There was dismay today after a chain ferry that serves the exclusive Sandbanks peninsula in Dorset was put out of action for a month.
The loss of the Sandbanks Ferry at the start of the school summer holidays is expected to cause traffic chaos in the area and could force businesses to close.
The service, which spans the entrance of Poole Harbour and links the millionaire’s playground to the Studland peninsula, takes hundreds of thousands of motorists, cyclists and pedestrians every year.
The Sandbanks Chain ferry service has been withdrawn due to mechanical issues
But just as it enters its busiest time of year the ferry has suffered a broken drive shaft which will take four weeks to repair.
It means visitors and holiday-makers heading for the Isle of Purbeck this summer will face a 25 mile detour to get there.
Local businesses that rely on the tourists fear the expected traffic gridlock will put people off coming.
Geoff Clarke, who runs a Leonard’s Gifts in Swanage, said: ‘I have written off this year already because people just aren’t going to come.
‘I’m going to be around 50 per cent down from last summer because people from places like Bournemouth and Poole won’t be coming over.
‘The drive is around 25 miles and you can’t blame people for not wanting to sit in traffic the whole way across.
The loss of the Sandbanks Ferry at the start of the school summer holidays is expected to cause traffic chaos in the area and could force businesses to close
‘Swanage is pretty much exclusively independent stores and we rely on trade coming across from those areas.
‘My overheads are around £60,000 and our best guesses are that this will take at least two years to recover from.’
‘During the summer months they have around 80 cars using the ferry every half an hour, so the operators should have enough money to deal with issues like this.
‘For them to be out of action now is a huge kick in the teeth for all us independent traders.’
Nick Boulter, the vice chairman for Studland parish council, added: ‘We are very disappointed that the ferry is out of action again. It has a major impact on people coming here on holiday or for day trips but also for the local businesses.’
Last year the Bournemouth-Swanage Motor Road and Ferry Company, that runs the service, controversially tried to hike up the price of cars using it from £4.30 to £6.
The ferry has suffered a broken drive shaft which will take four weeks to repair
However, the planned rise was rejected by the Secretary of State for Transport who said it was ‘totally unreasonable’.
The ferry was then out of action for nearly three months over winter, initially because of annual maintenance and then due to a hydraulic failure.
A spokesman for the ferry company said the issue now with the 240ft vessel is a fracture of one of the main drive shafts.
They said: ‘In order to speed up the whole repair process we have taken the costly decision to have the ferry towed to a suitably equipped repair facility in Southampton to have the work undertaken.
‘We sincerely apologise to all our valued customers for this inconvenience, but can only assure you that we are working as hard as we can to return the ferry to full service as soon as possible.’
It is predicted the ferry won’t be back in action until August 12 at the earliest.
Mr Clarke said: ‘Over the Christmas period the town was completely dead because of the lack of ferry service.
‘I actually still have all of my festive stock and will have to sell it this year as it just sat on a shelf collecting dust.’