As he makes his way back to the Isle of Wight following a meeting with Government Minister Michael Fallon this morning, Leader of the Isle of Wight council, Ian Stephens, has confirmed to OnTheWight that a new floating bridge will be ‘fully funded’ by the Government.
In earlier announcements from various bodies relating to the Solent Strategic Economic Plan funding bid success, it wasn’t clear whether the Government would be fully or part funding a new floating bridge at Cowes.
£14.95m funding in total
Indeed, when we spoke with Cllr Stephens as he made his way to the mainland this morning, he was hopeful, but not 100% certain the funding for a new floating bridge had been approved as part of the bid to improve cross-Solent services.
This afternoon, Cllr Stephens confirmed that a Paper would be prepared by Officers to go to Full Council in August.
The intention is that the new floating bridge be in use, on the water, by March 2016.
OnTheWight understands that the Government have made all of this subject to procurement.
Public consultation still on the cards
He also confirmed to OnTheWight that the Executive would still be discussing at tonight’s meeting whether to go out to public consultation on the proposal to introduce a 50p each way foot passenger fare on the floating bridge.
The proposal was originally raised as a means to fund a new floating bridge, when the current one (38 years old) comes to the end of its life in around three years time.
Update 17:23: Corrected that Floating bridge amount was in addition to the £15m for Red Funnel’s port changes. All works will come from one pot.
Image: Ron Saunders 47 under CC BY 2.0
