Andy Wells was quite right to say (Letters, October 9) Adam Trimingham's article on Transmanche Ferries' Newhaven/Dieppe operations was poorly researched.

However, Mr Wells also states "in reality, P&O* is operating the first brand new vessel" and that we should be grateful to them for their investment.

P&O? Surely not. It was P&O which allowed the route to wither in the late Nineties, before axing it at short notice.

As Mr Wells also says, it was indeed the Conseil General de Seine Maritime which re-opened the route with conventional ferries and, without them, we would have no service at all.

We should in fact be very grateful to them for this.

The futures of the port and ferry service are up in the air again.

We'll know more in a few months' time when we see what Apollo Bannertown intend to do with the development of the port areas and learn which of the current crop of bidders for the Transmanche service, including Seafrance and LD Lines, has won.

Though I'm a born and bred Newhavener and strongly believe in both the town and the ferry service, I'll nevertheless have to hedge my bets until then.

Andy Gilbert Tarring Close, Newhaven With reference to the Transmanche ferry link to Dieppe, credit and thanks are due to the the Seine Maritime department of France for supporting this route.

While the Dieppe is not an ideal ship, a replacement is on its way and you can already opt to travel on a far superior vessel.

Newhaven harbour's ferry terminal was in a sad state of decline and one wonders what would have happened if Seine Maritime had not stepped in.

Dieppe itself is a splendid town which has brought itself smartly into a new era with much improvement and a forwardlooking attitude.

Do we not have much to learn?

  • Gerard Downing, Kings Court, Shoreham

* Editor's note: Andy Wells's letter referred to the operator of the brand new vessel as "the company". This was inadvertently changed to "P&O" during the editing process. We apologise to Mr Wells for this error.