HARBOUR FERRIES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 106, 1 November 1926, Page 9

HARBOUR FERRIES

COMPETITION FROM MOTORBUSES

PROPOSAL TO PURCHASE EXISTING SERVICE.

The Eastbourne Borough Council, which controls the harbour ferry service, has, in common with other local bodies controlling transport servipes, suffered severely as a result of competitive motor-bus services, and for some months past has been considering ways and means of overcoming the trouble. The council has now decided that the only way of dealing with the matter is to purchase the motor-buses at present constituting the service by road with Wellington, and with this object in view the council proposes to raise a special lOah of £8000 for the purpose, notification of which appears in this issue of "The Post." When the loan has been flouted it is proposed that the council shall establish, maintain, and regulate a m.tcr-bu. service for the conveyance of passengeis and goods within the Borough of Eastbourne arid between Eastbourne and Wellington, for which purpose it is proposed -o purchase the existing se-vice, conducted by Messrs. Sievers and Bosher, comprising eight motor-buses. The purchase price is stated to be £7650, £100 being allocated for further purchase of sundry spare parts, and the preliminary expenses and cost of raising the loan will cost the balance (£250). To finance the loan the council proposes to pledge a special rate of 1 l-6d in the £1 on the unimproved value of all rateable property in the borough, which will include payment of interest and sinking fund on the money borrowed. Debentures are to be issued as a means of raising the loan, and will be repayable in twenty years, the interest not to exceed 6% per cent, per annum. The first year's interest and sinking fund will not be paid out of the loan.

A special meeting of the Eastbourne Borough Council was held at noon to-day to fujfil the statutory declarations re(juired'in regard to the matter. The necesdary motions were passed unanimously, and a poll of ratepayers will be held ,on Ist December, when those qualified to record their vote will be asked to sanction the loan, which is in keeping with what other local bodies have been compelled to do in order to deal with the situation which has arisen everywhere as a result of competition from private motor-bus concerns.