She’s coming back! Months of speculation have ended with the announcement that the Barfleur ferry is returning to Poole.

A year to the day that Brittany Ferries announced it was withdrawing the ferry from the loss-making Poole to Cherbourg route, the company has said the ship is to return.

The popular ferry will be reintroduced on February 27 next year and taking a mix of passengers and freight, will make at least six cross-Channel sailings a week.

Mike Bevens, group commercial passenger director of Brittany Ferries, said: “This service was withdrawn because it was consistently making a loss, but the response from the public following the announcement has, quite frankly been amazing.

“We have been working hard to see how we could reintroduce this popular ship profitably and believe that we have found a solution by getting the passenger/freight mix right since the new service will carry proportionately fewer passengers.”

He said they would operate the service throughout the summer and review its commercial viability towards the end of September 2011.

“Having listened to the concerns of the community, we now need to call upon everyone’s support of our decision to bring back the Barfleur,” he said.

Jim Stewart, chief executive of Poole Harbour Commissioners, who has lobbied hard for the ship’s return said: “We are delighted.

“It’s great news for the port. It means we will be able to provide a regular passenger service which we are unable to at the moment.”

The freight ferry Contentin will continue to operate from the port, providing two direct sailings to Santander every week as well as Cherbourg and the fast ferry service will also continue.

The loss of the daily ferry service with Cherbourg had led directly to a 20 per cent drop in revenue at the port and resulted in 41 redundancies, one-third of the workforce.

Mr Stewart said they needed to see the schedules and timings of the sailings before deciding whether they would need to take on more employees.

“We recognise that the viability of the service will be reviewed next September – the message has to be ‘use it or lose it’,” he said.