Brittany Ferries

EDM number 230 in 2005-06, proposed by John McDonnell on 25/05/2005.

That this House is deeply concerned at the recent announcement by Brittany Ferries that it is to withdraw from the proposed acquisition of two P & O Ferries vessels on the Western Channel; notes that P & O Ferries has stated that it intends to discontinue services on the Portsmouth to Le-Havre route from September; believes that the decision of the Office of Fair Trading not to approve the acquisition of these ships by Brittany Ferries, and the consequent lengthy referral to the Competition Commission, damaged the UK ferry industry and led to the potential dismissal of 270 UK seafarers; further notes that if neither operator continues services there will be no ferry service from the United Kingdom to Caen, Cherbourg or Le Havre and that these dismissals are in addition to a further 900 redundancies for United Kingdom seafarers who have also been dismissed as part of the same exercise within the P & O Ferries Group; and therefore calls on the Secretary of State for Transport to intervene in this matter with the companies concerned and to ensure that the United Kingdom ferry industry retains a core of United Kingdom seafaring skills.

This motion has been signed by a total of 33 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.