Last week, over a series of articles News OnTheWight was able to break down the costs and income relating to the Cowes Floating Bridge over the last 26 months.
As explained in #5 of the series, we put some questions to the Isle of Wight council (IWC) about some of the costs incurred. It’s taken a week and several back and forths, but we’re pleased to say that we now have answers to (most) of the questions.
Breakdown of ‘Private Contractors’ costs
In the FOI response, IWC had stated that payments of some £848,405 over 26 months had been paid to ‘private contractors’. ‘Other private contractors’ had not been broken down.
After pushing for further information, News OnTheWight can now reveal the breakdown for ‘other private contractors’ as below.
| Supplier | Aug 2018 to Sep 2020 |
|---|---|
| Mainstay Marine Solutions Ltd + | £204,718 |
| TransIQ Limited + | £48,313 |
| DMR Engineering (IW) Ltd | £45,826 |
| Marine and Risk Consultants Ltd | £23,088 |
| Shoreline Surveys Limited | £21,200 |
| Solent Marine Electrical | £8,607 |
| Wight Shipyard | £6,700 |
| GPC card | £6,082 |
| Richardson Yacht Services Ltd | £4,836 |
| Iron Brothers | £4,115 |
| Premier Solutions | £3,037 |
| MCM Construction Ltd | £3,037 |
| Tyco Fire & Integrated Solutions | £3,000 |
| Blueline Security Management Ltd | £2,646 |
| Parkeon Ltd | £1,681 |
| Reynolds & Read Ltd | £1,442 |
| Wight Noise Ltd | £1,000 |
| J A Dempsey Civil Eng Ltd [SB] | £856 |
| The Forge (IW) Ltd | £798 |
| ADT Fire and Security Plc | £795 |
| Brighstone Landscaping Ltd | £580 |
| Toney Hydraulic Services | £389 |
| Osel Enterprises Ltd | £336 |
| Signpost Express | £327 |
| Canark Marine Ltd | £205 |
| ID Verde Limited | £180 |
| Chant Lock & Security Service | £164 |
| Steve Porter Transport Ltd | £67 |
| The Sign Company | £60 |
| Seasafe Systems Ltd | £51 |
| adjustments (re: journals relating to miscode in earlier or later periods) | -£11,513 |
| Cowes Harbour Commission | £1,120 |
| Grand Total | £383,750 |
‘Professional Services’
News OnTheWight also persisted in seeking more detail about costs filed under ‘Professional Services’.
IWC says these organisations provide technical, marine and Designated Person Ashore services to them –
| Supplier | Total Aug 2018 to Sep 2020 |
|---|---|
| Canark Marine Ltd | £1,200 |
| Cornerstone Barristers | £4,500 |
| Cummins UK | £386 |
| GPC card | £600 |
| Lester Aldridge LLP | £89,779 |
| Longitude Engineering | £56,387 |
| Marine and Risk Consultants Limited | £5,479 |
| BDB Pitmans LLP | £3,860 |
| Systra Ltd | £13,600 |
| Grand Total | £175,793 |
Banking fees
Banking fees of £16,953 seemed high, so we asked why that was. The spokesperson explained,
“As fewer transactions are carried out with cash there are higher transaction fees. In this case Stripe fees (Stripe is our third-party payment processor) are charged to GL code GL 434001 ‘Banking Fees’.
“Stripe charge £0.20 per transaction plus 1.4% of transaction amount.”
Other costs
Medical Fees of £5,291 covered the ML5 Medical, a seafare’s medical, when doctors decide on fitness to work safely at sea.
Operational Equipment amounting to £75,956 was described as “All equipment purchased to facilitate the operation of the service”, but IWC failed to provide a breakdown of these costs.
Let’s not forget that all of this was kicked off thanks to a detailed Freedom of Information request made by the Floating Bridge Stakeholders’ and Engineers’ Group.
More on the way
We still have more to publish on this, make sure you see them all by signing up for our daily email newsletter and reading the Deep Dive Series.
Image: Steinar Engeland under CC BY 2.0
