We always welcome a Letter to the Editor to share with readers. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch. This letter comes from from Ventnor resident, Christopher Bonney. Ed
I am a committed No-Bridger. Or at least I have been thus far and for the reasons that… well if you live on the Isle of Wight you probably know all the reasons.
It comes as no surprise to hear that Wightlink are once again trimming their cross-Solent ferry services. Doubtless this will increase profitability and allow its parent company, MacQuarie Group, to offset further debt against the business. It is not impossible to imagine that in the fullness of time circumstances and expedience could conspire to make the ferry business fold under the burden of debt.
What happens if Wightlink goes under
Where will that leave us? Well I’m not entirely sure, but we can assume it won’t be good. Just to start with, joblessness will increase as it becomes less practical to work off Island and mainland businesses are forced to prune their Island connections.
Supermarkets may need to rethink their Island stores. This will precipitate an exodus of the young and the capable for jobs and opportunities elsewhere.
The local housing market is also likely to be massively disrupted to our detriment. In case you imagine that this will only affect rich folk who like to use houses to play monopoly, a side effect of the fall in local house values would be a cessation in new-built houses and spiralling rental costs and homelessness.
Even if you are not directly affected, the Council will need to pick up the tab for trying to keep everybody housed. Somebody will have to pay. ‘Somebody’ is you and me. And as we pay, Island living standards and quality of life will fall. This is the risk we take by allowing ourselves to remain in the thrall of the cross-Solent ransom-strip.
My solution
I am going to suggest a solution and it’s actually not that radical. What we need is an assured and regular way to cross the Solent, day or night. It needs to be cost effective for us to use and therefore to provide. It needs to protect us against perceived loss of local culture and it must ensure that on the back of this solution we will not have to endure an A3 style multi-lane highway punched through Ryde all the way to Freshwater in order to open up the Island for development, thus repaying central Government for any investment.
So what is this magic pill? Well not so much magic and like most medicine, it is bound to have it’s side effects.
My suggestion is that the Island Line track is extended along a lightweight single track bridge from Ryde Pier to Portsmouth Harbour. The kind of low cost, low impact construction envisaged would probably be a combined cable-stay and rigid frame bridge. That’s like two long piers joined together with a suspended bridge in the middle for ships to go under.
Cheaper than a road bridge
The cost of such a rail bridge and terminus is likely to be nearer to tens of millions rather than hundreds of millions. The Government will breath a sigh of relief that we are not asking for a road bridge, so might be willing to make this happen comparatively quickly.
What will it give us? Job opportunities will improve. It will allow easy commuting to London and other destinations and will give commuters guaranteed access to the mainland at a time that suits them. Cross-Solent travelling for the purpose of entertainment will become much more practical.
Further more, the impact on Island infrastructure will be minimal, although it will create extra revenue for Island Line, which will allow for service improvements. It may also bring considerable opportunity to the Ryde area.
Who loses?
The biggest losers will be Hovertravel’s hovercraft service, which could mean the passing of a great piece of local colour and history. The Ryde Pier catamaran would also be affected, but the latest cut in services is surely getting near to being the straw that broke the camels back, so they should expect little loyalty from us.
Come to think of it, the redundant catamaran terminus at Portsmouth Harbour would make an ideal space to build a shiny new Island Line terminus.
My agenda
Now is a good time to disclaim any association on my part with Island Line, but I admit to having a personal agenda. I live here. I have a house here and I regularly commute up to London and I’m heartily fed up with distant feudal lords at MacQuarie Group, who have absolutely no loyalty to the Isle of Wight, dictating the circumstances of my lifestyle.
Yes, there are alternative routes across, but like much of the population I live in the eastern half of the Island and my key destinations are in the south-east of the mainland, so cross-Solent services here are critical.
Who will champion it?
Now, you can always remain a hardened no-bridger and hope the problem will go away. But it won’t.
So I am hoping that this is a solution that you could live with. You never know, some influencer or another may even pick up on it. Even more likely, it’s been thought of before and just needs dusting off, re-packaging, and a champion to make it happen.
Christopher Bonney
Image: © Public Domain
