The troubled Cowes Floating Bridge has been out of action for 8 weeks, following problems found in routine maintenance in July, but it could be about to return to service.
Councillors Karl Love, Lora Peacey-Wilcox and Julie Jones-Evans asked to bring the item to the Isle of Wight Council’s corporate scrutiny committee so a solution can be found and the council can move forward.
Cllr Love said a cross-party representation is needed to work on a quick solution. He said:
“We do not need anymore cloak-and-dagger approaches, we want a short-term response to fix this.”
The group urged bosses to meet with experts who had come forward and offered their help to move things along.
Councillor Dave Stewart, leader of the council, agreed to the meet with anyone who could help but had to be careful about legal action being started.
Cllr Stewart said the common ground between the group was they wanted the situation to be resolved, providing a facility for people of the Island and maintaining it after the ‘lifeline service’ it provided during lockdown.
“In my view, this vessel hasn’t been fit for purpose as agreed in the contract. We are now proceeding with our legal process.
Article continues below this advertisement “There are two stages, the first stage is the mediation and discussions and then if that doesn’t resolve the situation we end up in court dealing with the actual costs involved.”
Cllr Ian Ward, cabinet member for infrastructure and transport, said a number of hydraulic components were affected by the failure of 1 or 2 other components, which all had to be removed and stripped back. He said:
“We are now looking at getting spares to repair those — and I find it difficult to believe myself — but those spares need to be manufactured.
“The manufacturers hope to achieve the repairs, and we hope to get the craft back in the water this month.”
Cllr Stewart confirmed the month, saying:
“If all goes well at the end of the month we will have that vessel back in the water doing what it was intended to do. Our priority is getting the service on”.
According to Cllr Love, more problems had been arising this week as people try to cross the River Medina, with some schoolchildren being forced to face hour-long waits for the shuttle boat services on their way home.
“We are now proceeding with our legal process” Great. Only about 3 years too late.
Likely had a few months of shredding Brown envelopes etc. to ‘deal with’ first. Ensuring Uncle can still ‘explain’ away that bank transfer if ‘questioned’
It is a ‘tried and tested’ technique, it cost the Cuncil £1million paying a firm of Solicitors to hold an ‘INTERNAL INQUIRY ‘ even after two men were caught attempting theft leaving the Cuncil offices with incriminating paperwork and the Police were not called. The same people were involved with Highpoint Rendell from Scarborough were the same ‘scam’ took place and the IOW Cuncil somehow accepted the man without checking references.
The Floating bridge COULD be back by the end of the month, which is about as much useful info as claiming Pigs Might Fly. What we do know is within weeks after the floating bridge returns to service, is that it will be out of service.
Are Ladbrokes accepting wagers on how long it will last?
Would love to put a bet on .. 2 hrs and 15 mins is my guess.
Not a good bet we all know how long, how many hours not days!
Wouldn’t be easier to build a bridge across the river madina it would solve the problem
But for how long?
Scap it!
Build a bridge