TRANSPORT SECRETARY FAILS TO MENTION FERRIES IN KEYNOTE SPEECH
Isle of Wight East MP Joe Robertson says that Islanders should be ‘deeply concerned’ that no mention was given to ferries in a keynote speech by Transport Secretary Louise Haigh this week.
At the Labour Party Conference on Monday, Louise talked about ‘ripping up the roots of Thatcherism’ across UK transport but made no reference at all to ferries.
The Secretary of State for Transport spoke extensively about trains and buses and mentioned flying, cycling and walking. But the lack of any mention of ferries – including cross-Solent ferries – has raised questions as to whether the Government has any plans to tackle the issues being witnessed here on the Isle of Wight.
Joe Robertson MP has said:
“We should be deeply concerned that in a keynote speech about better UK transport networks, the new Secretary of State did not mention ferries once.
“The UK is a collection of islands and to refer to every conceivable mode of public transport except ferries looks to me like we are being ignored.
“Wightlink grew out of the privatisation of British Rail in the 1980s. Louise Haigh is hardly ‘ripping up the roots of Thatcherism’ if she has no plan for Isle of Wight ferries.
“This is depressing considering that Richard Quigley says he has been working with her team for nearly a year and senior members of the Wightlink User Group told me last year that our ferries were ‘on Louise Haigh’s radar’”.
