Inter-island ferry travel to be decided in January 2025, Guernsey scrutiny meeting hears
A decision on how inter-island travel routes will work is expected in January next year, a Guernsey scrutiny meeting has heard.
The meeting on Monday 9 December was set to understand how Guernsey acted in the joint ferry tender process that led to the island choosing Brittany Ferries as its preferred ferry operator.
The meeting revealed that financial evaluators for both Bailiwicks passed Britanny Ferries on its financial position - leaving Guernsey confident in its decision.
It left inter-island travel as a keenly addressed issue, with questions over how the islands' different operators would work together after Jersey chose DFDS Seaways as its preferred ferry operator.
Despite Brittany Ferries publishing a summer schedule with just one interisland return route a week, this hasn't actually been confirmed.
It’s understood that Jersey would need to permit Condor vessels to dock, which has not yet been granted.
However, Deputy Neil Inder, President of the Committee for Economic Development, is confident the Bailiwicks will come to a beneficial decision.
He explains: "I know it's all very interesting that Guernsey and Jersey have fallen out with each other. We haven't, we've just come to different decisions for our very different islands.
"The next decision we have to make is how do we work through the inter-island travel.
"Inter-island is important. We've got cars, we've got business, and we've got freight, but I genuinely think that working with Deputy Morel, DFDS, and Brittany Ferries, we won't act like children.
"We will all find a way by the end of January to improve on that but we're just not going to do it by Christmas."
DFDS Seaways is expected to publish its Jersey schedule on Friday 13 December.
The aspiration is to have daily returns in peak seasons, but this would have to be spread equally between Brittany and DFDS.
The scrutiny panel also revealed that evaluators in both islands gave Brittany Ferries a pass on its financial position.
This is despite Jersey Minister Deputy Kirsten Morel saying that Condor Ferries's bid was "overly optimistic given the high levels of debt" when they launched their own ferry tender process.
Deputy Morel has told ITV News: "I respect Guernsey's decision [and] I've said that throughout.
"Jersey's taking a different decision [and] we're really pleased with the decision that we've made."
Firm decisions on inter-island routes are expected in January 2025.
We learned that evaluators in both islands gave Brittany Ferries a pass on its financial position, which raises more questions about what concerns Jersey had.
We learned that Guernsey’s contract with Brittany has a break clause of 10 years, and the fifteen-year contract can be extended by five years twice if needed.
And we learned that decisions about a replacement for the Voyager will have to be made by a future States.
The ship will need to be replaced in 2035 and it's unclear as to who will be paying for a new one.
Big questions for a future assembly, but for now, there is plenty to chew over.
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