Our policies

These reports include the results from the work undertaken as part of the operation of Wightlink Limited ferry services between Lymington and Yarmouth.

9th report for Lymington to Yarmouth ferries – December 2015

Lymington to Yarmouth Ferries – Case summary – December 2015

 

Our project includes activities which fall within the Solent and Southampton Water Special Protection Area (SPA) and Solent and Southampton Water Ramsar Site, which are designated as protected sites under the EU Habitats Directive. The Habitats Regulations 2010 implement the Habitats Directive into UK Law. Under the Habitats Regulations, both local planning authorities, the Marine Management Organisation and the Environment Agency are “competent authorities” and were required to assess the potential effects of the project on the integrity of the protected sites and complete an “Appropriate Assessment” prior to granting the consents necessary for the project for which they were responsible. Having taken advice from Natural England, all the competent authorities concluded that our project would not have an adverse effect on the protected European Sites.

Wightlink, as Harbour Authority at Fishbourne, is also a competent authority for the purposes of the habitats regulations, and the following confirmation that the local authorities, the Marine Management Organisation and the Environment Agency had granted the consents necessary for the project to proceed, we were required to carry out our own appropriate assessment of the project before deciding to implement it. Our appropriate assessments were carried out at an extraordinary meeting of the Board of Directors of Wightlink Limited held on 21 April 2016. The Board also concluded that the project would not have an adverse effect either alone or in combination with other projects on the European Protected Sites ie the SPA and the Ramsar Site. Further to that finding in relation to the appropriate assessment, the Board of Wightlink have decided to implement the project. We expect the port improvement works to be completed by Summer 2017 and our proposed new ‘G’ Class Ferry will arrive in Spring 2018 and will be operational shortly thereafter.

The Board of Directors of Wightlink agreed that the minutes of the Extraordinary Board Meeting would be published on our website and these can be found by following the link below:

We support the appointment of our female colleagues both on board our vessels and in shore based occupations into visible leadership roles in line with their skills, qualifications and experience underpinned by strong development opportunities.

Although the seafaring industry has traditionally been male dominated, we are proud to employ a continually increasing number of female Captains, Chief Officers and shore based Managers providing strong work life balance opportunities on the Solent.

Whilst always appointing the best people for our varied roles, regardless of gender, we continuously review how to address our gender pay gap.