At last week’s cabinet meeting (14 September 2017), deputy leader and Cabinet member for resources, Cllr Stuart Hutchinson, reported a £500,000 deficit on the Cowes floating bridge.
Ran at a profit
As has been widely reported over the years, prior to the floating bridge being replaced with the new bridge (currently out of service due to several failures) it ran for many years at a profit of between £140,000 – £250,000.
Therefore the half a million pound deficit was a surprising revelation. OnTheWight got in touch with the council to find out what made up the deficit.
Deficit explained … sort of
Although not a full breakdown, the IWC responded,
The deficit is as a result of:
- Lost income from cars being unable to use the floating bridge whilst the slipway works were complete.
- The cost of the launch service.
- The free period offered to passengers by members as a goodwill gesture in June and July 2017.
At last night’s full council meeting two motions to scrap foot passenger charges were rejected by the Conservative majority (catch up on our live coverage).
Image: © With kind permission of Allan Marsh
