From Cliff Bennett, Yarmouth:

In his letter, (CP, 07-06-19), Carl Feeney rightly points out millions of Island tax payers money has been wasted on stagnating infrastructure decisions.

So why should they waste any more of it on the Solent Freedom Tunnel white elephant?

He states only £100,000 is required for this viability study, which is a fairly insignificant sum in today’s world.

In real terms this represents less than £100 per resident of the Island, or £1,000 each from 100 Island businesses.

Yet months after the crowd-funding appeal was launched there is still only £21,000 in the coffers and, as Mr Feeney points out, only £79,000 is now required, forgetting the small matter of 20 per cent VAT or another £20,000.

The fact such a small amount has been collected is a true measure of the feeling of the IW population about a fixed link.

At present rate of progress it will take five years to collect this amount, by which time I suspect that the cost will have gone up a tad, as will his last guesstimate of £2.1 billion for the whole project. 

Mr Feeney has obvious limited knowledge of logistics and if he took the trouble to find out he would know that the ferries are not operating to anywhere near full capacity — only at certain times of the day, which is a fact of every mode of transport.

The claims that in the future thousands of elderly people will be unable to access the mainland for treatment are wildly exaggerated. As are his claims for the number of new builds.

The simple solution is to build a new medical facility on the Island, at a fraction of the cost of Mr Feeney’s tunnel.

Face the truth, Mr Feeney, the majority of people want the Island to remain just that — not a sprawling suburb of southern England.

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