans to take traffic off the roads but has not discussed these with Dover District Council.” He warned an EES launch “would


be complete and utter carnage”, adding: “We don’t know the length of delay or what will follow.” Kent County Council leader Roger


Gough agreed, saying: “The delay came as a relief. We don’t know how long it will be or what is to be done during that time. There is talk of some form of soft launch. The key thing is not to have a sudden introduction.” He told the committee: “A great deal of work has gone on to try to


Agent warns trade following Facebook extortion attempt


Andrew McQuarrie


A Blackburn agency owner is warning the trade to be vigilant after a “scam artist” managed to restrict access to her business’s Facebook page and tried to extort more than £400. Facebook applied restrictions


to The Holiday Shop’s page after a social media user made numerous complaints alleging certain pictures had infringed his copyright. Owner Marina Marsh, who is


confident her agency had the right to use all of the posted pictures, which included one she had taken herself, entered into an email exchange with


4 24 OCTOBER 2024


the social media user, who invited her to pay €500 to have some of the complaints withdrawn. “Maybe it’s because we’re a small


business, he thought we would pay it,” she said, going on to urge fellow agents to be on guard for similar ploys. The Holiday Shop was prevented


from publishing images on its Facebook account for 30 days after the complaints were lodged. A total of eight complaints were


submitted by the same social media user within 48 hours, Marsh said, but when challenged by email, the person was unaware how many complaints he had made and was unclear as to which pictures he had flagged.


He offered to retract complaints


to allow The Holiday Shop a chance to more quickly regain full access to its account if Marsh paid him €500. She refused and instead accepted


30 days of restricted Facebook access, which she feared would harm trading. “I really expected us to be down


on the previous year, but we were actually up – I don’t know if it was just a lucky month,” she said. Marsh said she and her staff


understand copyright rules and best practice on the use of images. She contacted Facebook many


times to let the site know what had happened, she said, but had not received a response. She also reported


There is talk of


some form of soft launch. The key thing is not to have a sudden introduction


mitigate the impacts but there are great residual risks. This may be an opportunity to address those.” Rail operators were less pleased


about the delay. Eurostar general secretary and


chief strategic partnerships officer Gareth Williams said: “We would have been ready on November 10. Our teams were ready, and communications prepared.”


John Keefe, chief corporate and


public affairs officer of Eurotunnel operator Getlink, went further, saying: “We’re disappointed. We had the infrastructure in place, the processes worked through and had recruited staff. “We put £80 million of


investment in not only to be ready but for it to be efficient. Until we go live there is no way to recover that cost, [which] will inevitably be passed on to customers.” However, he said the EU had


recognised “late in the day, that it would not have worked to go live”. Keefe insisted: “The testing needs to be rigorous at the EU end of the


system, so it won’t fail.” i Business, page 46


Marina Marsh


the incident to Action Fraud. Marsh added: “There are scam artists all the time and we’ve got to catch them out.” Travel Weekly contacted


Facebook’s parent company, Meta, for comment but received no reply. Barry Gooch, chairman of


Prevention of Fraud in Trade (Profit), said: “Agents need to be aware this is a potential issue on social media.”


Have you been a victim of Facebook scammers or other online fraudsters? Email: andrew.mcquarrie@ travelweekly.co.uk


travelweekly.co.uk


PICTURE: Shutterstock/Gil C


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