At Full Council on 10 June 2021, Members unanimously approved a £48m bid which (if successful) would see the acquisition of 3 new shipping vessels, plus the harbour works required to support these new vessels and meet accessibility requirements.
The bid will be submitted to government by 18 June 2021. A successful bid would see the Council working with the Steamship Company, Tresco Estate, Duchy of Cornwall and Cornwall Council (as the owners of Penzance Harbour) to bring much needed investment and resilience to the islands' key passenger and freight shipping vessels and infrastructure.
Chairman of Council, Robert Francis said: "this bid to the Levelling Up Fund is of the utmost importance to the islands as the investment would ensure the preservation and improvement of our lifeline shipping transport for years to come.”
“In addition to increasing the resilience and accessibility of our sea links, the improvements set out within the bid will radically enhance the customer experience, prioritising comfort and reducing the journey time considerably. I am confident that the success of this bid would enable the islands' main shipping issues to be fixed and mean that further asks from the community relating to transport can be considered in other workstreams in the future.”
“The finalisation of the bid represents a huge amount of collaboration between stakeholders across the islands and I am grateful to everyone who has worked so hard to get us to the stage of submission within such a tight timeframe."
You can read the full report and supporting documents at the following page: http://committees.scilly.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?id=16761