Floating Bridge 6 will always need a boat to help push it across the River Medina during fast-flowing spring ebb tides, it has been revealed – with suggestions that it should be replaced with a smaller, lighter and electric vessel. A near £50,000 review by consultancy, 3S, has concluded no changes to the current vessel would allow it to cope with the strongest tides, and to maintain water depth over its chains, a ‘radically redesigned vessel’ is needed. The troubled Floating Bridge 6 (FB6) is said to be more than 100t heavier than its predecessor, with 3S reporting that a lighter, smaller vessel would go some way towards achieving the required chain depth and resolving berthing issues. At present, a second vessel is needed to help with the East Cowes-Cowes operation at a cost to the Isle of Wight Council of £658,000 over 3 years. The agreement with Solent and Wightline Cruises is due to end next year but it has the potential to be extended. The review has also found Floating Bridge 6 is not be able to make 5 return crossings an hour, as required, but there may be scope to streamline procedures, to increase frequency. The Isle of Wight Council is considering its options and if it were to get an electric vessel, which is the authority’s leader’s preferred choice, it could be faster and reduce downtime, said 3S. The consultancy said replacing diesel motors with electric ones would reduce maintenance requirements and noise levels and eliminate the need to refuel. 3S representatives will be at the Isle of Wight Council’s corporate scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday (27th February), to give a presentation and talk more in-depth about their report.
REVIEW FINDS FLOATING BRIDGE CAN’T BE BODGED – IT NEEDS TO BE REPLACED
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If they gave me £50,000 I could of told them that. Yet another desperate Jerk Jordan attempt at justifying this heap of rust and all it has cost US. Electric, wow, that will even worse, the list of future failings is building.
Have you noticed Jordan has gone quiet on this? He is responsible for this mess and should resign from his job, he won’t do that because he has no principles. He has moved on now in order to pass the buck to someone else. Normal procedure for him.
He’s not responsible It was the last Tory administration which ordered the current vessel, and the previous incarnation of the Alliance were lumbered with it.
Mary you are completely wrong. The last Independent Council under Stephens, Bacon and Jordan ordered this huge white elephant. They failed to follow Local Govt Association Guidance and appoint an Overseeing Board. Instead they appointed a unqualified Council Officer and Consultant who were out of their depth. It’s all on record if you care to check.
Drunk in charge of a car and now drunk in charge of the finances and the whole running of the island, you could not make it up. Get rid of this fool!!
Take it out of service now stop spending taxpayers money on it the council have spent £50,000 on a review that has told them it’s not fit for purpose so listen to them. If they don’t listen to the £50,000 review what was the point in getting it done?
£50-000 to be told it’s crap !!!!
We have been telling you that from day 1 …….
And as for the cost of the push me pull me ????????
Omg just make people drive around,
Save us paying for something a lot of the island don’t use ….
I have never used it and never will ….
And now we know /always knew why our council waste so much of our Council tax,,,,,,,
Stop whining about being cash strapped ,and just ditch it ……
Just because you’ve never used it doesn’t mean people don’t. I live in Cowes and when that thing is actually running it is busy, it has been a great benefit to Cowes and east since the mid 1800s. Sometimes you have to leave your personal opinion out of things and think logically.
She never said that people don’t use it, she clearly said that a lot of the island don’t use it.
You then that saying “I live in Cowes” and that “it has been a great benefit to Cowes and east” just goes to entirely prove the point you are refuting here.
So it’s good for Cowes? Great. But at the cost to whom?
We all pay towards things in our council tax that we may not use ourselves. That’s how taxes work.
Sorry but why should the majority of islanders pay for something that benefits you and the minority ??????
I would prefer services not to be cut instead of supporting the non floating heap of junk…
Total waste of money …
Do you expect to personally benefit from every single thing taxes pay for? 😀
No but this is not fit for purpose and our council keep wasting tax payer’s money !!!!!
That’s the problem throwing good money after a bad problem …. ( polite version)
Happy to pay for services that benefit the island thank you !!!!!
But not for this heap of junk
….
Maybe they could get a zip wire ….. Happy to contribute to that lol ……
They do just drive round it’s quicker i refused to use it years ago because it was so shit..
£50,000 wasted on a review that says what most of the population have been saying since this ridiculous abortion was launched, our wonderful councillors at the time were told by Southampton University Marine department that the proposed design would never work but they chose to ignore it and just throw taxpayers hard earned money at it because they haven’t got the backbone or moral fibre to get rid of it.
It costs the council nothing
Why do people say it’s costing the council???
Its the tax payers that have to pay for the councils muck ups
A Tory council it was, in this case. Then the Alliance precursor were lumbered with it.
Mary you are so wrong!! Just check the dates.
Hahahaha what an absolute joke! Should just spent few quid on the old one and kept it going! Did alright for many years when I was a kid
What a joke. The money wasted on this could have done so much more for the island in other areas.
A bridge is needed. Hardly crossing the Solent, surely with Gabion cages used to narrow the width to the minimum necessary then a swing bridge could easily ‘bridge’ the narrow gap with reasonable cost involved.
The saving on staff, maintenance, fuel etc and delays or high or low tide issues would ALL be gone saving money in the long term.
A bridge too far for this council.
Have you ever sat down there and watched this part of the river? There is no way a bridge would work, it would have to be open and closed every few minutes, it’s the busiest mouth that’s why a floating bridge worked well for 150years before this price of crap was built. Our problem isn’t the floaty itself it’s the council, get these scrounging rats out of our offices and people in that want to actually help the Island and it’s people.
Ah, Gabion cages, apparently the cure for all the Islands ill’s
Ye get those gabion cages in right across make a road out of it..
“Without the need to re-fuel”, that rules out batteries then. I’d be interested to know how it is intended to supply the electricity needed to power this new craft
Fuel = petrol/diesel, not electricity. Engage brain please.
Fuel = ‘source of energy’ = petrol/diesel, Electricity, Gas, (even food for the donkey, if they powered it by a donkey wheel)
it doesn’t matter what the ‘fuel’ is, it still has to be got on to the FB some how
(Unless, of course, they completely re-design the propulsion methodology & push / pull the FB from the shore,.. but then it still wouldn’t matter if it was diesel or eletctric (or donkey)…
The article said,” replacing diesel motors with electric ones would reduce maintenance requirements and noise levels and eliminate the need to refuel.” electric motors require fuel in the form of electricity. My question was how would this electricity be supplied to the vessel.
They are going to install a long 240V extension lead – Waterproof cable obviously.
The only way to power this wonderful faster boat that doesn’t need re-fuelling is to string a cable overhead from bank to bank and have a pole on the boat picking up the power like the old trams.
Why can’t they just update the old chain ferry? I used to love the sound of the old chug chug of the chains, this has contributed to overspending by the Council, it’s made us a laughing stock.
Agree, what was wrong with the old one ? Not smart enough for our daft council I suppose, but it worked !!!!!!
Chances are they would install a huge diesel generator on each side so they can plug in for a few mins.
No-one has mentioned the batteries catching fire yet, suppose that’s another consideration.
‘The council’ have spent 660k on the boat and 50k on a review – on a heap of junk that everybody knew was the wrong vessel from day one. The ferry crew knew it, locals knew it, Southampton University knew it. So it is time now for the council officers and elected members to swallow their pride and admit they are wrong. Stop spending your constituents council tax on this rubbish. We are so used to driving round now that there isn’t even a need to replace it at all. Remember the elections coming up!
Let’s say you buy a brand new car from a dealership and it breaks down. You take it back to be fixed. It breaks down again. And again. And again…in fact within a few short years it’s off the road awaiting repairs more than it’s driveable. The dealership give you all the excuses under the sun. At what point do you a) refuse to continue paying for a car you can’t drive, b) hand back the keys and tear up the contract, c) demand all your money back under the sale of goods act as not fit for the purchase of which it was intended?
We know who signed off on this white elephant, but who is NOT doing all of the above now???
Ah yes. Contracts and signing off… There’s this thing that says you can sue if a ‘hidden faul’ was not or could not have been apparent at the time of signing off as ‘satisfactory’.
Cut this huge annual waste of taxpayers money. Spend all that secret compensation, Mr Jordan. Get a vessel that’s fit for purpose.
So now we find out what this is all really about..going electric. No suprise there though I suppose!
Don’t think we needed a review, we already knew that.
How much was this floating bridge ? £14 Million ?
On the concept of a bridge:
Lifting bridges work all over Holland and USA, balancing the needs of road and marine traffic very well.
Let’s not assume a bridge would stay in the ‘river closed’ position.
What if the bridge sat ‘open’ allowing the free flow of marine traffic and then perhaps every few minutes it could close for a short time to allow cars to go back and forth.
At really busy road times it could close every 10 minutes for 5 minutes to allow cars bank and forth and at times when marine traffic was very busy it could close every 15 minutes for 5 minutes to allow cars back and forth.
These times could be easily adjusted to find a format that worked best.
This would facilitate more car capacity than a FB with lower costs.
A classy Suspension bridge heading west from Whippingham. Gets lorries across to Newport road, and takes the pressure off Coppins Bridge Roundabout. The tallest yacht masts will easily pass underneath.
Uncivil Engineer.
Think heading on the news article should read “Isle of Wight Council needs to be replaced”. Total shower.
Oh my god the penny just dropped..£50 grand to say in 2 minuets that its shit ..well done to all..still wont get another for many years..
Would’nt be funny if they made an EV one ..that would be brilliant..they most probably will just to piss us all off..
Since they no longer accept cash I wont use it to move from one side of my town to the other.
This situation is almost incredible. Don’t worry though, that £50k (I expect the actual figure is a hell of a lot more that that) won’t be lost, we’ll all be forced to pay it back one way or another. If the council was a private company, they’d be bankrupted and a national laughing stock.
Is it April 1st
We all know it’s an unreliable pile of junk which has never been fit for purpose!
When and how do they plan to charge the batteries? Or are they planning to have a live power feed connection
How is it going to eliminate the need to refuel ? If it uses electric motors then the vast banks of extremely heavy batteries they need will have to be ‘refueled’ – oh and don’t forget they also degrade at an alarming rate and will need replacing after a few years with new cells, but no doubt because the net zero fanatics in the public sector want to pretend they are ‘saving the planet’ rather than delivering high quality services in exchange for their gold plated salaries and pensions, they’ll go electric and it’ll be another bureaucrat driven disaster
THE COST OF £658.00 IS NOT BEING PAID FOR BY THE I.O.W COUNCIL but by the island tax payers who has been been coughing up payment every year ,this Council has never listen to the rate payers , its not there money they are wasting on a white elephant . This wight elephant should have been removed from IT Service from DAY ONE AND DISPLAYED OUTSIDE THE COUNCIL OFFICES FOR THERE WONDERFULL ACHEIVMENT AND SERVICES.
I’m sorry but £50;000 to reiterate what the sea gulls could of told the council def smacks of severe back scratching of the highest order…
How have this council been allowed to carry on in this manner is beyond comprehension of the worse kind..for god’s sake fall on your swords and admit your only fit for the laughing stocks..
Oh finally why was compensation figure never disclosed….
Isle of wight council hang your heads in shame. you can’t even keep queen Victoria’s illuminated sign maintained and as for her umbrella tree a dog could tell you it’s not dangerous…..woeful abuse of power you know who you are…
Raise a go fund me page so we can make donations to have the
Useless piece of shite sunk!
Wow! Batteries that don’t need charging? Technology moves fast. Or just a long extension lead?
Its been nearly 7years we have had to put up with this farce, within the first few months it was proved to be unsuitable. IMO designed larger to make more money, without the consideration of the tidal flow, or landing banks. Instead of cutting their losses and selling to a location that doesnt have big tidal flow, they keep trying to convince us its fit for purpose. How much more of this ??
Rescue the old bridge and make an exact replica as you don’t seem capable of building a new one.