Another review of the Isle of Wight’s troubled Floating Bridge is taking place, costing the taxpayer almost £50,000.
This time it will focus on the ‘last 2 remaining issues’ impacting the service and comes after a 6-month review of the efficiency and operation of the vessel started earlier this year.
It is being carried out by 3S Services and is costing the Council £47,520, with a report due to be produced in December, setting out the findings and recommendations for the authority to consider.
The 2 remaining issues, the Council says, is the failure to operate in all tides while maintaining the necessary chain clearance and the speed of loading and unloading the vessel while needing to keep vehicles, foot passengers and cyclists separate.
It also aims to identify if it is possible to improve the queuing, paying, loading and unloading processes, with the hope of increasing the number of crossings per hour.
The Isle of Wight Council says the Floating Bridge ‘continues to provide a reliable service’ with recent figures from the authority showing it carried out 100% of its scheduled hours in March and April, but averaging at 97.1% of those hours between April, May and June.
In July, a software issue saw the Floating Bridge 6 out of action for just over 4 weeks, including over Cowes Week. Due to the nature of the fault, the vessel had to be inspected by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency before it could go back into service.
The Council said it used the downtime to carry out maintenance works to prevent issues in the future, although service was suspended for maintenance again less than a month later.
With Jerk Jordan at the helm, this will run and run and run. Shocking waste of OUR money. Sick Joke of the finest order.
Jordan should not be involved he is a criminal,he got convicted for drink driving,he should not be on the council.
Most politicians are bent as ****
It would be much cheaper to take it out in the middle of the solent
and get the Royal Navy to sink it.
In the long run much cheaper for everyone, also good
Practice for our lads in the Navy.
Maybe the east Cowes arsonist isn’t the hero that we need, but the hero that we want… Or not the one we want, but need or some shit idk
Not long until Guy Fawkes night.
Someone needs to put this heap of junk out of its misery
I am fed up with this Dumb and Dumber run Council wasting my
hard earned cash on it.
Scrap it and start again.
Build a flyover from East Cowes and West Cowes
Much cheaper in the long run and much more reliable.
Are there no brains in County Hall!!
What a joke its not going to cost the council nothing because it’s the poor workers that pay for it an no doubt the council tax will go up again next April an if you want to find out how to load an unload faster give wightlink staff a few grand they will show you as they seem to get 20 cars on in under 10 minutes it seems that the council don’t give a s**t about what they spend or how they spend it an instead of having staff on the floating bridge taking the fairs why can’t they be on ether side taking fairs an loading an unloading instead of waiting till boats moving then holding everyone up ether side because they haven’t collected all the money don’t need to spend £50,000 just use your brains
they not got any to use or they wouldnt be spending the £47K
You couldn’t do that you would need two each side in case one was on coffee break , having a meeting, toilet break and any other situation. Also would need a manager to consider h&s and check the workers were doing their job properly and dealing with complaints (if there were any).
The true definition of a man made disaster.
This story is like the never ending chains it rumbles on
Ill do my own review in ten seconds, ‘its a pile of c**p and a total waste of money’.
Exactly what assessment process and who within the IW Council approved this company to again outsource a £50,000 contract ? The answers are already well known and understood locally, yet another £50,000 is frittered away by this Council off the Island, when it could have been sorted here in Cowes, as all previous successful FBs were.
The replacement FB6 is too big, too heavy, with the wrong cross section underwater profile – using an existing “in stock” design for crossing still lake water longitudinally, not requiring strong water flow to cross under the hull – in the required narrow tidal entrance using ebb and flow tidal data supplied from before the Cowes Outer Breakwater was constructed which changed the tidal profiles.
£50k please !
Only £50,000 Jordan !! You can waste a lot more of our money than that .. go on waste more ..
Can it be beyond anyone to see this as a failed project, just admit it is an engineering mistake and move on. Sometimes just better to start from scratch, it will be cheaper in long run. Any company that cant work out tides and chain length probably shouldn’t be running a service on the water.
I’ll review it for half that amount, saving everyone some money. It’s CRAP! – There you go, job done. – That’ll be £25,000 please.
I can do a review on it ,my price 100 quid ,in two words it’s fu××ed !!!
Easy to hit 100% of scheduled hours when you change the schedule every time it breaks down or is otherwise taken out of service
The floating bridge fiasco I just one example of the incompetence of officers and councillors. Badly planned, badly designed and badly managed.
Isn’t there some kind of Ombudsman that could look at this issue to stop councils wasting our hard earned money? Can some millionaire take them to court? (shame I am too poor for this…)
yes there is “The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) looks at complaints about councils and some other authorities and organisations it is free to raise a complaint ” https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/local-government-ombudsman
The problem is corrupt Governments employ corrupt Councils
They are all in it together
All are a bunch of thieving Robbing B’stards
Life would be so much better without them, and much cheaper
“Reliable Service” what kind of idiot would associate this comment to the Cowes Floating Bridge!
That comment alone should be taken as this gibbering fools resignation from the IOW Council
wonder if they will be using the payout they received “The Isle of Wight Council has refused to provide information relating to the payout made in respect of the troubled Floating Bridge, claiming an exemption under Freedom of Information laws.” https://www.islandecho.co.uk/council-refuse-freedom-of-information-requests-over-floating-bridge-payout/
Get ready guys for the 5 – 10% Council Tax Hike next year
to pay for all of IW Councils Fcuk ups!
They have more Fcuk ups than I have had Fish and Chips
and I’m a fish fryer.
Torpedo it once and for all.