KEY PUBLIC MEETING IN ON 23rd May
• Like all forms of transport, including road, rail and air, the Newhaven – Dieppe ferry line needs subsidising to survive. Currently its subsidy comes from France, from the Seine Maritime Department 76 and is of the order of 20 million euros per annum. Without this subsidy, the transport of freight, cars and their passengers, pedestrians and cyclists would cease. The Department, like similar bodies in UK and France, is having to look for economies in these days of relative economic depression, so this historic link between England and France is threatened.
• The Transmanche User Group, TUG, is a group of users committed to fighting in any way it can to ensure the survival of the line. TUG has French and British members. It meets regularly and is active in meeting and co-operating both with the operators of the line and the politicians who support it.
• In defence of the ferry line, TUG has called a public meeting, in Dieppe on 23rd May. Nominally the meeting is to promote its first ever Tourist Guide to the regions around both Newhaven and Dieppe. This detailed guide, in English and French will promote Sussex and Seine Maritime but the meeting has already become a point of political significance to challenge the threat to the line. It has attracted the attention of the French TV and Press, directors of DFDS who operate the line and politicians. Newhaven and Dieppe politicians will be present and Pascal Martin, the President of the Seine Maritime Department has agreed to attend and address the meeting. He will explain that the Public Service Contract, with the subsidy funds, is still currently in force but there is a query about its future, so TUG is very keen to hear his views. It will be an exciting meeting.
• The meeting will bring together French and British energies to support the line’s future.Your attendance will be very welcome. You will have the opportunity to question and discuss with the directors of the line’s operator, local politicians and the President of the Department.
• The meeting on 23rd May will be held in the Salle Ango, a beautiful room above Dieppe’s Tourist Office, overlooking the port, at 18h00. If you would like complimentary ferry ticket and/or a complimentary room at one of Dieppe’s hotels, contact the President of TUG, M. Pierre Marlin: pierre.marlin@wanadoo.fr / +33 6 13 27 26 47