The future of the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry service faces a number of challenges, political and business leaders were told today (Wednesday 9 July).
The Labour leader of Brighton and Hove City Council spelt out the key issues at a meting of the Greater Brighton Economic Board at Sussex University.
Councillor Bella Sankey, who re-elected as the chair of the economic board, said: “The Newhaven-Dieppe ferry service is currently under pressure.”
She cited “rising carbon taxes, tightening French public budgets and an EU complaint challenging the €26 million (£22.4 million) per year subsidy that keeps the route viable”.
Councillor Sankey said: “These challenges threaten the long-term future of this strategically important connection.
“In response, the board has issued a formal letter of support to SMPAT, the French organisation that owns and subsidises the route.”
She said that this recognised “the ferry’s vital role in our regional economy, sustainability goals and international connectivity – and affirming our commitment to working together to secure its future”.
The legal claim was announced earlier this year by Brittany Ferries which operates routes between Portsmouth and France and is suing the Danish shipping company Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab (DFDS).
DFDS operates Transmanche Ferries and has the concession until 2027, having been awarded the contract by le Syndicat Mixte de Promotion de l’Activité Transmanche (SMPAT) which owns and subsidises the route.
Brittany Ferries said that the subsidies had cost its business £125 million since 2013 – and the chairman, Jean-Marc Roué, said: “These subsidies granted by SMPAT allow DFDS to levy artificially low fares that are out of touch with economic reality.
“This draws a significant proportion of traffic to Newhaven-Dieppe to the detriment of Brittany Ferries’ Normandy routes.
“New environmental taxes (emission trading systems, decarbonised fuel, etc) weigh heavily on our own business and force us to invest in decarbonisation but are in fact offset for DFDS by the unfair subsidies they receive.”
He told a French newspaper, Le Marin, that the grants paid to DFDS were a “waste of public money”, adding that the Normandy Regional Audit Office had criticised the system on two occasions but without any change to SMPAT’s policy.
As well as a civil claim, lodged with the commercial court in Brest, in Brittany, a complaint has also been lodged with the European Union (EU) Directorate-General for Competition.
