FERRY companies want to be able to sell more daily car parking spaces for inter-island travellers. They claim that the number available on the East Arm has been cut and there are few other places to leave a car for the day.
But the Harbour Authority, which allocates sections of the quay to different users, said that the area for travellers to Herm and Sark was no smaller. It has told the companies not to oversell the £3 day tickets because they had received numerous complaints from other users.
‘The Harbour Office has been very helpful and got us some parking in the first place, but there is an unbelievable demand on a busy August day,’ said Peter Wilcox, general manager of Travel Trident, which was established by his family in 1969.
‘People are coming to us in desperation with nowhere to park,’
He said he had received a letter from the authority limiting the spaces to 30, then 20, and that the area was smaller because the contractors working on the new jetty had taken some of the space. Parking first became available from the authority in 1999.
‘The requirement on a busy weekday exceeds 50 spaces, so people were getting there in desperation and dumping the car where they could.
‘We were advised to tell people not to block others in, but the biggest problem is there is no one there to police it.
‘They need someone down there patrolling it on the busiest days, for maybe five weeks in the summer.’
Last year, Travel Trident sold almost 3,000 parking tickets and 2,000 have gone so far this year.
Mr Wilcox said if it was given another section in the North Beach for day trippers, it would fill it. Customers had commented on difficulties finding the park-and-ride service and the need for the buses to run later to link with the late sailings.
‘We have to look after the few visitors we are getting, which is helping the tourist trade.’
Herm manager Adrian Heyworth said: ‘If Guernsey is serious about wishing to encourage more visitors to the island, it has to be accommodating and part of that is to make it easier for visitors to both Herm and Sark, which is one of the key reasons why people visit the Bailiwick of Guernsey.’
He added that while he appreciated the allocated spaces, he hoped the authority could expand on this area, which would be welcomed by visitors.
‘They [visitors] don’t pay a Herm landing tax, but pay a St Peter Port landing tax, so the more people on the boat means more revenue for St Peter Port Harbour, in addition to the £3 to park.’
Isle of Sark Shipping director Glenn Drake said that there was also a demand for more spaces for visitors to Sark.
‘We very much appreciate what the Harbour Authority does and the area is incredibly helpful bearing in mind that people just can’t park for the day,’ he said.
‘But there is a strain with regard to space on the arm, especially because of the work involved with the new jetty, but reducing the number of spots available from 30 to 20 in high season is quite difficult.
‘We were selling 30 spaces most days so it will no doubt have some effect and I am sure that on occasions people will decide not to go because they can’t park.’
Harbour master Captain Robert Barton said that the reason for the letter was to remind the companies that they could sell only the allocated number of tickets to avoid problems with other permit holders.
‘Unfortunately, in the past they have been selling more, so customers have left their cars in other slots. We have then had complaints from the Guernsey boat owners that there are no spaces for them and from people who find themselves blocked in.’
He said that part of the area this summer had been allocated to the contractor working on the new jetty, but that the actual area for inter-island passengers had not decreased.
‘They might have flowed into there in the past but it was never allocated to them,’ he said.
‘Unfortunately, the harbour is exceedingly busy and each user has to fit in with the others.’
Article posted on 17th August, 2004 - 12.00am
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