Wightlink debt issue raised with business secretary

@Crowe

£2.8m will get you a couple of the penthouses on Cowes sea front. Alternatively, £2.8m will get Wightlink into the black, with enough cash left over for bonuses to incentivise company directors, and perhaps a decent rebranding/relaunch party for a few of the Island's mover shakers.

Shane
The truth is that Wightlink are unable to lower prices due to crippling interest rates on the original loan to purchase the company, circa 17%. Now the interesting thing is that the company is owned by McQuarrie, an Australian bank. The loan to purchase Wightlink was given by another division of McQuarrie, therefore it is effectively charging itself an extortionate rate, effectively to write off tax as interest on the loan is deductable against any profits. If the loan was made at normal commercial rates of 6 - 7% ticket prices would be half of what they are, whilst still allowing the company to make a profit. It is a very similar method to Starbucks, but instead of interest at Starbucks it is outrageous inflated franchise costs payable to an overseas company in a favourable tax haven. Simply put we are all funding an outrageous tax dodge for a foreign bank and it MUST stop. Andrew Turner, show us your worth.

I had to make three mainland trips by car/van in December.
unfortunately my preferred route Portsmouth/A3 wasnt taken because of the higher price Wightlink wanted.
simple maths tells me that, if you have a half full ferry at a higher price it wont take long before its costing more to run the ferry than what it is taking in.
however wouldn't it be better to offer a cheaper price and fill the ferry. thus making more money per trip. thus reducing the debt. then we wont need a fixed link and almost everyone would be happy.

Wouldn't it be better to put that £2.8m into more housing for our children's children?

I think that Wightlink offer a very reasonably priced service, and that we IOWers owe it to them to support the company if it hits hard times. If every Island resident donated £20, it would raise £2.8m which would allow them to repay existing debt and then raise ticket prices in line with RPI growth.

There you are folks.

No bridge. No new ferry on the Fishbourne/GunWharf run. Millions of people. Roof and Road everywhere. No natural beuty because the selfish people want want want

When it is worth it then thats the time to worry because they will either have to find Oil, Gas or Gold on or around the island to warrant the investment needed. Until then people, sleep easy in your beds.

Ha ha third world. sounds like someone who keeps talkin about blinkers has had some of them dodgy burgers. There will be no bridge cus the isle of wight just aint worth it. Face facts, if it could have been or needed to have been done, then it would have already happened. Mike is right, its nothing to do with cost, its just not worth it.

In practicalities it would have to go through on the Lymington route due to shipping lanes and lowest amount of distribution. Obviously this means massive changes in the new forrest which is where there will be serious issues due to conservation and such.

However, the point i was trying to make is that there is nowhere it could be built on the IoW as people would just moan that it's ruining a view or is generating too much traffic etc etc etc. Just read any post on here which discusses new development of any kind...

T Rollingsworth

Have you ever thought about where one would go?

Go on, forget your head stuck in the sand attitude.

Give it a try.

BUT, you will need to look around at what is happening :-)

It's not hard ;-)

Try it.

Any views or opinions presented in the comments above are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the Isle of Wight County Press.