Joint Channel Islands Sea Transport Policy Proposed

by Carla Johnson, Investors Offshore.com, London

28 January 2008

A coordinated approach to sea transport is being proposed by the Jersey and Guernsey governments.

Jersey's Minister for Economic Development, Senator Philip Ozouf and the Chairman of Guernsey’s External Transport Group, Deputy Stuart Falla, have agreed in principle to a joint sea transport policy, it has emerged. The proposal has now been referred to the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority, and is being put out to consultation in Guernsey.

Explaining the reasoning behind the move, the authorities in the two Bailiwicks have stressed that it is in the best interests of Islanders to maintain and develop year-round, long term, reliable, robust and reasonably priced ferry services.

Furthermore, these services should be of sufficient quality and frequency to meet the needs of both leisure and business travellers.

They also acknowledge that the future of a good service level and reasonably priced fares will be best achieved as a result of a strong relationship between operator and customer, rather than by over-reliance on government intervention.

However, they expressed the belief that in order to effectively achieve these aims, they will need to establish some overarching rules.

Under the terms of these rules, neither Jersey nor Guernsey will pro-actively seek new operators on any current route until 31 December 2013. However, in the event of market or operator failure, they reserve the right to run a tender process.

A decision on whether or not to seek tenders for services from 1 January 2014 will be taken jointly by both Islands. Should a tender process be implemented, the current operators will be given 18 months notice of this intention to tender.

In conclusion, the two Islands acknowledged that the mechanisms each uses to manage the routes, control market access and overall administer the harbours will differ, but they maintained that the broad policy structure made in these proposals will be adhered to by both administrations.

A copy of the proposals has been sent out to both Condor Ferries and HD Ferries for comment, and the two authorities have already received some feedback from interested parties.

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