The post you are reporting:
Reference my long post (small book) #23 on 15th. I have received the following very interesting email from an anonymous sender via my fotopic site. Unfortunately, as it had no sender's details, McAfee filed it in my junk mail so there has been a bit of a delay in communicating it:
"Your description on the doverforum of the LD lines route to Dieppe states
that they operate the service on a knife edge - these are the facts as stated
in Lloyds List - please update the forum members accurately:
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French authority slammed over ferry service funding
FRANCE'S principal public spending watchdog has launched a scathing attack on the Seine Maritime departmental council for its use of public funds to support the English Channel ferry service between Dieppe and Newhaven. The Court of Accounts calculates that the service ran up an accumulated operating deficit of €128m ($163.8) between 2001, when the council took over responsibility for the service, and the end of 2007, the last full year of
operation taken into account in its report. But it warns that there will certainly be more losses to come on the line, which has been operated since March 2007 by Louis Dreyfus Armateurs subsidiary LD Lines under a concession agreement which provides for an annual €14m subsidy to take account of its structural operating deficit.
The court, which had already voiced concerns in 2002 over the council's decision to revive the line abandoned by P&O Stena in 1999, said that its early fears regarding the financial risks associated with the operation had become reality. While the court recognises that the council decided to revive the line on the basis of its importance for the local economy, it claimed that its decision was taken without any serious analysis of the consequences for the public purse. The court accuses the council of using fragile and "heterodox" legal procedures to enable itself to take charge of operation of the line and acquire the port of Newhaven, a transaction presented as necessary for the success of its efforts to save the line on a long-term basis.
The report draws attention to numerous irregularities in the operation of the line and criticises the purchase by the council, through the local authority-private sector grouping which manages the line, of the two ships in operation on it, the Côte d'Albâtre and the Seven Sisters. It drew attention to the €100m-plus cost of the two vessels, which had originally been priced at €42m, and the complexity of arrangements to finance them. In the short and medium term, it says, it can see no "financially painless" way for the council to extricate itself from its involvement in the line. "Operation of the line continues," the court said, "certainly within a delegated management framework, but in a still highly competitive context in which the departmental taxpayer is required to regularly compensate low operating revenues." It is not sure, however, that the court's report will be followed by any action against the council, which has strong political support for its decision to revive the line."
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Further to the above, many have queried LD Lines commitment to Newhaven-Dieppe. The suspicion all along has been that, once they obtained a foothold in Dover, they would abandon Newhaven-Dieppe at the first opportunity. Pierre Gehanne has mentioned the lack of recognition of Newhaven amongst potential customers, most cannot place Newhaven on the map - and that's just the British! Everybody knows Dover. He has said repeatedly that the Dover-Dieppe service has to make money in order for Newhaven-Dieppe to survive. Many pundits expect Dover-Dieppe to be unsuccessful, which would provide LD and Seine-Maritime with the requisite get-out.
