The much-hoped-for return of the Dotto Train along Ryde seafront has been ruled out as budget pressures hit the town.
The trains last ran over 10 years ago in the summer seasons in Ryde, Sandown and Shanklin but were axed by the Isle of Wight Council as the ageing vehicles meant increased maintenance costs.
The tourist attraction had been rumoured to return to Ryde this year but plans have been put on hold as inflationary pressures hit Ryde Town Council’s (RTC) budget.
Speaking at the town council’s meeting on Monday, Councillor Phil Jordan said he was sorry to say the Dotto Train was not being considered any more, along with other projects, as the council looked to stretch its budget further.
RTC agreed to put up its council tax precept by 9.4% — which will see a Band C resident in the town pay £12.70 more a year.
Councillor Jordan said the budget will continue to invest in the community while reducing spending where possible, instead of driving cuts and trying not to go backwards in terms of services. He said the overarching threat of inflation threatens the continuation of council services in their current forms so they were maintaining services.
The town council had agreed in October to acquire a Dotto Train for Ryde only if a financially sound business case was presented.
Councillor Jordan said the council was putting on services the Isle of Wight Council hadn’t as all the add-ons were drained from the community by government austerity.
Yes, they need to save their money for the new bus station they are building for the islands bus company.
Ryde Town Council have nothing whatsoever to do with the new bus station (or the Ryde Interchange project in general), it is an IW Council led project which is funded by central government.
Excellent reply, Back in you box please Fred lol
The town council could cut the precept by stopping handing our money out on non essentials such as the pride donation, entertainment in Eastern gardens and south island sports and offload liabilities such as the marina, the cost of dredging alone cannot surely be covered by berthing fees.
Ryde Marina was only just short of being cost neutral in the first year and is expected to be profitable this coming year. The events bring in tens of thousands of people into the town, which is absolutely vital for an economy that relies so heavily on tourism.
If it paid for itself, it wouldn’t impact on budgets. And if it’s loss making they shouldn’t really have been considering it anyway.
Why don’t they support a private enterprise running it?
But RTC went and bought a derelict / empty church which is no new use to anyone ?
monies would have been better spent on the Dotto, which would have generated some income,
unlike spending money on an empty church , which will cost to maintain year on year !!
St Thomas’ Church is going to be the new home for the towns youth service Network Ryde, which currently pays out rent on a shop on the High Street. It is far from derelict and all works thus far (e.g new roof) have been funded entirely by external grants at no extra cost to residents.
This is why we have nothing good on this island anymore, if it doesn’t make the people in charge a lot of money, it ain’t getting done. It will be the eventual downfall of this island and most likely this country, short sighted greed.
Oh dear. How will i get home after a skin full now?
I would rather have that than the floating bridge, it would cost less to run.
To be very clear. The Dotto train idea is not scrapped, it is deferred.
Probably until next year but if an opportunity arises we could look again for this year.
The Marina, even after all investment and dredging actually returns a profit to the Council.
The church has already received three times the cost of purchase in grant funding.
In addition, it is a cost neutral exercise by moving the youth service from high street rented property thereby saving on rent. That saving, regardless of the grant of hundreds of thousands of pounds, pays for the purchase cost of the building.
The bus station is funded by £10m grant funding from the DfT under the Transforming Cities Fund. Not from any RTC funding.
Oh no, not austerity again which has seen all our taxes rise to a 70 year record high as the government spend money like it’s going out of fashion, whilst the ‘services’ we receive in return for it continue to dry up faster than a summer puddle’ – where is all the money going? Oh yes, the public sector is now 50% larger than it was in 1997, it is also considerably less productive despite massive technological advances and also delivers far less than it ever used to, using the excuse of ‘climate change’ to effectively ban, curtail or stop most of the things they used to provide – austerity? Give it a rest!