By Press Release
Just like old times, I’m next door to Holmsey again. David and I served on the IW Council together – he as a Conservative and me a Liberal Democrat.
We found common cause and frustrations and have remained friends since. Politics has changed much since those heady days when we were both councillors. Social media wasn’t the main channel of information (and misinformation), people seemed much less intolerant and debate more intelligent and enjoyable. I spent 13 years as a councillor, including IW Council Leader. With responsibility and time, I think I became more pragmatic and less political – my predecessor Morris Barton was much the same. We started political poles apart, but we had much in common. The desire to do what was best for the Island, an understanding that a successful economy and businesses were critical to that, and a frustration with irritating, unnecessary and selfish things that thwart Island success. Which brings me to a subject that has occupied many newspaper column inches. Our ferry services have been heavily criticised over the years. I’ve worked in the transport sector providing public bus services for around 25 years, so understand the challenges faced by transport businesses and very real problems with post-Covid changes to customer volumes, travelling patterns and staffing shortages. However, much has changed. Returning to politics, it’s a Conservative government that took the railway network into public control – setting fares, timetables, routes and taking the revenue risk from private companies, accepting the cost of subsidising a public rail service. With buses a Conservative government gave councils the right to franchise networks, literally stripping businesses from private companies (many of whom had bought them from government and local councils!) without compensation. Councils and the Department for Transport have huge influence over bus company operations and funds network provision, fare reductions, decarbonization subsidies and infrastructure improvements. This government even pays for Cornwall to have an air service between Newquay and London! How does that compare with our ferries? There’s no argument that our ferries are critical infrastructure – to the Island’s economy, residents’ mobility, ability to work, travel, to the health and well-being of Islanders and the Island itself. They are our road, rail, bus, plane equivalent. We have no alternative! I’m not a great critic of ferry services over the last 40 years and I suspect many of us look back longingly at service levels, prices and reliability pre-Covid. Yes, fares have risen too high over the last decade. Despite comparisons given by the operators, those who travel regularly (I do every week) know full well that prices have risen consistently, as both main operators have been repeatedly sold on to investment houses, pension funds and investors. But since the pandemic, the fundamental ability of the ferry services to meet the needs of the Island has fundamentally deteriorated to the point where, in my opinion, it is now damaging to the economy and wellbeing of our Island. No evening Fast Cat, reduced evening car ferry timetables, significant unreliability and short notice cancellations, along with continuing price rises. But my point is that, as an Island, we have absolutely no recourse. No regulation, no oversight, no transparency, no way of scrutinising whether the ferry companies’ reasons, facts and figures are spin or pure fact. We have no recourse over the cancellations and unreliability, no minimum standards set for them to deliver against. It’s time our MP stepped up to the mark. We need a level of regulation, scrutiny and minimum service standards – transparent refunds and requirements to improve when things go wrong. We have an MP from a government that has provided that for railways and buses. It’s time to demand it for our ferry services too.
