Member

As a resident of Southampton and former MP for Southampton, I am obviously very concerned about the whole issue of the Solent and the relationship between the mainland and the Isle of Wight—although the residents of the Isle of Wight would say the opposite. It is true that there are problems with how this policy can best be implemented. There are, for example, a couple of ships in the Isle of Wight over the 5,000-tonne exemption mark, which, by the way, is in this SI precisely to deal with issues relating to smaller islands and smaller communities, such as the Scilly Isles. We know that the vessels traveling to the Scilly Isles are below 5,000 tonnes and are therefore completely exempted.