Inter-island ferry arrangement expected by end of January

Wednesday 11 December 2024

Relationships between Jersey and Guernsey are "positive" and "friendly" despite not yet having an agreement for major ferry services between the islands in place, according to Guernsey's President of Economic Development.

Deputy Neil Inder was speaking as part of a scrutiny meeting about the ferry tender process which saw Jersey and Guernsey back separate providers.

He said that he expected an inter-island ferry solution to be confirmed by the end of January.

The pan-island ferry selection process collapsed in October when Guernsey revealed that it had unilaterally decided to appoint Brittany Ferries as its preferred bidder.

This led to the launch of a Jersey-only tender process, with Danish shipping giant DFDS securing the 15-year contract for the larger island.

During the meeting held in Guernsey on Monday, Deputy Inder stated that both Brittany Ferries and DFDS had passed the financial tests in both islands, and provided further clarity on the potential future travel links between the two Channel Islands.

“We won't get anything [confirmed] by Christmas, but those conversations are ongoing, and we will have a solution by the end of January,” said Deputy Inder.

He also stated: “Since the Guernsey decision was made, I've been with my colleagues to Jersey to talk to our opposite numbers.

"We had a very, very constructive, positive engagement.

“During that meeting, the Chief Minister of Jersey popped his head through the door, and there was warmth in the exchange.

"So I think this needs to be viewed as a business arrangement between the islands which hasn't gone perhaps the way we might have liked or preferred, but we are continuing to co-operate very well, on a friendly basis with our Jersey colleagues.”

Pictured: Civil Servants and Deputies from Economic Development faced questions from the Scrutiny Management Committee in Guernsey.

Whilst question marks hang over who will actually operate a regular inter-island service, opportunities further afield have drawn the eyes of those behind Guernsey's ferry contract decision. 

Guernsey's close proximity to France was of growing interest during the island's Scrutiny hearing, as well as behind the scenes during the ferry tender negotiations, with Deputy Inder saying that the same groups worried about the inter-island links, are optimistic about a closer relationship with France going forward.

He said: “There's a kind of an economic madness with the way our food chain works, where we are basically staring at fresh fruit, we are staring at aggregate, wood supplies, and we by policy, just don't look south enough as we should do.

“The hospitality association is also positively very keen to work on the new St Malo to Guernsey route. So there's some positivity in that as well. And we have a tendency in politics to focus on the negativity.

“We have the certainty. We have a contract. We have spent 15 years out of contract. That risk has been absolutely massive to the island. We do have the fleet investment. We have direct routes to st Marlo. We have opportunity after opportunity.

“This contract has to settle down for two or three years to see if the St Malo ferry is going to work, if the current fleet is working. That will be for a future government. The presumption that it can't work is just purely opinion.”

Deputy Inder wasn’t alone on the panel praising the potential in France, with Steve Wakelin, the Chief Strategy and Policy Officer for the States of Guernsey, saying that potential interactions between larger jurisdictions, which were highlighted in Brittany Ferries’ proposals, caught the eyes of those involved.

“The schedule provides opportunity in two ways," said Mr Wakelin. "Number one, for day trippers from France, which we don't currently have access. Number two, there's no current fast ferry service across the western channel.

“By starting the day in St Malo, going north and doing the return, we have the opportunity to build the UK-France and France-UK traffic model, that's been put forward by Brittany.

"There's no assumption in there of any growth in terms of day trippers or in terms of this cross channel market. So I think it's fair to say we see an upside, an opportunity in that financial model.”