LETTERS From Nicholas Barrett, Crosspool, Sheffield:
I WRITE to you as a very concerned regular visitor to the IW.
My family and I visit three or four times a year to see my parents, Richard and Rosie Barrett, in Bembridge. My parents have lived on your beautiful Island for more than ten years now and we have always enjoyed visiting. However, I am extremely concerned at the crippling ferry prices we are having to pay.
We now have children and work commitments and the fare this time has worked out at almost £150 return.
High fuel costs on top of that just make a visit painfully expensive. I hear it is the most expensive crossing in the world and now I believe it.
Now I know visitors and residents both feel the pain of these high prices but the IW is in my opinion threatened with visitors bypassing it and heading to other south coast resorts or even further afield.
I am aware the Islanders have had previous campaigns to push back these ferry prices but if something isn’t done, your tourist industry in particular and all the jobs that go with it are threatened.
Our country is in troubled economic times and people are making prudent decisions in all aspects of their lives.
If my parents didn’t live on the IW, I am sad to say we probably wouldn’t be visiting.
So to the residents of the IW, please challenge your elected representatives, petition your ferry companies and if you really can’t find a way forward then I think you really need to consider building a bridge. The choice is yours.
• Another letter on this topic in the Friday, June 22, County Press.