Andrew Turner, has welcomed the news today that the Planning Inspector has given Wightlink the go ahead to undertake the necessary works to improve the Lymington shoreside facilities to accommodate the new “W Class” ferries. He also praised the inspector for taking a sensible view over the suggestion that the annual trippage should be limited to 16,500 trips and rejecting it as overly cautious. If imposed it would have led to the end of night services on the Yarmouth/Lymington route.

The Island’s MP had contacted the Secretary of State on first hearing of the proposals to explore how to overturn the limit if it had been agreed and also he wrote to the planning inspector with his objections. The cessation of the night-time services would have led to redundancies and in his view would have had a serious impact on the economy of the west Wight.

Mr Turner said :

“There was a widely held view that the Planning Inspector would not take any notice of the needs of the Island when making this decision, which was why I contacted the Secretary of State, Caroline Spelman MP as soon as possible. However, I am glad to say that although the inspector said that a limit of 18,000 trips per year may cause a marginally higher level of damage to the habitat, this was counteracted by other measures and she also gave great weight to the needs of the Island when weighing up the evidence.

“Islanders have been inconvenienced by the way in which the ferries have been operated for far too long. I hope that Wightlink will now be able to start the necessary works in Lymington very soon so that from next year they can operate a reliable and frequent ferry service which meets the needs of their customers.”

END Contact : Andrew Turner’s office 01983 530808