It could take at least another 3 years before a suitable replacement for the troubled Floating Bridge 6 is up and running – and it will cost around £350,000 to explore the options for a new vessel. Ahead of next week’s Cabinet meeting at County Hall, new documents have revealed further information about what happens next when it comes to the East Cowes to Cowes service. It has been recommended to Cabinet members that the Council approves the continued management model of the current floating bridge, whilst implementing the recommended operational efficiencies suggested by consultants, 3S. Councillors are also recommended to commission a River Medina Crossing Strategy which will include soft market testing with potential vessel providers to ascertain the feasibility of constructing a new floating bridge. Furthermore, the strategy will review the previous Business Case, produce a long and shortlist of options for alternative technical and economical solutions to the current vessel, and develop a financial base case. The cost of commissioning the Medina Crossing Strategy is expected to be in the region of £350,000, which will be funded from the confidential settlement sum paid out by those behind the building of the existing vessel. It has also been revealed that should Floating Bridge 6 be replaced, it could be re-sold for between £1million and £1.5million. However, it has been suggested to the Isle of Wight Council that it should remain on standby for at least 3 months when – or should that be if – Floating Bridge 7 comes into service
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This is beyond a joke now £350,000 to explore the options for a replacement vessel. How about put a bridge there it would need less maintenance be more reliable and need less staff to run it.
A bridge would never work, have you ever even been down there for more than 5 minutes and watched the traffic on that river? I know this is a total mess but making dumb comments doesn’t help your case
Mayby stick a bridge further up the river and just have a small boat for pedestrians and cyclist down there? As long as the traffic crosses between Cowes and before Newport it would save it all hitting Coppins bridge? Stag lane wouldn’t be a bad crossing point?
Stag lane Newport are you having a laugh?
Raised bridges on busy rivers just run on a schedule. In my home German city of 500,000 people they just raise it for 30 minutes each hour. All ships know the schedule in advance or can radio in if they travelled unprepared. No problem.
That’s Germany though, where there is proper organisation and people who know about engineering and proper management of things like this. This is the isle of wight where those in charge don’t know bugger all about any of it, but still want all the shout. That’s why it’s all the balls up that it has ended up because they would not listen to profesional advice
Ah, Chris. It’s allright. The people who are paid to know will spend a fortune on consultancy who will tell them what they are being paid to know. Couldn’t run a market stall.
So another 3 years repairing the pile of rubbish until the replacement arrives that will be another million pounds down the drain
It wont be 3 years more like 10..
Just make an exact replica of the bridge before this hideous mistake. It won’t take 3 years. All the figures about exactly what the islands losses are must, on the current fiasco be made public. There must not be secrecy. Just get on with it.
Who cares about public transport, get a car like a normal person
Never mind Just Stop Oil, just stop Norma
But buses don’t go on the floating bridge…..
Did we not have a Medina Crossing Strategy before? Perhaps that should be updated on line so everyone can have some input and tell the council what is required in simple words
Ie a means of getting from one side to the other that doesn’t keep breaking down, has available spares etc.
Yes back in the 80s spent £100.000 then scrapped it..never going to happen too late should of happened decades ago..
Let wight shipyard build one! They can do a proper job and have it done quick!
Why waite 3 years build one in china get it in 3 months
Never heard of Tofu Dreg? Look it up.
Just scrap it ,stop wasting our money on this heap of junk ….
You egotistical numptys plead poverty and cut services but then you waste our money…..
We now know that you intend to use our £350,000 to see if we need a new one ??????? Why ???????
Don’t bother !!!!!
Who the hell is going to want to buy that, given it’s well-documented useless existence? And as for yet another 350k to ‘look at options’….just no. Stop. Enough already. Use the ‘undisclosed sum’ for a fleet of jennys for foot passengers (keep the revenue on the island and create a few jobs), and everyone else can drive round.
Really! Absolute joke and an utter waste of money. Words fail me unbelievable. Why didn’t you just keep the old one and refurbish it? . Yes it’s probably broken up by now BUT look at the money you’ve wasted and look at the services you’ve cut ?! And for what? Great idea NOT .
I wonder if a TV programme producer would like to make a comedy series of this entire history of the ill-fated “Floating Bridge 6” fiasco? Just scuttle it in the middle and build a swing bridge on top of it. Put it out of its misery!
A Monty Python film comes to mind.
Never mind a comedy programme. Get an investigative journalist to look into all of the thrills, spills and brown envelopes.
Build a bridge, much cheaper in the long run.
Why £350.000 just to look into it.?? whos getting that backhander..here we go again..anyway it will be at least 10 years before a new one is in service..
The refunded monies were to repay the island council tax payers the exorbitant sums charged for repairs and adjustments needed to keep this heap of junk. It was not for our local officials to squander on reports and projections.
Do we need a crossing between East and West Cowes? – Yes
Will people use it? Yes
Will it improve the local economy? Yes
Survey done, for nothing. Get on with it and stop pleading poverty when ridiculous sums are being wasted in this way.
Why not just dig out the plans and options that were done by Southampton university. Free
Cable car
Up by Osbourne over to Mill Hill
Like the London Thames one
Cars can drive round
LISTEN this time, to the ones that told you in the begining that it can’t be any longer, wider or heavier than the previous bridges
The council need to drill a tunnel from west to east.Problems solved!
The Floating Bridge has essentially never been right since I got here, 27yrs ago!! 😮
Meanwhile the old one still sits in Gosport, just waiting to be brought back.
What exactly was wrong with the previous one?
As far as I remember, it worked fine, certainly a lot better than this thing.
Dave G hit the nail on the head earlier in the comments when he said, ‘Just make an exact replica of the bridge before this hideous mistake’.
It worked, it was reliable, it was the right size. Just make a new version, a direct copy of it. And it’ll save £350,000, too.
Do you ever get the feeling that the council is trying to wind us all up? Unbelievable nonsense from them!
Meanwhile the civil servants who oversaw this catastrophic abuse of public funds have all got away without a single disciplinary action or censure over the disaster they commissioned and signed off, no doubt because it ticked all the right climate and change, diversity and sustainability boxes at the time (the only things that now matter to the public sector )
Will they never learn!!!!
We do not want another chain ferry. Ask us fgs. We want a bridge up river and a passenger launch on the current site. Ask us!!!!
Seems a pity to solve the problem. It has been a never ending source of amusement for quite some years.
Seriously, I hope that this time round, the councilors will read the Terms and Conditions.
Why not just build a copy of the old one?
Damn it, build a bridge similar to the one in Yarmouth
A shame the Tories here ordered the current vessel and lumbered the Independents with it.