Secretary of State for Levelling Up Michael Gove has said that the tourism industry is ‘key the Island’s development’ and that cross-Solent travel needs to be ‘economically viable’ following a visit to the Isle of Wight this week.
Gathering at Shanklin’s The Brunswick Hotel on the 2nd day of the Islands Forum, dignitaries from a host of UK Islands including the Isles of Scilly, Anglesey, Shetland Islands, Orkney and Rathlin discussed and debated the ways in which they could improve the level of their Island communities.
This is only the 2nd iteration of the Islands Forum following the 1st edition that was held up in Scotland – on the Orkney Islands – in September of last year.
Council leader Lora Peacey-Wilcox was also present at the forum alongside local MP Bob Seely – who backed Michael Gove to be the new Prime Minister before Boris Johnson was eventually elected back in 2019.
Michael admitted that he and MP Seely had been speaking about transport links on the Island but that the majority of the dialogue was centred around the need to make improvements in the education sector on the Island, in particular literacy and reading.
Island Echo chose to ask Mr Gove about what is being done to help local businesses and those working in the tourism sector ahead of a crucial Summer season. When asked if he had a message for local businesses who rely on the tourism boost and those coming to the Island on the ferry, Mr Gove said:
“We’re on your side, the Isle of Wight has all of the advantages of Cornwall but lacks the accessibility. We need to make sure that people appreciate that. If there are barriers to that then it will affect local economic growth”.
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Speaking to Island Echo, Michael also said:
“Tourism and hospitality is central to the Island’s economic future but one of things I’m keen to do is make sure that every aspect of the Island economy improves from work in the engineering sector and also things the media sector.
“But I know that everything links back to making sure that people can come to and from the Island in a way that is economically viable.”
“The tourism offer that the Island has is continually being upgraded and the Isle of Wight has peerless opportunities for family holidays so making sure we work to maintain its attractiveness is key to the future economic growth”
On the forum, MP Bob Seely has said:
“The specific issues I raised were:
“First, the importance of supporting teachers on islands, and the Isle of Wight, to be given greater support in their continuous professional development so that they can offer the best teaching to young people from the Isle of Wight.
“Second, the need for centres of teaching excellence to be, where possible, on Islands.
“Third, for island kids to have greater access to higher education on the Isle of Wight, and in time to be able to do 3-year degrees in more subjects on the Isle of Wight, possibly from a mini-campus based on Newport Harbour.
“We talked about transport, but agreed that, due to the importance of the issue, it needed to be discussed at the next forum and to be done so in depth.”
As was the case on Wednesday, a small group of protestors from the Wightlink User Group made themselves known at the local venue including Labour Councillor Richard Quigley. They had no contact with Mr Gove.
This comes after increased pressure has been placed on all forms of cross-Solent travel as fares and fees reach new astronomical heights. A peak-time week return in the middle of the summer holidays is now hitting £300.
On Wednesday, Gove – who said he last visited the Island back in 2014 – went to Venture Quays, CECAMM in Whippingham and Victoria Barracks in East Cowes – the site of the latest successful levelling-up bid. He then had dinner at the popular Albert Cottage.
Mr. Gove’s visit to CECAMM exemplifies the island’s commitment to nurturing skills and addressing industry needs, positioning it as a key player in the engineering landscape. Whilst on site, Mr Gove was able to talk to engineering students who are currently working toward a career in the field of engineering, giving him an insight into how the college and its numerous industry connections has helped them on their educational and vocational journeys.
On his visit to CECAMM Mr Gove said:
“Island communities contribute a huge amount to the UK and often face common challenges. Our new Islands Forum will bring communities together and give our islands a stronger voice.” “The UK Government’s goal is to unite and level up our whole United Kingdom, from Shetland to the Scillies. This new forum will make sure that our islands are placed right at the heart of our levelling up mission.”
Principal of the Isle of Wight College, Ros Parker OBE said:
“We were delighted to showcase our outstanding facilities at CECAMM. I was so proud of our students and apprentices who confidently shared the skills they had gained from our talented team and the industry standard resources that enable them to become sought after engineers.”
Little point going on about education as falling numbers of children on role with only get worse as more people move off Island and older population grows – often down to the cost of ferry. It costs same to run ferry across Solent in winter or summer ,full or 2/3rds empty. No justification to charge £300 rtn in summer and £75 in winter except pure greed and profits for shareholders. Wonder how many shareholders have ever used ferry or know it’s importance to our community. Prices are preventing average Island residents from travelling. Bus fare only £2 , about time government subsidies for Island residents on ferry. How much did Gove pay I wonder?.
It’s a private business. They respond to shareholders. Subsidising private business is pointless, you literally pour money into shareholders’ pockets even more by forcing all taxpayers to chip in into profits of a private company that’s often under very weak obligation to leave just a few sensible assets behind for years of subsidies.
What you want is decent public transport, not private one. You’ll still need to subsidise it but at least you can be sure all taxpayers who chip can see all assets retained as government-owned and company can be scrutinised much further.
And I say this as an evil stock analyst working for the City 😉 Private just doesn’t make sense for mass transport.
The only sensible thing I’ve heard you say Susan
Indeed. Locals should be voicing their concerns to the party that will win the next general election. Have a good moan at Starmer if you want change. Labour are generally quite keen on getting public transport out of private ownership.
Gove will claim for his on his extortionate monthly expenses.
Lots of talf about making ferries more affordable for tourists, many of whom have the ferry fares included in their holiday package. Nothing about making ferry fares affordable for islanders for whom the ferries are an essential service.
These Tories are so out of touch they might as well be on a different planet.
smiffy – a person who commutes on the fastcat to work each day, pays about £4 a trip, when based on 48 weeks of work a year, five days a week and having purchased an annual season ticket using the monthly payment option of direct debit.
the multilink passes are good value also for infrequent travellers. buy 10 crossings for £80 – meaning £8 a crossing.
a taxi from ryde to cowes at commuter time on a weekday is over £50 one way (i know, i had a cab booked for an event earlier this year from ryde esplanade to west cowes town centre at 8am)
ferries are already reasonably priced.
80 quid is still alot of money I think it could be reduced even further for island residents; after all, we are the ones who keep them afloat, pun intended.
Great for commuters like you but not so great for those whose trips are less predictable and are unlikely to be able to benefit from buying ten crossings at a time.
Also sidesteps the more fundamental issue of the it being one of only two essential crossings in the country not to be recognised as such or supported in any way whatsoever.
Gove kicking this issue into the long grass is just another kick in the teeth for islanders.
ten crossings are valid for use anytime in a 12 month period – if you do not do 5 return trips over the course of a year, then your argument about service levels, frequency and price are not worth listening to
taxi really, what about using the bus…about £4 trip really.. what year was that… and what about when ferry is cancelled, late or breaks down… ?? Need a better crossing, like a tunnel and ban the ferries, or just use them for sightseeing tours.. and dangerous loads..
Taxis are governed by the iow council they are the ones who set the tariffs. But it would of never of cost £50 if it did then the wrong tariff was set
Does the government have the power to either nationalise the link over the water or bring in a new company? A no thrills barge of some kind that costs a tenner to get to and fro, I think with the amount of people who cross profits will still be able to be injected back into the company to keep it going; I’m sorry but when a company says oh no we’ve lost so much money when they’ve still got a 4m profit window is just preposterous. We need to fight back with the power of the people. Government officials just fool around drinking scotch for a living and we rely on these loonies to be our voice… ahem .. what kind of event will occur for people to feel the passion to enact change my circumstances restrict me but so many have the opportunity to
What you want is simply called government-owned* public transport.
*feels even weird to emphasise this but UK did some weird privatisions with public transport that one has to make sure we’re on the same page what “public” actually means, lol.
Indeed, you hit the nail on the head on the comment below
Vote Labour if this is what you want.
Hit the rail on the head.. Sorry Freudian slip
As usual nothing will be done to break the ferries hold on the island, they have a duopoly which they know cannot be broken so are only interested in the profits they can make and the payouts to their shareholders.
Yeah, obviously? That’s the most rational way of action for any private business.
That’s why private doesn’t work for mass transport – at least if your goal is mobility of your citizens rather than pouring money into pockets of your friends who are CEOs, that one’s going very well for Tories 😉
You just want truly public public transport.
susan with regards to rail – read the mcnulty report from 2011
“it seems unlikely that renationalisation would lead to a reduction in costs”, and saying that “where Government has taken control of aspects of the rail system, costs have tended to increase rather than decline.” The report concluded that “many of the arguments for renationalisation are formed from the failings of the existing system, and the Study considers that much more can be gained by improving the performance of the current system rather than embarking on a costly programme of renationalisation, which is unlikely to lead to a reduction in costs.”
also …governments would use nationalised transport as another way of raising taxes, via prices.
Remember when we were told that privatising railways would cut costs, improve services, and end strikes? What a load of old crap that was. It was just a money making scam for Tories.
erm – labour came to power indicating that they would re-nationalise – they didn’t, they kept the privatisation programme in place
If you have privatised mass transport there has to be strict regulations and genuine consequences for investors when it doesn’t provide the public service in my opinion. This would make it less attractive to invest in of course so you could argue there is less money to refuel the buisness, but as we have seen with many of the privatised services in this country, water being the best example, the companies aviod investment to maintain provits at all costs and then charge the bill payer for the privelidge of their neglegence.
All this to say, the trains are a much more dissjointed beast than and a single solent crossing re-nationalisation could be low if there is neglegence (a la trans penine), or the contracts are allowed to expire.
A few months of boycotting one of the ferry companies will turn the situation into a monopoly which would a) send a message to the other company and b) take away the government’s main argument for dismissing our pleas for help.
Just need to decide which of the companies we want to drive into bankruptcy.
never, ever going to happen – all three car ferries go to different places and all passenger services go to different places on the south coast
also, why should I incur longer travel times and associated costs to support this stupid idea
Sorry Bobby, but your boycotting the ferries by not making your very infrequent trips won’t make a jot of difference. The rest of us need to use the ferries and, as stated above, frequent users pay very little. I have no complaints (apart from piles).
” MP Bob Seely – who backed Michael Gove to be the new Prime Minister”
He also supported Liz Truss. But they seem to be wiping that disaster from their memory. Make sure when they start knocking on doors that you have not forgotten the billions she cost the country in just one month.
More silver spooned BS from the guy that probably arrived by helicopter, paid for by the tax payer. Still, nice to see Bob and the other ‘dignitaries’ sucking up to him, currying favour for future pocket lining endeavours.
Think Bob maybe after a high position in HoP.
So what was achieved, apart from a nice dinner at Albert Cottage – no doubt paid on expenses! About time the share holders in the Ferry companies servicing the Island took a cut, and bonuses cut. Even some of Southern Water refused their bonus’s due to not reaching any targets on waste water discharge. Perhaps the Ferry’s need to re-evaluate the companies ethos.
Just did a check of ferry prices for the islands attending the conference:
Rathlin £6.00
Anglesea Free
Shetlands Up to £600 (but locals & family get a big discount & crossing is 190 miles, taking 12.5 hours)
Orkneys £64 (reduced rates for locals)
Western Isles £34.20
Bute & Argyle £6
Arran £25.50
Raasay/Skye £18
Isles of Scilly £152.50
Isle of Wight £120-£300+
The English islands are the most expensive, don’t publish their prices and are the only ones that don’t get any government support.
I don’t think that, other than the Isles of Scilly (and possibly the Shetlands), the other islands are going to see ferry costs as worth any time in any future meeting. For them it’s just not an issue.
minimum Isle of Wight ferry fare is not £120, nor is it the average fare!
The Ferries are the most expensive in the world per mile.
Islanders should not be paying more than £20 for a return ferry crossing.
Woolwich Ferry in London is a Free Ferry.
In New York Ferries only charge a few dollars, so why are Wightlink and
Red Funnel allowed to charge so much for a Ferry crossing.
Fuel prices are coming down, yet Isle of Wight Ferry prices are going up.
Totally shocking it’s a disgrace.
The Council should take control of the Ferry Companies and reduce prices
for Islanders.