The chair of the Isle of Wight Council has said he is ‘absolutely furious’ about County Hall’s handling of the Cowes floating bridge replacement process.
Councillor Karl Love, representative for East Cowes, spoke out following recent news of a council-led, Spring 2025 “engagement process” with the “public and key stakeholders” on replacing the troubled Floating Bridge 6.
He said:
“Why they are consulting I have no idea, just get on and build it, for God’s sake.
“We haven’t said there should be a consultation as an East Cowes Town Council.
“I am sick to death of them trying to micromanage and drag this process out and I don’t know for what reason, other than they don’t want to replace it.
“What we need is for them to go directly to the shipbuilders, of which there are many in East Cowes – at least 3 that could build this – and ask them to put bits together to build something that is sustainable and can keep the whole industry going.
“What message is given out to the rest of the country and the rest of the world if we don’t have a floating bridge – if we don’t have this connection? We need to be open for business.”
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County Hall’s cabinet unanimously agreed to replace the £3.5 million Floating Bridge 6 in March this year.
The beleaguered vessel was first introduced to the River Medina in May 2017.
Councillor Jordan said back in March the decision “has been a long time coming”. He added the agreement reached was the beginning of a process and that options would be explored which the council would refer to prior to the purchase of a new floating bridge.
Floating Bridge 6 has been out of service on multiple occasions since the March decision. On Wednesday, 20th November, the bridge was pulled from service between 09:00 and 18:00 for maintenance purposes. It was also suspended at the beginning of last month due to a cable replacement resulting from what the council called ‘usual operational wear and tear’.
Councillor Love said Floating Bridge 6s predecessor ‘never had anything like’ the level of maintenance currently required which ‘should not be needed’.
He told of how his frustrations with the replacement process led him to walk out of an East Cowes Town Council meeting last month with Colin Rowland, County Hall’s strategic director of community services, and Councillor Jordan.
A spokesperson for the Isle of Wight Council said previously:
“The Isle of Wight Council is currently finalising requirements to appoint specialist advisors for this project.
“Together they will review the previous business case, update it where necessary and carry out a refresh of the options appraisal.
“Work is being carried out through the council’s standard procurement process and we are looking to appoint the successful bidders mid-February 2025.
“This is just the beginning of the project and there will be an engagement process with the public and key stakeholders in the spring of 2025.
“This process is to ensure people’s views are represented which will form an integral part of the project.”
Cheaper to build a flyover.
Absolute rubbish! How would you know how much a flyover would cost?
Much cheaper in the long run, charge users
the same price as using the Floating bridge.
Ideal.
Oh this guy thinks he knows everything and has to post silly little comments on every story
Echo that councillor Love. Consolation is used too often to confuse activity with achievement……
Chairman of the council ” Stick things together and build something” shows an amazing grasp of marine engineering and probably the same logic was used with the current one which is why its been such an unmitigated disaster.
I’d be fascinated to know which are the three shipbuilders in East Cowes who could build a new FB. If he’s including Wight Shipyard, he might wonder why they declined to bid last time round. They certainly have bigger fish to fry now, as do Diverse Marine (who aren’t in East Cowes). Maybe Lallows could build a nice wooden one?
Sympathies… it must be tough for East and “West” Cowesites, in particular. It was never, ever, like this in the days of the no doubt simpler technology of the 1950s and early 1960s when I was a kid.
The Council’s standard procurement procedure is what has got us in this situation in the first place. Will they ever learn? Don’t bother to answer that; of course they won’t.
If the wind is in the right direction what about a large balloon or is that to much up in the air
If the wind is in the right direction what about a large balloon or is that to much up in the air
Build a bridge
And a Bridge to cross the solent.
He’s got a point! Why the hell are they asking for public opinion; I think they have it in spades. If it really is too hard to work out how to cross a river, just look at what other places are using; Dartmouth or Fowey for instance.
Listen this time to what you have been told by the ones with ligics. The new bridge can’t be any longer, any wider or any heavier than the old bridges. Use te specs of the old bridges for the construction of the new one, and if you must, use the design of the useless one to make it look more modern, but don’t build it any heavier or will turn out to be just as big a a useless heap of tax payers money crap as the one you are scrapping
Use local ship builders this time, so that there will be easier communication and stage of build inspections to make sure that all is going ok, no use signing of anything that has got any faults, and use someone who KNOWS what they are looking at.
A decent mainland firm would sort this problem in
weeks.
Island Companies are too slow to catch cold,
yet alone get this matter sorted.
Can you imagine a bridge built across The Solent? The illegal immigrants would me running across it on foot in their thousands, and no one would have the balls to stop them. The Island would be innundated within a week
A bridge or tunnel would be great, obviously we would
pay a minimal charge to use it.
Security at both ends, what’s the problem.