It "may well be approaching the time" to scrap the problematic Isle of Wight floating bridge and replace it with a new one, the councillor responsible for the vessel has told Isle of Wight Radio.
Cllr Phil Jordan says "there comes a time when the mend and make do approach comes to an end", and has hinted that the council may be nearing that.
Having been elected to the role of Cabinet member for Infrastructure and Transport around eight weeks ago, Cllr Jordan says it is too early to say for definite how the local authority will fix the chain ferry.
However, speaking to Isle of Wight Radio, he said it's clear there are only two viable options. He said:
"I'm looking forward. Every time we look back, this is what prevents us from looking forward.
"What we've got is what we've got. We have to either make that work and I would have to be convinced that we can make that work by modifications or whatever it takes or we would have to replace it. One of the other.
"If we are being confronted with sums of money that are extensive we have to weigh that up against the possibility of putting that expenditure into a new replacement vessel."
When Floating Bridge 6 was commissioned, the council paid out around £3.2 million for its design and construction.
It came into service in May 2017, but has been plagued with problems ever since. Just last year, Isle of Wight Radio reported how the chain ferry recorded a loss of more than £400,000.
Asked how the council would fund another multi-million pound vessel, if the current one is scrapped, Cllr Jordan said:
"There are operational revenues from it, if it works efficiently. Secondly, there may be income from an agreement with the designers and builders of the bridge, that may be an income for us.
"And then we would borrow the money over 25 years or maybe even longer over 25, 30 years and we would pay for that loan out of the income and revenue that we don't appear to be getting at the moment."
County Hall's previous Conservative administration had started legal action against the manufacturers of the vessel, but Cllr Jordan would not confirm whether that has reached a conclusion.
Going forward, he says the current vessel has a number of issues that need to be addressed, including the prow and rams.
He said:
"The issues that we see of the chain depth is problematic. The shape of the prow is problematic and I think because of the shape of the prow we have failing rams, because of the angle they have to push up and down.
"So I think essentially, operationally, as far as I'm aware that's where the issues are."
Listen as Paul Topping chats to Cllr Phil Jordan:
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