Ahead of tonight’s Isle of Wight council Scrutiny Committee (in County Hall at 6pm), members of the Keep Island line in Franchise (KILF) have called for plans for a transport Taskforce to be scrapped.
The council voted to set up the Taskforce last year, but vital financial support from the Government has not been forthcoming. KILF say the Taskforce is now being used “to give false legitimacy to the ambitions of those who wish to take Island Line out of the franchise”.
Scrutiny call for update
In relation to the Taskforce, papers for tonight’s meeting state,
The Committee will seek an update on this together with the background to the appointment of Atkins to undertake work related to the future of Islandline, the involvement of the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership and the implications of devolution.
Scrap the plans say KILF
A post on the Keep Island Line in Franchise Facebook Page states,
“It should be noted that when Full Council voted last November to support this, at no point was it suggested that this resolution would subsequently be used as a mechanism to explore the removal of our train service from a viable, healthy franchise.
“KILF takes the view that Full Council’s support for the proposed Taskforce has subsequently been used to give false legitimacy to the ambitions of those who wish to take Island Line out of the franchise.
“Such a proposal was never suggested when Full Council voted for the Taskforce, but since then Mr Finney has sought to misrepresent the IW Council’s resolution to push the community model agenda.
“In the Council’s defence, they (with the MP) sought funding from the Government to support the work of the proposed Taskforce, but no such funding was forthcoming. It is therefore no surprise that the Council has not been able to establish the Taskforce, given that both the Council and the MP told the Government in January 2015 that “funding the work of the Taskforce is a key constraint to its implementation”.
“On 7th August, the County Press reported that Mr Finney admitted it was ‘an error of judgement’ to suggest to Department for Transport officials the much-vaunted Taskforce was a body with influence, given it has no funding, no chair and no terms of reference.(Despite this, Mr Finney and Mr Turner also told the County Press that the future of Island Line rested entirely on the Taskforce, which is clearly nonsense.)
“And then at Full Council last week, councillors overwhelmingly backed Cllr Bloomfield’s motion which acknowledged that the proposed Taskforce had not secured any funding from government, and therefore had not been established.
“Given how this non-existent Taskforce continues to be suggested by Mr Finney as a mechanism to consider options for taking Island Line trains out of the franchise, we take the view that the Isle of Wight Council should now ditch this concept once and for all.
“Unless they do so, we will only see further attempts – by Mr Finney and the MP – to suggest it has a role to play in dreaming up alternative operating models for Island Line (i.e. for when the MP’s “for the time being” commitment to the service in the franchise comes to an end).
“There are no resources to support such as a Taskforce, and the Council should instead just focus on reinforcing / advocating the formal view reached at Full Council last week that Island Line should remain as a fully integral part of the South Western rail franchise for the entire duration of its post-2017 period.
“Such a stance would still allow for the final part of last week’s Full Council resolution (copied below) to be taken forward in due course (but not compromising the future of Island Line in the meantime):
“Agrees that a longer-term look at the Island’s strategic transport needs – including that of subsequent operational arrangements for rail travel (for beyond the next franchise period) – are looked at when resources allow for, particularly if external funds can be secured to support this work.”
