Additional reporting by Oliver Leader de Saxe

Business owners are demanding the return of an axed ferry service as they say the drop in customers is “killing them”.

One month on from the closure of the Tilbury Ferry from Essex to Gravesend traders say they are struggling with reduced footfall and hope the ferry could return within the next year.

Sarah Cheshire, owner of Forget Me Not Vintage and Dolls House in High Street, Gravesend, said she had seen more than a 30% drop in sales and is even considering moving if business does not pick up.

“We have lost so much trade,” she said. “Not just me but lots of business at this end of the high street.

“It is killing us. I am seriously wondering if I can carry on here.”

She said her shop was only just sustaining itself and she had not even taken a wage since the ferry stopped running.

Sarah said ferry-goers would walk past her shop to get to town.

“We had regular customers who we had a lovely rapport with,” she added. “They are so sad they can no longer come.”

She feels the pier end of the town has been neglected since she opened her shop six years ago.

“It was a lot more vibrant and independent businesses were supported more,” she said.

“We are all really feeling it. We feel like we have been left. It’s like no one really cares.”

Fellow business owner Glen White feels that part of town has been “abandoned” and the ferry going is the final nail in the coffin.

The owner of gamer cafe The Mug and Meeple in Town Pier Square said the reduction in car parking was an issue too.

“We are all feeling a bit down at this end of town,” he said. “We feel a bit abandoned.”

And he called on Gravesham council to listen to its businesses.

“Don’t ignore us,” he pleaded. “Come down here and have a look at some of the problems we are having.

“The council says it is trying to move away from cars. But look at Bluewater - it has a free car park. It isn’t moving away from cars because that is what people use.

“We have lost business, we have lost car parking spaces and now we have lost the ferry.”

He cannot understand the axing of the ferry.

“It was a super cheap service. People used it, especially on a Saturday when they would come over from Essex to do some shopping.

“We have definitely seen a drop in footfall on that day.

“Why change the public transport that people were using when they could have just raised the price to make it more cost-effective?”

Leader of Gravesham council Cllr John Burden said he was keen to get the ferry re-instated and hopes to have news on the progress by the end of the year.

He said: “We want the ferry back and we are trying to find the funding to make that happen.

“The sooner we bring it back the better.

“By the end of this year we should have some positive news about how we should be moving forward.”

The ferry, which ran five days a week between 5.40am and 7pm, made its final journey on March 30 after financial constraints forced it to be axed.

For more than two decades the ferry, which was co-subsidised by Kent County Council (KCC) and Thurrock Council and who are responsible for transport, carried more than 100,000 passengers a year.

However, its future was cast in doubt as both authorities faced financial pressures.

At the beginning of March, operator Jetstream Tours announced the ferry would cease running at the end of the month.