THE Steam Packet Company has hit back at claims that there is a lack of freight being shipped to the Island.

Chief executive Mark Woodward has said shelves in local shops are not "uniformly empty" and that freight was continuing to be shipped into the Island.

Mr Woodward has spoken out following numerous cancellations to the Ben-my-Chree's service in the last two weeks - due in part to the weather and in part to the broken bow thruster.

He said that by Monday (December 5) Heysham port had actually been cleared of standard freight and that all urgent freight traffic had been shipped.

Yesterday (Wednesday) around 50 trailers of freight were shipped to the Island on the 7.45pm sailing from Heysham along with some other freight traffic and passenger vehicles.

Mr Woodward explained: "When there are weather issues our freight customers do prioritise what is urgent and what is not within the space allocations they have.

"A number of stores have confirmed that they make provision for such eventualities by utilising on-Island warehousing and this is reflected in the fact that shelves in local stores are not uniformly empty as has been claimed in the media."  

Despite calls for the Steam Packet Company to charter another freight vessel (on top of the one scheduled to be used while the Ben-my-Chree is in dry-dock) Mr Woodward said this is unlikely to happen.

He continued: "In response to calls for us to charter another vessel we have looked at this possibility.

"However given the current weather patterns it is difficult to see how chartering another vessel, even if one was available, would help the situation.

"Any vessels that are suitable in terms of size for Douglas harbour are typically older freighters with limited manoeuvrability themselves. However of much more relevance is that they are simply not readily available for short-term charter.

"Thankfully the Ben-my-Chree is a very large capacity vessel allowing us to quickly catch up with any freight requirements so minimising the potential for disruption."

He added: "The Irish Sea is experiencing an unusually prolonged period of consistent gale and severe gale force winds and, to make matters worse, these winds have been from an unusual direction which makes berthing in Heysham more difficult."

The Ben-my-Chree’s broken bow thrust unit is due to be fixed next weekend. For more on this story click here.

Also see: Shoprite welcomes Steam Packet's "urgent steps" to restore ferry service