THE Island is in danger of sleepwalking into economic stagnation.
That is the stark warning from Red Funnel chief executive James Fulford in an article exclusively written for the
County Press.
He says unless coherent thought is given to how we plan for growth, there is unlikely to be further investment from his company and many others.
The issues over Red Funnel’s East Cowes-Southampton route are top of his agenda, notably the difficulties of getting cars in and out of the town and the need to deepen and widen Cowes Harbour channels for potential growth in ferry sizes in the future.
According to Mr Fulford, Infracapital, his company’s owner, wants to plan long-term growth to benefit them and the Island, but is becoming frustrated with the lack of support it gets here, particularly compared to Southampton.
He says in the article: "There is no point in adding capacity to handle more vehicles in Southampton if we can’t add similar capacity shoreside in East Cowes and ensure proper access from East Cowes to the rest of the Island.
"There is no point in doing either if we can’t build more or larger boats. And there is no point in doing any of the above if we can’t deepen or widen the channel into our facilities at Cowes."
He has called for a wide-ranging, intelligent debate on what the Island wants for its future.
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