Herm 'to lose out on about 1,000 Jersey visitors'

For a port to be approved in law, there are a number of requirements around infrastructure, resourcing and security.

Jersey ferry operators are cancelling their Herm sailings this year after being reminded of a travel law.

The Guernsey Border Agency (GBA) recently issued reminders that when private vessels arrive in the Bailiwick, they must pass through an approved port.

Sark and Herm are not on that list, so vessels arriving from Jersey should go into St Peter Port Harbour before going on to those islands.

Craig Senior, the CEO of Herm Island, said there were usually about 1,000 visitors from Jersey and estimated the cancelled trips would cost the island between £50,000 and £100,000 a year.

He said "We're already in some unprecedented deep water when it comes to tourism for Guernsey and Herm and this is not going to help us at all... we are starting to struggle, we are starting to sink."

'More scrutiny'

The law has been in place for some time for custom and immigration requirements.

The GBA said "no enforcement action around this legislation has taken place" in recent years and "no one has been or is being prosecuted" under it.

The agency said enforcement was not being amped up but, said since Brexit, "the Bailiwick is under far more scrutiny from an international level" and it needed to ensure things were being done correctly.

The GBA added it would gather input from stakeholders as part of a review to put to the Committee for Home Affairs to "give direction on any potential changes to the law".

'Not a good business proposition'

Mario Setubal, who owns Island RIB Voyages in Jersey, said his company had been operating direct routes from Jersey to Herm with no problems in the past.

The company is now no longer going to offer trips to Herm until the law changes.

He said "Wasting another hour to get into St Peter Port, just so we can make a phone call from inside the harbor, we just don't see it as a good business proposition."

Mr. Setubal said: "It's like Guernsey has put a big wall between us and them and said 'you guys are no longer part of the Channel Islands'."

Island RIB Voyages was given a concession to operate a route to Sark, direct from Jersey, but not to Herm.