Representation by David Wertheim
- Date submitted
- 21 June 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am a resident of the Isle of Man. We depend on full and regular access by sea for our daily lives. There are two shipping lines handing freight. Air freight is not an option. Most of our foodstuffs and drinks are imported by sea; all our mail travels by sea and all of our goods imports (the majority of what we need) travels by sea. We depend on the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company's (IOMSPC) sailings between between Douglas and Heysham and Liverpool as well as the Mezeron sailing to and from Ramsey for freight and on the IOMSPC for passenger travel (both on foot and by car). The proposals put forward for wind farms appear to have a potential impact on the routes our vessels must use. This is not acceptable under any circumstances. It is unreasonable for the Isle of Man to have its whole transport infrastructure disrupted; solutions must be found without the need for our vessels to be re-routed as this would add significantly to the costs - even if it involves re-siting the wind farm locations. After all there is a lot of Irish Sea, but only a very limited number of viable shipping lanes.