Wightlink have failed to answer challenging questions surrounding the St Clare certification blunder that resulted in significant delays for thousands of people on Friday.
As exclusively revealed by Island Echo, Wightlink’s St Clare ferry was pulled from service on Friday afternoon as vital certification had expired. She re-entered service on Saturday as soon as a surveyor had inspected the ship and signed off the paperwork.
Wightlink initially said that the reason for St Clare’s withdrawal was due to a ‘technical issue’, which they reinforced as a ‘technical fault’ on Saturday morning, but have since backtracked and said that the real reason was an ‘administrative error’.
Island Echo has been trying to establish exactly when the certification ran out and the legalities surrounding St Clare being used between Portsmouth and Fishbourne during this time. However, the company have failed to answer a series of questions put before them on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Wghtlink this afternoon said:
“Wightlink has already apologised to its customers and corrected the error and has nothing further to add”.
Customers and the local community have expressed their anger about the whole situation with many calling for resignations from Wightlink’s top tier of management. Wightlink’s CEO, Keith Greenfield, has been asked to address these calls and to reassure the public that the cross-Solent operator is operating both legally and safely.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) have confirmed to Island Echo that they have been made aware “that there have been some concerns raised about Wightlink ferry service” and say that they are “currently looking into those issues”. As a result of this investigation, they are “unable to provide any further comment at this stage”.
Lloyd’s Register, who carried out the survey of St Clare on Saturday, have refused to answer our questions.
Keith Greenfield apologised to customers yesterday following the publication of Island Echo‘s story on Monday evening. He said:
“We are extremely sorry for the severe disruption caused to our customers on Friday afternoon by this technical issue. We acted swiftly when we realised an error had been made and checks are now in place to ensure this does not happen again.”
Island Echo has approached Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely to comment on the situation and to investigate further.
