ONE YEAR EXTENSION FOR NEWHAVEN FERRY SERVICE
June 26 2014.
Newhaven Councillor Rod Main spotted the entry below on the Mayor of Dieppe's Facebook page which he has roughly translated using Google translation, so please allow for some Googlish Franglais errors. The current ferry service was set to finish early in 2015, so whilst a one year extension is a short term solution, a long term agreement is still up in the air.
Transmanche: Build a sustainable business model.
The Chair of the Department took the trouble to tell me personally of the decision to extend by one year the tendering process for the cross channel service Dieppe-Newhaven. This is the good news for which we have campaigned for several months, as we are convinced that there is a future for this line.
We are starting with a viable and sustainable foundation now with existing economic and public partners but also looking towards widening the circle of financiers with the Region and the Greater Dieppe economic area.
This period must be utilized by partners including the logistics sector and also the City of Dieppe to consider the proposals for several months in conjunction with the White Paper on port development, to find solutions best suited for the sustainability of the line.
Dieppe council, along with the “Agglo” (Equivalent of a district council. RM), have been aware of the issues surrounding the line having taken an audit of local public and economic partners like Cars Denis, Eurochannel Logistics, Vialog, la CCI, Dieppe Méca Energie, les Vitrines de Dieppe, Cégélec ...
All of these wished to get together to bring forward concrete proposals (schedules, services to develop, creating a logistics platform at Totes ... (I think this means a truck stop - RM) in the interest of development of the line.
The aim of this joint work with public stakeholders on the definition of a new economic model is not to absorb deficits but to support the development of the line.
In 2013, the various activities of the Channel were a progression from previous figures:
• 92,744 cars, an increase of almost 5%. Since 2009, there has been an increase each year in the order of 3%.
• 238,143 passengers: up 5.71%.
• Freight: 38,600 pieces freight. Numbers have been maintained despite a winter of disrupted crossings.
Transmanche is more than 70% of the tonnage of the port of Dieppe and over 75% of the revenue from the port of Newhaven. It is also provides employment with 300 direct jobs and more than 1,000 indirect jobs.
Some days ago, the association of users (TUG Horizon) which has strongly campaigned with us for the maintenance of the line presented the results of a study they conducted and demonstrate that the Transmanche service provides more than €17 million in benefits to the local economy but also the closure of the line, which has been operating in one way or another for over a century and a half, would produce potential losses between Dieppe and Newhaven of the order of 120 to 150 million euros.