Wightlink warns of pull-out if larger ferries are blocked (From This is Hampshire)

Wightlink warns of pull-out if larger ferries are blocked

9:50am Friday 5th October 2007 in

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FERRY operators are threatening to stop their Lymington to Yarmouth service if their plans for larger vessels are thwarted.

Wightlink plans to introduce longer and taller ferries next year that will weigh 700 tons and displace twice as much water as the current vessels.

The company's plans have already come up against stiff opposition from Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Lymington Society.

Fears of damage to the marshes and sailing in the Lymington River becoming dangerous because of the larger ferries have been raised.

But Wightlink's chief executive Andrew Willson has now warned he will withdraw the service - meaning a loss of 200 jobs in Lymington - if the new ferries are blocked.

He said: "We are now at a point of no return - it is these new ferries or no ferries.

"We certainly understand people's concerns and we will obviously try and deal with them but it is simply a case that they are coming and, if people do try to stop them, then there will be no ferry service and then you are looking at a lot of redundancies."

A public meeting about the plans will take place at Lymington Community Centre on October 31 at 7.30pm.