More than 11,000 people have now signed a petition exclaiming ‘enough is enough’ when it comes to cross-Solent ferries, demanding reliable ferries and capped fares.
Calls are being made for the Isle of Wight’s MPs – Joe Robertson (East) and Richard Quigley (West) – to act in the interests of Islanders by continuing to pile on the pressure on the new Labour Government. In just 2 weeks the petition has gained momentum and has re-ignited regional and national interest in the ferry companies and their operations. Simon Jackson, the petition’s creator, says:
“I am sure you will agree, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and something MUST be done. We need reliable ferries that we can count on. We need capped fares to ensure fairness for all”.
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“The ferries have got more expensive, less reliable and the timetables have been thinned now. It’s fairly obvious to me that it’s come to a head”.
You can see the petition and add your signature by visiting https://www.change.org/p/isle-of-wight-ferries-enough-is-enough.
This surely isnt exclusively an island problem, there must be other MPs serving other islands with similar issues (Im too lazy to research this myself)
It’s difficult, I think, to find a comparable length car ferry route in the UK to judge fares by. The nearest length route is possibly Mainland (Shetland) to Yell, which is, to the best of my knowledge, £16.50 for a car and driver and £2.80 for additional adults, all return.
But, that’s a shorter journey than across the Solent and things like this do tend to be heavily subsidised in Scotland.
But, it IS a hell of a lot cheaper, nonetheless.
Just about the only other islands in the UK facing comparable issues were the islands off the west coast of Scotland. The ferry operators, Caledonian MacBrayne, are now 100% owned by the Scottish government. In 2022/23 CalMac cost the Scottish government £170m in subsidies. It must be at least worth considering whether a similar policy could work for the much smaller ferry operation over the Solent.
Why hasn’t this been set up as a UK Government petition? If a petition on the official UK Government’s website gets over 10,000 signatures, it has to be debated in Parliament. An opportunity has been missed.
The only good thing is, the more expensive and unreliable the ferry is, the less people will wish to live here, thus easing a little of the symbiotic relationship between the Council and the Pinks wealth creation greed.
We need cheaper fares, some of us need to visit the mainland to
visit family.
Less than 5 mile crossing so I can visit family in
Eastney is very costly.
I use to go every 2 weeks, to make it cheaper I now go once a
Month.
Oh bless them… Let’s all sign it and see nothing happen….again! What is it with this island and petitions!
Or we could not sign and just make dopey comments in this section and still see nothing happen. What do you suggest might be a better option for action if not the petition?
Like people who proudly exclaim “I don’t vote for no one” and then moan about everything known to man
oh plastic Qwerty you’re here again! hope u had a good weekend my plastic friend
Why is this partition asking for a £11 donation after you sign it? Scam comes to mind.
I guess people have to run the site, host it etc, and that presumably costs money.
I don’t think a contribution is compulsory on this or other petitions.
The likes of Wikipedia also ask for donations, and I don’t think that could be classified as a scam?
It didn’t ask me for any money when I signed. I’d gladly give £200 if needs be.
So what not enough and won’t make the slightest bit of difference.
Then don’t bother making puerile comments
The island now has 2 MPs
Let’s see if they get their heads out of their —-
and do something about the sh*t service
Also the fast jet and fast catamaran services have reduced crossing speeds to save fuel Red Jet now takes 30 minutes instead of 22 minutes crossing and Wight link fast cat service now takes as long as the Sealink old diesel ferries 30 minutes but no savings to the customer some of which is a restricted speed approach to Portsmouth harbour (QHM) due to the fact the catamaran has a constant bow wave unlike the old diesel ferry’s.
Now KHM. Get it right
11k genuine signatures? Or circa 7% of the population. Doesn’t sound very convincing to me.
Typical Isle of Wight apathy
Perhaps Simon Jackson is another pseudonym of Carl.
I would have expected 50k signatures by now, it needs more promotion to be effective
A years time it will still be exactly the same
But they are both private companies,she..e service both of them but you can have a petition with a million signatures and they will rip it up and keep paying shareholders huge dividends,something is going to happen be to give here £400 to get off The Island with car and with discount?going on slowcat and hiring car in Pompey 200 pound cheaper!
Has anyone had the confirmation email in their inbox?
I’m suspicious of these anti ferry groups (the WUG clearly declared their political allegiance with the email they had to retract a little while ago) as to my knowledge none of them have actively denounced a fixed link. What if it is a ploy by the vacuous fixed link brigade to gather wide-ranging support by a ferry-bashing agenda, only to then say, when nothing happens, ‘enough-is-enough’ and then campaign for a fixed link announcing they have thousands of unwitting supporters. It’s common knowledge how they’ve been economical with truth before. Just a thought.
The Islands ferries have never, to my knowledge, been subject to such sustained disruption allegedly due to technical problems and staff shortages as they have been in recent times. Surely Red Funnel’s vessels have to be subject to inspections and will be services regularly. Likewise, Wightlink must surely have backup staff (it is noteworthy that there are no vacancies advertised on their website). Is it, perhaps, the case that the ferries are not full (possibly because the extortionate prices are deterring people from crossing the Solent) and that what the operators are doing is combining services to remove the running cost of some sailings and thus maximise profit without regard to the convenience of customers?
With the unreliable Ferry Services
The island is still in Lockdown.
I’ve just signed the petition get rid of em, as a football fan who likes going to games I hate how I have to spend so much a season to get average service and constant cancellations
Have you had the email from them into your inbox to confirm your vote?
Do you have the petition link
It’s in the article in red
Maybe it’s time to start copying the just stop oil gang??? Prisons now full with rioters, so we’ll just get a slap on the wrist. Can’t arrest all of us, not enough police and will be no ferries to bring in any more because we’ll have stopped them all. Will get on the national news, can’t ignore it them.
you go ahead fred and if you try and stop me getting on my ferry, you will be stepped all over.
Surprised this isn’t a parliamentary petition (gov.uk website) which at 10K/100K signatures enforces specific government action rather than change.org.
Easy first step for the government: Enforce a more strict compensation scheme for delays. Start with aligning to railway compensation (for vehicle ferries) including online Delay Repay (and allow disruption to onward travel, especially trains, to be claimed).
If that doesn’t encourage improvement, align compensation to EU Air passenger rights model, then threaten to nationalise the linkspans to allow new entrants to compete.
A more worthwhile petition have to be to get St Mary’s hospital upgraded to cope with the needs of Islanders so residents don’t have to rely on unreliable ferries for vital treatments.
Would result in part time consultants to cover all the needed specialisms, who would need to come from the mainland. Island not big enough for full service hospital.
Same problem with unreliable ferries. Would be cheaper to run dedicated hospital ferries or a dedicated helicopter shuttle 2 x per day.