Below is a breakdown of all items the council has provided as to the cost of operating the Floating Bridge over the last 26 months. As before, these figures come from a detailed Freedom of Information request made by the Floating Bridge Stakeholders’ and Engineers’ Group.
Poring over the figures
We’ve been poring over the figures and some items appear to raise questions.
We’ve already detailed the £1m paid for ‘private contractors’ and ‘professional services‘, but there was more:
- Bank fees – £16,953
- Medical Fees – £5,291
- Operational Equipment – £75,956
Questions
We asked the Isle of Wight council (IWC) for more detail on those items yesterday, but as yet, they haven’t come back with any answers, saying the person was ‘not available’. We’ve re-prompted them for answers again today.
The details
In the right hand column we’ve provided an average yearly cost, based on the 26 months’ worth of data (August 2018 to September 2020) the council provided. You can reorder the table by clicking on their title.
| 26 Months | Yearly avg | |
|---|---|---|
| NJC Staff Pay | £943,571 | £471,786 |
| NJC Staff NI | £75,284 | £37,642 |
| NJC Staff Pension | £194,363 | £97,182 |
| Training | £1,121 | £561 |
| Recruitment Advertising | £112 | £56 |
| Pension Enhancements | £7,379 | £3,690 |
| Building maintenance | £4,389 | £2,195 |
| Security of Building | £1,055 | £528 |
| Electricity | £4,952 | £2,476 |
| Building & Room Rent | £8,310 | £4,155 |
| Rates | £37,719 | £18,860 |
| Water and Sewerage | £1,180 | £590 |
| Cleaning Contracts | £85 | £43 |
| Refuse Collection | £2,422 | £1,211 |
| Premises Insurance | £228 | £114 |
| Vehicle Fuel Costs | £45,353 | £22,677 |
| Vehicle Hire External | £127 | £64 |
| Public Transport Fares | £55 | £28 |
| Transport Insurance | £70,762 | £35,381 |
| Office Equipment | £20 | £10 |
| Operational Equipment | £75,956 | £37,978 |
| Maintenance of op. equip. | £110 | £55 |
| Printing Costs | £125 | £63 |
| Photocopying Costs | -£108 | -£54 |
| Stationery | £16 | £8 |
| Clothing & Laundry | £8,016 | £4,008 |
| Advertising & Public | £3,200 | £1,600 |
| Licences | £310 | £155 |
| Medical Fees | £5,291 | £2,646 |
| Insurance Premiums | £15,178 | £7,589 |
| Banking Fees | £16,953 | £8,477 |
| Professional Services | £175,793 | £87,897 |
| Payment to Private Contractors | £848,405 | £424,203 |
| Internal Recharges | £992 | £496 |
| Postage - Internal recharge | £35 | £18 |
| Printing - Internal Recharge | £231 | £116 |
| Total | £2,548,987 | £1,274,494 |
More on the way
We’re planning to publish a few more on this, make sure you see them all by signing up for our daily email newsletter and reading the Deep Dive Series.
Image: © With kind permission Emma Gee
