Isle of Wight council leader, Cllr Jonathan Bacon has this evening (Tuesday) responded to the formation of the new pressure group, Keep Island Line in Franchise (KILF)
“Taking positive steps”
Speaking tonight, Cllr Bacon told OnTheWight,
“I have not advocated “transferring Island Line into an as-yet unspecified Community Interest Company”. I was part of a discussion in February where this was put forward as an option and discussed.
“What I am actually seeking to do is to see how the franchise can be retained and have been taking positive steps to this end. A meeting has been set up to get absolute clarity from the DfT and the Solent LEP has been asked to support the case.”
“Political football”
Cllr Bacon went on to say,
“Those stakeholders I have spoken to are fed up with this issue being treated as a political football and I wholly concur with the statements above that anyone who is supportive of Island Line should work together.”
Cllr Bacon: “Community model unworkable”
Speaking about the public meeting that has been set up for 11th August, Cllr Bacon explained that he won’t be able to attend as he’s on holiday.
He finished by saying,
“Can I suggest that the group follows two specific lines which I am pursuing. Firstly the fact that any sort of community model seems to be unworkable and secondly, even if it were, the impossibility of setting up any sort of new model in the timescale that exists. This seem to be key points although there are others.”
Image: seattlecamera under CC BY 2.0
