Frustrated Christmas shoppers reportedly queued for hours to leave Bluewater yesterday evening (December 21).
Just four days before the main celebration, "nightmare" traffic left customers queueing for well over an hour to leave the car park, with further delays on the roads surrounding the Greenhithe shopping centre.
Adele Jennings, art editor at Sunday People magazine, said she and her kids popped in to pick up one present – and were stuck at Bluewater for four hours.
The family ended up eating dinner inside, to avoid the "traffic chaos".
Finally home from @TweetBluewater just popped in to pick up one thing...4 hours later we finally get out of there! #trafficchaos #bluewater
— Adele Jennings (@adelej75) December 21, 2015
Kent Police were called to help deal with the incident, which was caused by one broken down car and the "sheer" number of drivers attempting to get home for the evening.
However some queued for hours despite it being their second attempt to leave the centre.
Among them was 27-year-old Emma Mulcrow, from Rochester, who arrived at Bluewater at 11am and parked easily thanks to helpful traffic wardens directing traffic.
Unfortunately it was a different story coming out, and she did not leave Bluewater until around 9pm because of the "nightmare" traffic, which all filters into one lane at points.
Picture: Emma Mulcrow
After a first attempt at 4pm, moving an estimated three feet in half an hour, Ms Mulcrow gave up and went for dinner.
At 6.50pm she returned to her car and resumed queuing.
She finally left the car park 90 minutes later, and joined the A2 at 9.30pm.
Ms Mulcrow told News Shopper: "It just was shame there weren't more staff around.
"I felt sorry for those with kids as many had to park back up to take their kids for food or toilet.
"The shopping centre wasn't as horrendously busy inside as you'd think, but the car parks were gridlock from those coming out stopping those coming in."
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Bluewater apologised to customers for delays, and said the traffic was clearing by around 9pm.
A Kent Police spokesman said: "A broken down vehicle and the sheer volume of traffic at Bluewater tonight (December 21) caused delays to people trying to exit the shopping centre car parks.
"Local officers attended and directed traffic to help clear the backlog and the traffic is now running freely."
Time to park in Bluewater-10mins.Time to watch Star Wars 2hr.Time to do xmas shopping 30mins.Time to get out of car park currently 2.5hrs..!
— Adrian Dobbs (@APDobbs) December 21, 2015
Last night a Bluewater spokesman said the company was "aware of the traffic issues and apologise for any inconvenience caused."
He added: "Our operations team is working with Kent Police to resolve the matter as quickly as possible."
A spokesman added today: "Yesterday a broken down vehicle and a high volume of traffic in and around Bluewater caused delays to Christmas shoppers exiting the car parks.
"While the traffic in surrounding areas, including the M25, is out of Bluewater’s control, we have a dedicated team who work closely with organisations such as Kent Police and Highways England, to minimise traffic congestion at peak times.
"This includes deploying additional hosts in our carparks to help guests find spaces, as well as implementing traffic controls on surrounding roads.
"In addition, our extended opening hours provide guests with the greatest possible amount of time to visit Bluewater, which helps to reduce traffic on surrounding roads."
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