The troubled £3.5m Floating Bridge 6 will be replaced, the Isle of Wight Council last night (Thursday) announced.
The council’s executive cabinet body unanimously agreed to replace the current chain ferry — which has been plagued with issues since it was installed in 2017 — in a “decision which has been a long time coming,” said Cllr Phil Jordan, the authority’s leader.
Speaking at the cabinet meeting, Cllr Jordan said he knew it was a decision people had been waiting for, and so had he.
“It is the start of a process we will have to go through but we have found a staged process which will enable us to bring the vessel forward more efficiently and quickly with a number of options coming forward,” he said.
“This Island needs to know we are replacing the Floating Bridge.”
The executive body agreed previous information, gathered by the council in multiple reports and reviews over the years should be used to inform the next stages of replacing the vessel.
The council would be working with consultants 3S, which recently carried out computer modelling and an analysis of Floating Bridge 6 and determined the vessel would always need a push boat to help it cross the river at strong tides.
The consultants also said any replacement vessel would have to be radically redesigned with a new hull or superstructure to be able to journey across the river successfully.
Cllr Jordan said some of the options the authority will look at may not be a “financial burden to the council” and that the decision “did not commit” the authority to additional investment in a new vessel at this time.
He said:
“There are options available which will be researched and brought back to us before we pull the trigger and get a new vessel.”
Cllr Karl Love, the ward representative for East Cowes, clapped when Cllr Jordan read out the recommendations, and said he felt since he had come into office he had dealt with nothing but the Floating Bridge.
He said the cabinet’s decision removes the heartache his community has suffered in the last seven years.
Cllr Love said:
“Remember this is not going to be a quick fix, this will be a few more years yet but the end is in sight. Thank you for arriving at the beginning of the end.
“I am sure it will come as a great relief to taxpayers. We cannot continue to shed millions and millions of pounds on this when it should have been dealt with earlier.”
The decision overruled officers’ recommendations to create a £250,000 Medina Crossing Strategy, with an extra £100,000 allocated for staffing capacity.
Cabinet agreed the recommendations officers had set out would be used as an indicative process.
Cllr Jordan said the council will follow due process in undertaking the work.
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