floating bridge 6 in the River Medina approaching East Cowes slipway

FB6 deep dive #5: This is what it costs to run the Floating Bridge service. Here are the last two years of costs broken down

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 MonthsYearly 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