Gravesend businesses call for return of Tilbury Ferry as petition launched

Gravesend MP, Dr Lauren Sullivan, has launched a petition to reinstate the Gravesend to Tilbury service, more than a year after it was axed.

Transcript

00:00The River Thames, a five-minute crossing by boat, but since the ferry linking Gravesend and Tilbury stopped running last year,

00:08those hoping to quickly hop between Kent and Essex are now faced with a 50-minute drive.

00:13The closure came about after Kent County Council and Thurrock Council pooled their joint funding,

00:19leaving the operated Jetstream Tours with no choice but to axe the service.

00:24It's meant businesses such as the Three Doors Pub have been left without many of their regular customers.

00:30We got to know people so well from the other side, but all of a sudden that's stopped.

00:36There's no way we will see them.

00:37It's a loss of revenue, of course.

00:40You have to sort of adjust generally.

00:43The climate's always changing, but that was a loss which should never have happened.

00:49Leicester is just one of hundreds in support of a petition to bring back the Tilbury ferry,

00:54all set up by Gravesend's MP.

00:56This is really about how we can keep this on the agenda and really call on all the various businesses

01:03around Thames Estuary, across the water.

01:07How can we all work together with councils to really reinstate this Tilbury-Gravesend ferry?

01:14Further into the town, other traders say the problems are spreading there too.

01:18We've lost all that train that came from that, and we're not the only ones.

01:22The High Street, a few of the businesses from the High Street have actually closed because

01:27they just couldn't sustain it because there was nobody walking up and down the High Street

01:30anymore.

01:30We do have some that have still continued to come, but they're telling me they've got

01:34four buses to get here.

01:36So there's a few and five of the train, and yeah, we definitely need it back.

01:42For decades, the Tilbury ferry took people to and from Gravesend from that pier over there,

01:47an easy way to cross the Thames.

01:49Not all hope is lost though, because just a few miles down the river that way, and the

01:53new Lower Thames Crossing is set to be built.

01:55Although it will take a few years before anybody in this town sees the benefits.

02:00So with the issue of funding still lost in deep waters, it seems the Tilbury ferry's future

02:05remains uncertain, and these gates closed.

02:09Bartholomew Hall for KMTV in Gravesend.