We always welcome a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below.
Cowes Town Councillor, Neil Oliver, shares this letter he sent to Leader of the Isle of Wight council, Cllr Dave Stewart, yesterday (Thursday). Ed
I am a resident of Cowes, a Cowes Town Councillor and occasional user of the Cowes floating bridge across the River Medina.
There seems to have been a relative silence on the subject of service provision from yourself and the IWC over the last six months.
In September, at a public meeting in East Cowes, you seemed to promise some action on the ‘floating bridge’ problem.
I haven’t noticed one……. yet.
Back in service prematurely?
I have read in the press that there is a plan to resume the FB6 service next week, this raises some worrying questions:
Is the service being re-started before time, ie. before the IWC and its scrutiny committee has appraised the reports on the situation, supposedly early January 2018?
Does resuming a ‘poor’ service imply – legally – any acceptance of the problematic hardware and does this compromise any legal case against the architects, engineers, builders, installers in the future?
Does the service as planned fulfil all the safety criteria it needs to?
What’s the Plan B?
If this materialises as a temporary arrangement, ie. it fails again, what is your plan ‘B’ for the provision of a safe, effective, accessible, timely, regular and funded launch service across the River Medina?
I look forward to your reply, before the weekend would be nice.
Neil Oliver, HCPC, MCSP, MSc, BSc, BSc
Cowes Town Councillor
