I MOVED back to the Isle of Wight seven years ago, to care for elderly relatives. 

I commute daily to the mainland and have always used Wightlink as a foot passenger due to the ever increasing costs of the car ferry meaning it was not a feasible option. 

In the last two years I have seen the season ticket rise to £1,900 and parking at Ryde Pier Head rise to £1,196 for a season ticket holder parking, which makes it £3,036 just to travel the several miles to the mainland. 

In those two years the services have halved and there’s no late service, despite massive calls for it Wightlink refuse, still using the excuse of Covid and dropped passenger numbers. 

I travel most days and the service is back to pre-Covid numbers. 
Wightlink, of course, has made massive profits by only running half the services despite charging full price season tickets, with no refund or discount. 

Now Wightlink has almost halved the parking at Ryde Pier Head, after dumping containers and blocking off bays, and there are contractors parking everywhere and even taking up disabled bays. 

Now with limited parking, people have to then drive back into Ryde and pay for parking yet again despite already paying for season ticket parking. 

This then means that you may miss your boat and have a two-hour wait due to the massively reduced rate of sailings. 

Our MP Bob Seely has been emailed dozens and dozens of times and done absolutely nothing about the abysmal situation. 

It is getting to a point where they are making it so absolutely impossible to commute such a short distance, that people — like many — have no choice but to leave the Isle of Wight. 

And people wonder why businesses are going under on the Isle of Wight at an alarming rate, well it lies with the ferry company, which can do whatever it wants without any help from government and its MPs. 

  • Read more letters sent to the County Press here. Do you have a view on this or any other subject? Send us a letter – under 350 words if possible - to editor@iwcp.co.uk