Isle of Wight ferry users stage protest in Cowes town centre
Ferry protesters gathered in an Isle of Wight town centre today, outraged at “unreliable” and “increasingly expensive” services.
Assembled on Cowes’s High Street wearing pirate outfits and holding placards reading ‘no more dubloons for ferry tycoons’ and ‘we’ve been plundered’, the demonstration coincides with a ministerial visit to the Island.
Mike Kane MP, Minister for Aviation, Maritime and Security, is attending the Isle of Wight Ferries Roundtable at Cowes’s Island Sailing Club, a forum to ‘facilitate discussion on the perceived issues affecting people’s ability to rely upon vital Isle of Wight ferry services’, according to an official briefing.
Participants in today’s roundtable include both of the Island’s MPs, County Hall leader Phil Jordan, CEO of Red Funnel Fran Collins, Wightlink’s CEO Katy Taylor, the managing director of Hovertravel, Neil Chapman, and Sir Paul Kenny, former leader of the GMB union and a prominent campaigner for better ferry services.
Mr Kenny told the press: “It’s time for change. Everybody knows the ferries are overpriced, they’re debt laden…it can’t go on. There has to be a political intervention. There’s no structure, no regulation.”
Across the road from him, a chorus of demonstrators chanted: “Killing the Island, ferries are, robbing the Island, ferries are.”
Isle of Wight West MP Richard Quigley (Labour) said the cross-Solent ferries market was a “natural monopoly” without “government intervention”.
He added: “The Department for Transport aren’t admitting it’s a problem, so we need to make them aware it’s a problem.
“It’s a huge issue and we don’t have an alternative…it’s our only option for travelling across the Solent.”
Joe Robertson, Isle of Wight East MP (Conservative) said: “It’s the biggest ongoing issue on the Island. Prices have gone up, timetables have dwindled and reliability has got worse.
“I would like to see the government intervene – the Minister coming here today is a good start but it’s only a start.
“I don’t trust the ferry companies to make the change we need because they owe their responsibilities to one group of people and one group only, their shareholders.”
