Sark’s Chamber of Commerce has issued a strong statement of concern at the recent incidents involving the Manche Isles ferry link.
Lead by president Tony Le Lievre, the statement strongly condemns the ‘multiple cancellations’.
The statement reads:
“Sark Chamber of Commerce would like to voice its concern regarding the recent multiple cancellations of the ferry link from France/Jersey provided by Manche Isles.
Whilst we very much appreciate that breakdowns are part of running any transport system, we are very concerned with the way the company has prioritised its sailings with the remaining operational vessel. In a nutshell, we appear to be the second choice to the “new” inter island service. We are currently running at 5-6% below last year’s numbers on passengers from Guernsey, our very fragile visitor economy cannot sustain losing the passenger numbers from France/Jersey without businesses suffering greatly.
One of our major hotels has suffered many thousands of pounds in cancellations and subsequent late arrivals; guesthouses and self-catering establishments have also suffered revenue-starving cancellations. This unfortunate situation only serves to highlight how fragile our visitor economy is, and how little it takes to spoil a season.
We feel that this situation also highlights the desperate need for Sark to remove all of the existing barriers to a direct travel service to Sark from the greater continent of Europe. The sooner we implement direct sailings from France, the sooner any event such as this will not sabotage our season.
We call upon our Government to grasp the mettle and pave the way for a potentially economy changing passenger route that is on our doorstep.”
