The Isle of Wight Council continues to waste millions on the floating bridge, two opposition councillors have claimed.
The troubled vessel will once again be thrust into the spotlight when a report into how it was purchased goes before councillors tomorrow (Tuesday).
As Isle of Wight Radio previously reported, council officers found that the procurement of FB6 was sound and there were no issues with procurement, tendering or contracts.
Tomorrow, the council's scrutiny committee will be asked to agree with their recommendations.
However, local councillors have condemned - what they call - "the council‘s leadership’s latest attempt to explain their way out of what went wrong".
Cllr Cameron Palin
Cllr Lora Peacey-Wilcox, IW Councillor for Cowes Medina, said she has attempted to work with the council and provided "bulletproof engineering evidence" that the vessel was not fit for purpose.
She said, the council chose to ignore her and "waste almost another floating bridge’s worth of money on it."
Meanwhile, Cllr Cameron Palin, East Cowes Town Councillor for Osborne, said:
“These Scrutiny documents cover old ground, repeating the same old story with holes in it, and do not address why for the last four years the Conservative leadership have chosen to waste millions on this bridge, against engineers’ advice.
"The council appears to have hidden behind a legal case for four years now. We have not heard anywhere in these Scrutiny documents that the Council is promising to get full financial compensation, ie the many millions that have been spent on Floating Bridge 6. Unless the Council gets the millions back, we potentially could be left with a dysfunctional floating bridge and a financial black hole."
Cllr Palin called for a new floating bridge and has called for "proper, unbiased independent engineering audits and scrutiny of engineering technical documents."
Cllr Peacey-Wilcox added:
“There is no declared plan in these documents as to where the Council is headed with the floating bridge and if it will stop wasting money - whether this be thrusters or whatever - and no engineering proof that they will work and make an excellent frequent and reliable bridge.
"And there is no declared fallback position - i.e. Plan B if Plan A either fails to stand up to scrutiny, or, worse, bypasses proper scrutiny and fails in service!”
Tomorrow night's scrutiny meeting is due to start at 5pm.
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