Legal talks over the troublesome Floating Bridge are potentially drawing to a close, the Isle of Wight Council has said.
Speaking at the full council meeting on Wednesday, Councillor Phil Jordan, cabinet member for infrastructure and transport, said the local authority is very close to agreeing a resolution in the dispute over Floating Bridge 6.
Cllr Jordan said, subject to some minor details not central to the dispute, an announcement will be made ‘in the very near future’. However, due to the sensitive nature of legal discussions, he did not make further comment.
The Isle of Wight Council entered mediation with the builders and designers of Floating Bridge 6 in March. Discussions have been ongoing since in the bid for a ‘fair and acceptable settlement’.
The £3.2million boat, which runs between Cowes and East Cowes, has been plagued with problems, malfunctions and breakdowns since it was installed in 2017. The Isle of Wight Council started legal action to get back some of the money lost through repairs, fees and added costs, including a replacement launch.
Legal discussions follow on from a government report that said the vessel was ‘potentially poorly designed’ with ‘several apparent design’ issues. Government inspectors found a working service was ‘feasible’ but said the chain ferry had ‘significant issues’.
Alliance administration councillors have not ruled out replacing Floating Bridge 6 altogether, but will not comment until mediation ends.
The previous independent administration – which was made up of some of the new Alliance members – were responsible for the commission of FB6, which the Conservatives then spent many years trying to fix.
And a squadron of flying pigs just went over.
So whats going to happen is we will get a little bit of cash back which will immediately be frittered away by IWC on some pointless vanity project and NOT get spent on the Floating Farce and we will still be in the same position with multiple breakdowns and out of service issues etc for the next couple of decades. I hope I am wrong…..but…….
The whole thing has been a complete farce, and waste of money… bigger is not always better, a smaller craft would be more versatile and have less problems. Yet better still a tunnel would solve all the problems, and then build another tunnel to the mainland, so Islanders can come and go when they chose 24/7 0r is this ‘ cllr’ a shareholder in the ferries?
Unknown why the government and the council do not get their finger out and build a tunnel to mainland? The rest of the world are doing it, they built one to bloody France !!
OH, THE REST OF THE WORLD ARE DOING IT ARE THEY.
Better do the same.
IDIOT !
bob seely has a family member running one of the ferries! so nope unfor a bridge wont happen
Will loss of earnings also be included in final settlement I wonder?
June what struck me as amusing was the sentence , we could get back SOME of the money lost in loss of revenue , repairs ,and only add more pollution into the atmosphere ,adding more congestion in Newport
Blah, blah, blah. More costly talks at the public expense. No value for money here.
I may stop laughing in the next hour or so…
If the vessel was poorly designed in the beginning who was the designer ? Did the Council just say we need a Ferry just build us one to the Builders , did the Council ensure whilst it was being built that it was”fit for purpose” ?
Read the internet which will give you the answer
There is more to this saga that the council will not disclose , through fear of incriminating themselves .
If I purchased a car and had this amount of problems my money would have been returned to me under warranty ?
Those doughty Conservatives “spent many years trying to fix” FB6, but apparently it was members of the Alliance who were responsible for design and commissioning.
Talk about re-writing history! Or, in this case, blind copy-and-paste.
Why is the truth rewriting history? It was the independent council who commissioned and bought it, the Tory’s continued with the farce instead of sending it back, and the independents are continuing the farce further. No rewriting of history that I can see. Just scrap it and put in an underpass.
I agree with you entirely Paul .but this council will not .because there will not be an income comming in from the chain link ferry
I see they are spending our money on illuminating signs to try and get back lost customers .by informing islanders that the chain link ferry is now back to normal , for how long , and will it break down half way across
So the idiot IWC take the firm to mediation but then the firm produces the IWC’s previous BS published statements that say how reliable the service is. You really could not make it up. Inept is too light a word for these cretins.
”Government inspectors found a working service was ‘feasible’’. Well, anything is feasible if you throw enough time and money at it! The question is does it provide a reliable and efficient service for the community?
I don’t think it matters how much time and money you throw at FB6 it is beyond any kind of reliable operation, it is a lost cause.
thought it was heat stroke.
The talks will probably BREAKDOWN just like the bridge .
The floating bridge is only a problem in the real world outside of the public sector – within the bureaucracy of the state it is a complete success, being of much higher quality and a lot cheaper than almost every other project they ever delivered for the taxpayer – I wouldn’t be surprised if it got an award from Whitehall !
Did we really have to go off island for it to be built in the first place?
I blame Captain Pugwash