Islanders took to social media this week to voice their discontent at the lack of refreshments available to them when a ferry to France was delayed on Tuesday.
Since the Harbour Café closed in 2013, the only food and drink outlet available has been a pop-up kiosk that opened in 2014 as a temporary facility, while a new restaurant is built.
Four years later, however, the new restaurant remains to be opened and on Tuesday the kiosk was closed.
Last year, Ports of Jersey, which was working with Terminal GBJ on the restaurant, acknowledged that there had been delays, which it attributed to several factors, such as the poor state of the facility, over-ambition in their initial design work and ‘periods of distraction away’ from the project for both parties.
A PoJ spokesman said that the working relationship with Terminal GBJ broke down last year and that it was now looking for another party to operate the restaurant.
‘We iterated a set of agreements in spring and summer 2017, but unfortunately, formal agreement could not be reached between Ports of Jersey and Terminal GBJ to allow us to move the project forward,’ he said.
‘In October 2017 Terminal GBJ advised Ports of Jersey that it could not agree to the final set of contracts and the project stopped.’
He added: ‘Both Ports of Jersey and Terminal GBJ are very disappointed that we could not get to a point, which would allow us to realise the full vision of the concept, but recognise in business that this happens.
‘During the entire period of the project, including the time since it notified Ports of Jersey that it could not move forward with the final set of terms, Terminal GBJ has continued to operate the catering kiosk at Elizabeth Terminal, for which we are grateful.
‘Since then, Ports of Jersey has engaged with other potential operators with an aim of getting a café open for the summer season 2018. We recognise the regulatory and operational challenges of hitting this objective, but we are seeking the fastest possible solution.’
Marcus Calvani, the businessman behind Terminal GBJ, apologised to customers who had been disappointed with the services provided by the kiosk.
‘I would by all means apologise to anyone who has been disappointed up until the end of 2017 with the service provided by the temporary kiosk,’ he said.
‘We do not have a kitchen there, so our product offering has had to be limited. We have missed a total of three boats in three years due to sickness.’
But he added: ‘I cannot, however, apologise to the public for the delay in delivery of the restaurant facility as the build and development is nothing to do with myself or my company and is totally out of my hands.’
