The Isle of Wight Council is set to spend £142,000 on installing digital signs to warn motorists when the Cowes Floating Bridge is out of action.
Motorists are currently alerted to the frequent suspension of the Floating Bridge by means of static road signs erected on lamp posts. Each sign, located on the approaches to the Floating Bridge, flips open to reveal the service suspension message.
It has now been confirmed a total of 4 variable message signs (VMS) look set to be installed in the East Cowes area – 3 of which are being delivered in partnership with Red Funnel.
Council officials say the signs are part of works to improve traffic flow in and around East Cowes, especially at busy periods. This will include giving drivers relevant travel information about the floating bridge and Red Funnel services.
The local authority has set aside a whopping £142,000 in the 2022/23 budget to fund these works, but it’s unclear how much Red Funnel are injecting into the project.
Why…… more money wasted. Just sort this money pit out, why spend out on expensive signs to tell people what that know anyway, the floating bridge is a complete cock up from day one. scrap it and spend money on one that will work. Still might come in useful to tell the Russians to “f*** off” when they invade. Ooops getting political.
The Russians won’t invade us,they would just send over the nuke’s.
Being close to the Navy docks in Portsmouth we would be the lucky ones vaporised in an instant.
Not in Ventnor, they would just mutate….(don’t say it).
to late already happened in wroxal…
What a waste of money. Why don’t they just have a green flag for when it is working and a red flag for when it is not working, the only thing is that they would need a boxful of red flags because they would be worn out from excessive use….
Me thinks we would only need the one red flag, just leave it where it is
more taxpayers money frittered away and yet more pored into the money pit which is the floating bridge, never mind folks it is only the ratepayers money so it doesn’t matter.
They wouldn’t need signs if it worked. How often did they have to put signs out on the old one? Which I used regularly.
Spend £142,000 on making the bloody thing work you totally useless Pollock’s. It is high time this council was gone, forever.
A reliable service would ease traffic levels just as well. I really can’t believe the council are spending this sort of money, when increasing council tax and cutting services
Wow!! Wouldn’t it be cheaper to install signs that manually flip open when the floaty farce isn’t working.
Oh – they already have them!!
Waste of our money. If the floating bridge and Red Funnel boats worked as they should there would be no need for a sign. Maybe it should inform us when things are working ok.
Nothing wrong with the flip signs… Not broke, don’t fix it…. so cancel the brown envelope. £142 K = one more health worker employed for 5 years… In any case, we’ll have a new FB in time, that will never go wrong, making the signs redundant….but our council doesn’t do foward thinking…
Too late, installation has already started at Whippingham.
Seems a lot of money but I suppose they will get plenty of use!
Better yet, invest in getting the damn thing working properly, or scrap and make one that does work. That’ll ease up traffic flow.
Is it April 1st already? This is incredible – you couldn’t make it up! I sincerely hope that, if this goes ahead, it is the manufacturer who is paying and not the tax payer!!!
No, we will be paying for it through our council tax. Time this lot of bumbling fools are got rid of. I will remind anyone seeking re-election in future of the stupidity of things like this when they want to know why I will not vote for them…
Really! What a waste of money. They would be better off putting up normal permanent signs signs, stating ”The floating bridge is not working today, tomorrow is not looking good either”, and save themselves thousands of pounds.
They are having a laugh cutbacks everywhere but we can waste £142,000 on digital signs that aren’t needed as FB6 is hardly ever in service. If Red Funnel want signs up for their ferries then let them pay for it. Why should the Council help them at our expense
What an absolute waste of money. It will not improve traffic flow around East Cowes. The only time there is a problem is when RED FUNNEL CANCEL FERRIES OR DELAYS WITH FERRIES. get the ferry company to run a service fit for purpose and put that money to better use.
Don’t understand your rant about Red Funnel when the article is clearly about the fiasco of a supposed floating bridge.
I like many other just do not bother to use old 666 now. If it costs so much for a bloke to put up a sign when it is not working why not put a sign that it is working instead. He will not have to do it so often then.
What a waste of money ,,, enough said
Shouldn’t that be when in action…
Not needed if everything a) worked and or b) ran on time
What a waste of money. There are only problems when Red Funnel cancel crossings or there are delays. Get the Ferry company to provide a reliable service and spend the money where it is needed most.
Again, why mention Red Funnel when the article is about the floating bridge. I take it that you have some sort of issue against them which is fine when the story is actually about them.
what is wrong with present ones!????
Couldn’t they just buy a much cheaper fixed sign that says “Probably broken down again”?
The Isle of Wight tax payers demand a breakdown of this extortionate cost . Bet it would make interesting reading. Wonder what percentage all the commissions would add up to?
They dropped half of what it costs to buy a house on signs. What is the betting those signs wont work either?
Omg that takes the biscuit !!!!!
First they buy the pile of junk! Then they waste our money hiring the jenny ! When the non floating heap doesn’t operate ( more often than not )……
The jenny must be laughing all the way to the bank ??????!!!!!!!….
Unlike us cash cow’s ….
We are just feeding their egos !!!
They said they need to save money ?????
Air conditioning – fleet of electric vehicles – new computer system …
Pay rises – more money (ours )
In pension pot !!!!!!
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg…….
Cannot believe how they have the nerve to raise our council tax ….
2nd time around !!! Maybe published????
Our council really take the biscuit
how on earth can they justify wasting more of our money???
They have already wasted far to much on the non floating heap of junk!!!!.
Now £142-000 to let us know it’s not running!!!!!!!.
They want to save money?????
Fleet of electric vehicles (scrap contract)
Air con ?????
New computer system ?????
Pension pot…
Pay for your own….
Pay rises obviously over inflated!!!!!!
Say no more!!!!!!
“delivered in partnership with Red Funnel”
Ah, of course. The Red Funnel Mafia strike again. “We want signs but want the council to pay for it, so maybe say you are using it for the floating bridge too”
I thought everything was going to change after the last Council elections? Seems like it doesn’t matter who is running the Council we still get the same old nonsense.
And what makes you think anything will ever change here? The only hope is to sack 100% of them and put a non-profit company in place and who only gat paid on results. Councillors should be representing those stupid enough to vote for them and not forming a protection ring around the fools in county hall and elsewhere.
good job our council tax is going up how would they pay for it …
Who actually had the idea for these signs?