From:

To:
Cc:
Subject:
Date:

Love, Stuart
Stephens, Ian (County Councillor)
Burbage, David
FW: Wightlink Support
15 October 2013 09:01:00

Hello Ian

Please see the email trail below. There were a few more sent through yesterday
regarding setting up anti Wightlink Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The Council cannot be part of this and you will see my email to Carole, etc is an
attempt to distance us from this activity.

Kind regards
Stuart

From: Love, Stuart

Sent: 15 October 2013 08:48
To:
Subject: RE: Wightlink Support

Dear All

I am afraid that I will need to disassociate myself and the Council from this activity. As
you are aware, we cannot be seen to be actively favouring one business over another
and certainly not forcing business away from Wightlink to a competitor. Can I therefore
ask that I am not included in this email trail if it goes any further?

Kind regards
Stuart

From:
Sent: 13 October 2013 11:09
To:
;
Cc:
; Love, Stuart
Subject: Re: Wightlink Support

I agree. They will try to undermine the attack on them by swamping everyone with
irrelevant detail, hence the validity of your para by para dissection. They will also try to
bully everyone they can by talking about withdrawing funding. We need to talk to Red
Funnel to ask them to ensure that their behaviour and approach to the Islanders is
visibly different to that of Wightlink.
Loss of business from Wightlink to Red Funnel would be the most damaging outcome for
Wightlink

From:
Sent: Sunday, 13 October 2013 10:39
To:
Cc:
; Love, Stuart

Subject: Re: Wightlink Support

All,
For WL to send this communication out means they are rattled.
This letter completely underlines one of the basic issues - our ferry services are not just
about tourism.
This goes to the very crux of the problem - WL have no strategy other that transporting
tourists with cars and lorries at peak times. Anything that sits outside of these profit
centres is of no interest to them.
There is so much more that can be discovered by dissecting this letter, comment by
comment. There seems to be a significant lack of comparing WL,s historic data with
today's reality.
Maybe this is an area of response?
Sent from my iPhone
On 13 Oct 2013, at 05:40,

wrote:

From:
Date: 10 October 2013 17:56:05 BST
To:
Subject: Wightlink Support
Sent on behalf of: Russell Kew, Chief Executive

You may have seen in the press that a motion about Wightlink has
been submitted for discussion at the islands next Full Council Meeting
(Wednesday 16 October). It criticises our scheduling, pricing and
consultation practices, following recent changes to services and
mentions a possible reference to the Office of Fair Trading.
We value our good relationship with our local authority and fear that
negative publicity resulting from this motion may harm the Isle of
Wights reputation as a tourist destination and, indeed, the prosperity of
the whole island.
Perhaps councillors are only hearing half of the story? I am contacting
you because you are one of our valued partners and I wanted you to
know the challenges we are facing. If our support has been valuable to
you, perhaps you might want to get in touch with your elected members
to give them the full picture by telling them of your experience of dealing
with us? Alternatively, if youd prefer to contact us with your views,
wed be really pleased to hear from you.
Wightlink is proud to serve the Isle of Wight 24 hours a day with reliable
ferries and employs 170 islanders. We believe we price our fares
competitively and fairly, offering unrivalled discounts to Islanders and
vulnerable passengers including hospital patients travelling to the
mainland. We offer over 350,000 in support to over 100 charities,
individuals and good causes on the island. We also believe in honest
communication and consultancy with our customers and communities.
We would be very grateful if you were able to support us on this
occasion.
Kind regards
Russell Kew

Chief Executive

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