So, Hoverspeed's Newhaven-Dieppe fair-weather ferry has scuttled away for the winter once again.

The company obviously is not interested in the welfare of the port or in providing a service to the community.

Thank goodness the French, in the shape of Transmanche Ferries, have the money and commitment to provide a year-round service.

We inveterate day-trippers can still get our day in Dieppe, on a real ship, for £12 or £17 on Saturdays.

Two things worry me, though. How can French companies manage to run the ferries and the port, provide our buses and trains, supply our water, collect our rubbish and tend our council playing fields when our own companies cannot?

And why are 95 per cent of the lorries using the ferries based abroad? Do we not have a haulage industry any more?

I am not anti-French. Good luck to them if they can make a go of it. But why can't we?

-Peter White, Valley Drive, Seaford