Vehicles destined for the continent are being parked on side roads and left on double-yellow lines as hauliers wait to be seen at a Covid-19 testing site.

Ashford's drive-through facility on the Victoria Road car park has never been so busy after France reopened its border with the UK.

Hauliers are now allowed to travel across the Channel - but only if they test negative less than 72 hours before departure.

It has sparked a flurry of activity at the Ashford site, which opened on the edge of the town centre in June amid a high infection rate in the borough.

Today, vans and huge HGVs have been parked in Gasworks Lane and outside the Victoria Road Primary School as drivers wait for their slot, forcing some motorists to use the opposite side of the road to pass them.

German driver Musa had delivered goods to Liverpool and was heading back to Kent when the French government announced the travel ban on Sunday.

"I was one of the unlucky guys who just missed the last ferry on Sunday evening," he said.

"I want to get back to Germany for Christmas, but I don't think that is possible now.

"I was unlucky but that's life - you have to be patient."

A huge Jurgen Klopp fan, Musa says he would have made the ferry if he hadn't stopped in Liverpool at the weekend to buy a football shirt.

He was sent to Ashford following a stay at the Manston Airport site near Ramsgate, where 4,000 lorries are being held.

Any new lorries arriving in Kent are currently being sent to Operation Brock between Junctions 8 and 9 of the M20.

About 600 trucks are also being held in Operation Stack from Junctions 10a to 12.

In the summer, residents raised concerns over the location of the Ashford test centre, which is next to the primary school and overlooked by a busy footbridge.

In a letter to Ashford Borough Council's (ABC) chief executive Tracey Kerly, South Ashford resident Jean Shrubb begged the authority to stop the launch of the facility.

Mrs Shrubb said the Stour Centre car park - where the Army had been carrying out Covid-19 testing during the early part of the crisis - would have been a better spot for the facility.

This morning in Cheriton, drivers made their way to a new walk-in Covid-19 test centre which was set up by the Department of Health earlier this month.

Read more: All the latest news from Ashford