Following Brittany Ferries’ announcement that it will not extend its current contract with Jersey by seven months and in a bid to reassure Islanders, Jersey’s Chief Minister has finally stepped in.
Details are slowly emerging, but it would appear that DFDS were eliminated due to a ‘legal technicality’ and the issue with the ‘Brittany ferries’ option is a financial risk, because the contract was going to be with Condor, not Brittany Ferries. This is despite Guernsey saying that they are signing with Brittany Ferries.
The Chief Minister, Deputy Lyndon Farnham, said: “I would like to reassure Islanders that a decision on our lifeline ferry services is our top priority. The new timetable for achieving this is as follows:
- The Government has invited Brittany Ferries and DFDS to meet next week and clarify their proposals for a ferry service
- We will then recommend a preferred operator
- The Minister for Sustainable Economic Development, Deputy Morel, will seek Council of Ministers support for the recommendation
- The preferred operator will be announced week commencing Monday 25th November.
- Following this announcement, a timetable for summer services will be issued as soon as possible. In previous years, the summer timetable has been issued in December.
“Ministers will ensure that whether the contract is awarded to Brittany Ferries or DFDS, we will have fully operational passenger and freight ferry services in place from March 2025 when the existing operating agreement terminates.
“The aim of the process is to secure:
- A fresh approach to grow passenger volumes to boost our visitor economy
- A new approach to freight pricing
- Significant investment in vessels to improve the travel experience
- Robust resilience, contingency and mobilisation plans.”
Jersey’s Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel said is disappointed that a statement which was due to be given by the Minister for Sustainable Economic Development regarding the ongoing ferry tendering process was removed from the running order late Monday. The Panel did recognise that Ministers did answer questions Members have posed through Oral Questions and Questions without Notice.
However, the Panel says that it remains concerned about the risks that arise from the ongoing uncertainty and believes further clarity surrounding the process and decision-making is needed. This is something the Panel will be continuing to scrutinise, and it will be putting further questions to the Minister for Sustainable Economic Development during its upcoming Quarterly Hearing of 20th November 2024.
Deputy Neil Inder, President of the Guernsey Committee for Economic Development said: “I appreciate the media are keen for a blow-by-blow response to Deputy Morel’s statement in the Jersey States but I won’t be providing one, other than to highlight a few key facts in relation to the Guernsey position.
“While we weren’t intending to supply details about what was a confidential tender process, given that Deputy Morel has publicly confirmed that DFDS’ bid was legally failed in Jersey I will confirm that it received a legal fail in the Guernsey scoring also. This meant that, based on the islands’ jointly agreed Invitation to Tender document, the DFDS bid was disqualified from the process and could not be appointed as preferred bidder. Brittany Ferries’ bid passed all of the requirements in the tender and did not receive a disqualifying fail.
“I also need to confirm that it was Brittany Ferries that submitted the tender, with Condor named as a subcontractor. We are agreeing a Guernsey-only service with Brittany Ferries and it will be Brittany Ferries that signs it – along with Condor as its subsidiary. The financial challenges of Condor late last year were well documented and as I stated in media interviews after we announced our preferred bidder, had the bid been from Condor as a standalone entity I doubted we would have been as positive about it as we are with the Brittany bid.
“As our Committee has stated, based on our discussions with Brittany Ferries we are confident that a Guernsey-only service can meet our island’s needs.”
