HAMPSHIRE politicians and business leaders are divided over calls made by the Isle of Wight MP to give local authorities more power over the cross-Solent ferries.

In a recent parliamentary debate MP Bob Seely claimed £100million a year was spent by islanders on some of the most expensive ferry routes in the world.

He said the ferry companies had been privatised in the 1980s with no public service obligation in “a significant and pretty unique error”.

He said: “There appears to be no desire to rectify that situation, yet elsewhere public money tends to get thrown at locations with isolation issues.”

Mr Seely said the Isle of Wight Council, working with the Department for Transport, should have the power to enforce a ‘public service obligation’ upon the ferry companies — which could involve forcing them to run extra services at cheaper fares.

The calls by the MP could effect Wightlink ferries between Yarmouth and Lymington, Portsmouth and Fishbourne and Ryde and Portsmouth as well as Red Funnel services between Cowes and Southampton.

Simon Letts, leader of Southampton City Council, said: “I am happy to support Bob Seely in his call for a stronger public role in the provision of an affordable ferry service for the people of the island.

“This will require his government to commit resources to the project.

“It could do this by agreeing a mayoral combined authority with the power to spend on subsidised ferry travel.’

“I also agree that mistakes were made by Conservative governments in the past when they disposed of state assets like the ferries and railways to private providers without taking into account the needs of local communities.”

However, Southampton Itchen’s Tory MP, Royston Smith said: “I don’t agree with taxpayers subsidising ferry services to the Isle of Wight and that would be necessary to create a public service in the way suggested.

“I understand Bob Seely’s point about the cost and frequency of services but the relative isolation of the Island is part of its attractiveness and its independence.”

“There has also been talk of a bridge but again that is asking for a public subsidy and at a time of competing funding challenges such as the NHS and defence that is not realistic either.”

Red Funnel chairman, Kevin George, said: “If the Government is prepared to subsidise services that support a service obligation then we would be happy to review such a scheme. However, without such funding, the idea of a service obligation or regulation is, in reality, a hollow promise.”

Keith Greenfield, chief executive of Wightlink, said: “We support Bob Seely’s call for the government to recognise the financial challenges of living and working on the Island in future funding settlements but we cannot agree with many of his observations about Solent ferries.

“Although our sailings are busy in summer, we also run many loss-making services, recognising our obligation to serve the Island community throughout the year.”