A software issue, which caused Floating Bridge 6 to be out of action for a month, cost the Isle of Wight Council more than £100,000 in repairs and lost income.
As first reported by Island Echo, the Cowes to East Cowes chain ferry was grounded between 16th July and 15th August and the software needed a technical specialist to carry out repairs.
It meant the River Medina crossing was out of service during the height of the Summer holidays and during Cowes Week, replaced by a smaller foot passenger launch.
An Isle of Wight Council spokesperson said the total cost was £112,000 – including loss of fares.
Contractors installed a manual hard switch system which replicated the essential aspects of the failed software system and needed the approval of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency before it could be on the water again.
The Council also did ‘preventative’ maintenance works which they hope will reduce further downtime in the future, although it was taken out of service again for maintenance in September.
A review is also currently being carried out on the vessel, costing the Council £47,520, focusing on Floating Bridge 6’s last ‘2 remaining issues’ and ways the authority could fix them.
This means that issues relating to the Floating Bridge have cost the Council £159,520 since July alone.
Just build a bridge over the Medina, we are not in the victorian times any more.
The council are stuck in the past though.
You never know by doing so might just stop all the congestion in Newport.
Victorian engineering was the best there’s ever been.
I would have every confidence in a victorian built bridge over the Medina, which is more than I can say about our present day clowns.
The victorians also built a floating bridge that actually worked!
Modern day Britain cannot fill a pothole,
Have you seen the Numpties working for Island Toads?!
They spend all day on their phones
Yes we bloody well are..
so why are we still pilling money into it, and this makes a mockery of the keeping the public informed specially as we still dont know what the settlement figure was
Because the n….ties in the IWC couldn’t make a strategic decision if their life depended on it.
Easier to go on throwing OUR money down the drain.
Worth every penny! 🙂
Yeah, too many bean counters on here
Hasn’t cost council bugger all! its cost US 150,000! Disgraceful money wasting useless clowns
I thought it was the previous Conservative administration that commissioned the FB and refused to release details of the sum paid to it by way of settlement of its claim for compensation
.
Wrong. The previous independent council commissioned the useless piece of junk. The tory council should, however, have refused to take delivery of it as it was clearly not fit for purpose and we have been paying for it ever since.
That means it as cost the people of the Island
Cheaper to sink it, take it out in the solent and get the Royal Navy
to use it as a target practice
Preferably while the cabinet were holding an offsite meeting aboard
It has been and never will be fit for purpose.
Never mind Jerk Jordan wants a new one to pay out for as well as keeping this pile of trash running until he can do a dodgy “on the cheap” deal for the next one.
A toll bridge across Medina would be more beneficial for everyone than that waste of metal.
It would reduce Newport gridlock and be better for carbon footprint. Even a mere £1 each way would still add up to more profit than that junk.
What happened to the IW Council taking legal action?
Not fit for purpose.
As I understand it, the Council and its ridiculous purchasing officers, the designers, Naval architects and ship builder all had a good old chat in court at the end of which some kind of settlement was reached between some of them but the agreement was never disclosed and neither were the damages awarded to someone, but we don’t know who got them or how much, so, once again, a complete farce that continues to suck money out of us at a quite disgusting rate. Knowing our luck the ‘agreement’ will have gone against the Council and we are paying undisclosed millions to the designers etc! I may of course, be wrong…
What an incompetent council.
What a disgraceful waste of our money.
They should be ashamed.
A bridge is what was needed.
New blood needs to replace these incompetent people.
They looked at that back in the 80s cost over a hundred grand then forgot about it..never happen a new one will be over 10 years in the making if it ever happens..
The amount of money that has been wasted on this over the years could have paid for a footbridge – some people will never learn !
It reminds me of the film the money pit, starring Bob Hanks. What a fiasco
At least in the film he was spending his own money, NOT ours
Glad we all put in 5% council tax each year to keep it going..well done to all..keep it up your doing great..
The biggest joke on the island ….
After our councillors of course….
And they have the audacity to cut services!!!!!
Wouldn’t need to if they actually knew what they were doing!!!!
Wasting tax payer’s money on this heap of junk….
Electric car’s, computer system, laptops and mobile phones for staff ,air conditioning etc etc…
So yes number 1 spot the iow Councillors/Council..mmm
Is this a bridge to far
This bloody thing has cost millions since I moved here nearly 27yrs back and it never has worked properly, not for any length of time anyways. Blow the damned thing up and build a bridge, why don’t you? It’d be cheaper!!
Why not build four or five more and park them end to end, then we could just drive straight across. Hang on, that would make a bridge then, wouldn’t it?
Troubled!!!??? It’s positively a dead duck in the water aye!!!
Sink it!!! Once and for all!!!
Don’t build it any bigger, or heavier than the old one they were told by the scientists, what do they do? exactly that, and then wonder why it is a crock of useless shit. Bigger means heavier and heavier means more keel draft, and more keel draft means it will scrape it’s arse at low tide and not be able to dock properly
I’ve seen people mention this before, a pedestrian tunnel in that location and a vehicle bridge or tunnel further up the river. This would cut the traffic along fairlee and the dual carriageway by half