Closure-threatened ferry to be funded until March

Thurrock Council says it is currently subsidising the Tilbury to Gravesend ferry along with Kent County Council. But they are looking at alternatives after March.

The leader of Thurrock Council has stated that funding for the Tilbury to Gravesend ferry has “not been cut”.

Andrew Jefferies said there had been “a slight misunderstanding” with Kent County Council which jointly finances the vital service.

Officers from both local authorities are set to meet to come up with a plan for an alternative funding model after March when the current contract expires.

Both councils have subsidised the service since 2000 after the previous operator pulled out.

Mr Jefferies said both authorities needed to look at “how the ferry will be funded from March” in order to reduce the dependency on public funds.

Thurrock Council filed a section 114 notice in 2022 as it could not meet its financial commitments after building up a debt of £1.5billion following a series of failed solar farm investments.

Thurrock has been ordered only to provide the legal minimum in services but ferries are not a statutory service.

Thurrock Council leader Andrew Jefferies says alternative ways of funding the ferry service will be looked at.

Finding support from businesses with workers reliant on the ferry was one possibility under consideration.

The future of the service was raised by Thurrock MP Dame Jackie Doyle-Price at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

“So many people are using that ferry service to come to work in Tilbury docks and the incumbent expansion of the Thames Freeport," she said.

The Prime Minister responded “he would encourage” local councils to “consider the importance of cross river transport”.

Thurrock's Labour group has written to the transport secretary Mark Harper stating there was "no alternative route for the vast majority of these journeys".

A ferry service has operated between Essex and Kent on the River Thames for centuries.