Andrew Turner the Island’s MP today announced that his campaign for a full enquiry into the Island’s ferry services has now attracted over 9,000 supporters. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) are in the final week of collecting evidence to help them decide whether to recommend a full market investigation by the Competition Commission. They plan to announce their decision in May. Mr Turner says his office has received a great many letters and e-mails from Islanders and Island businesses over the past few weeks giving further details of how the ferry services affect Island life, and other people have taken the opportunity to submit information on his website www.IslandMP.com

Mr Turner said:
“It is hard to give an accurate figure for the number of people that have supported this campaign – because some people have now contacted me more than once as further evidence has come to light. The overwhelming feeling is that a thorough investigation is long overdue – the last one was almost twenty years ago - there is now new legislation which applies to these services. There are a number of recurring complaints that have come to light, including issues about prices, standards of service and the reliability and punctuality of ferries. If you want to make any comments for the OFT to take into consideration then please do so before Friday.

Mr Turner also said that a constituent had used the Facebook social networking site to promote the campaign. He said :

“One of my younger constituents Jamie White set up a Facebook group called ‘Lower Isle of Wight Ferry Travel’ which has attracted over 2,600 members. It is clear that many of these are people who have not contacted me directly. I will be pointing this out to the OFT and asking them also to take account of the comments they have made. If we include these people in the total it is clear that well over 10,000 people feel that the Isle of Wight ferry services need to be thoroughly examined.

The range of issues raised by constituents has covered many topics for example:
Pricing
The lack of transparent prices and how difficult it is to find the best fare to the mainland;
Holiday makers contacting small hotels but deciding not to book when they learn the cost of the ferry;
Fuel surcharges added but prices never dropping when fuel prices fall;
Overcharging which is rectified only when brought to the attention of the ferry operator;
Why the length of stay affects the cost of ferry travel;
Why some hotels can charge less for holidays (including accommodation) than Islanders can purchase ferry travel;
Surcharges for changing pre-booked travel arrangements – but no recompense when ferries run late or are cancelled:
Delivery costs passed on to Islanders either directly or through retail prices.

Service
Ships which are ‘old, dirty, neglected and scruffy’;
Poor terminal facilites;
Toilet facilities which ‘must pose a threat to public health’;
Expensive parking charges and expensive and poor quality on-board food and drink’

Reliability and Punctuality
Ferries failing to run to timetable or being cancelled;
Having to queue for over an hour to purchase a ferry ticket following the introduction of new ticket machines:
Services withdrawn due to fuel costs but not being re-instated when fuel prices drop.
Services which fail to connect to mainland public transport;
The introduction of the new Yarmouth to Lymington Ferries.

Mr Turner added that a very moving comment came from a single mother who told me that her three children had not ‘left the Island for several years’ despite there being ‘great places to visit on the mainland’ because of the high cost of the ferries.

More details about the campaign can be found on Mr Turner’s website at www.IslandMP.org where you can also still put forward evidence to help the OFT in their investigations.”

END Contact : Andrew Turner’s office 01983 530808