Council Responds To Floating Bridge Criticism

The Isle of Wight Council has responded to renewed criticism of its handling of the Floating Bridge replacement process.

A “fully approved business case” is required as part of any decision to replace the Cowes-East Cowes chain ferry, County Hall said, following a briefing given to East Cowes Town Council last week.

After attending the briefing, East Cowes’s county councillor Karl Love said the local authority was “repeating all the same mistakes” and that its engaging of consulting group SYSTRA was “yet another layer of unnecessary cost”.

At a full council meeting at the end of last month, the independent councillor sought answers over the ferry’s future, telling members “not so much as a nut, screw or nail” had been purchased 14 months after the council agreed to embark on a replacement process.

The floating bridge is “losing a million pounds a year and nothing’s happening”, he exasperatedly told the chamber.

A council spokesperson said:

“In March 2024, cabinet took a decision to replace the current floating bridge, accepting the recommendations set out in the cabinet report as an indicative process for the work that was needed.

“The council needs to clearly set out and understand the respective issues in relation to the current operations, outline the requirements and design and then establish a detailed technical and economic business case for the preferred solution.

“To support this the council has engaged, through a formal procurement process, specific technical, financial and legal advisors to help define the business case. 

"This work required briefs to be developed and for those requirements to then be formally tendered.

“This work is seeking to define the activities which have been completed on the current Floating Bridge Six and what operational issues remain, including seeking to establish if those issues are implications of the ferry itself or broader technical, environmental or legislative matters which would impact on any replacement option.”

The spokesperson said a “key part of the activity involves engagement and consultation with a broad range of stakeholders”.

This will allow the community “the time to carry out and assess any implications of the options presented”, they added.