The Isle of Wight council is in such disarray they don’t even know how many phone calls they received from people complaining about the Floating Bridge.
That’s right, the single largest issue that’s been facing the council – an issue that has resulted in embarrassment for the entire Island after the failure to implement a working Floating Bridge was reported across the country – and the council doesn’t have a clue how many people phoned in to complain about it.
This shock admission been exposed through an investigation by OnTheWight after the Conservative Transport Cabinet Member, Cllr Ian Ward, claimed live on BBC Radio Solent, that only eight people had complained.
‘Residents to blame’ shock claim
This all came to light way back in August – not Cllr Ward’s more recent performance when he embarrassed himself by being unable to answer the most basic questions about the replacement floating bridge service – the time before that.
In the Radio Solent interview Cllr Ward made the astonishing claim that he thought the people of East Cowes were to blame for the Floating Bridge coming into service too early – This is also where he claim that only eight people had complained.
To us, the response of BBC presenter Judy Goodlet made it sound like her jaw had hit the floor:
“People have been incensed. They’ve been having some really hard times, so I’m slightly astonished to hear that that is fine, to have a lot of incensed people.”
Pushed to FOI
The people of East Cowes told OnTheWight that they couldn’t understand Cllr Ward’s claim of eight complainants – it didn’t balance with their experience. Indeed, only ten days later 400+ signed complaints were handed to the Local Government Ombudsman.
Of course, OnTheWight sought the details from the council. Rather than simply offering to find the answer to the question – How many phone calls have been received about the floating bridge since the start of January this year? – the council decided they would instead force the apparently-simple question onto a Freedom of Information request.
This is a well-known tactic for government bodies to try and kick questions ‘into the long grass’ in the hope that people just forget about the matter in hand.
A full 20 days to say ‘we don’t know’
To the council’s shame, they have taken the full number of working days allowable by the law (twenty days) to come back and claim that they don’t know how many people have phoned them to complain about the fiasco that is the Floating Bridge.
They say they do not know how many people have complained, then go on to claim that even if they went to add the number up, they still wouldn’t be able to get the number right.
The Isle of Wight deserves better
The whole frankly laughable excuse is below. In OnTheWight’s view, the Isle of Wight deserves better.
Thank you for your request for information dated 23rd August 2017 concerning number of phone calls received about the Floating Bridge. This request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
There is a direct telephone line for the Floating Bridge, however enquiries may have been made via the Contact Centre and other contact numbers and is not held in a collated manner.
Accordingly, we believe that the information requested is not held by the council as we do not hold a record of the number of enquiries, in total, the council has received concerning Floating Bridge 6. Whilst searches could be undertaken to identify relevant information, we do not believe that the results would accurately reflect the total number of enquiries.
