Later this week the Isle of Wight council’s cabinet will be hearing the outcome of the Cabinet Office Gateway 5 Review of Cowes Floating Bridge 6, the £3.2m project that has ended up costing millions more than planned.
As already reported by News OnTheWight, the Cabinet will hear about the full list of detailed recommendations that came out of the independent review and potentially agree a review as to whether it’s cost effective to keep FB6 versus other alternatives.
Jordan: “A new Floating Bridge is a realistic possibility”
Last autumn, Cllr Phil Jordan, the Cabinet member responsible for transport, said that ‘a new Floating Bridge is a realistic possibility’. He explained,
“The new Alliance administration has the consideration of a new floating bridge very much on the cards, but unfortunately it’s a slightly more complicated decision-making process, because the £3.2 million Floating Bridge 6 was not funded solely by the Council’s money, but by a multi-million, Government Local Growth Deal grant awarded by the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership.
“Frustratingly, it’s not quite as simple as buying a new car to replace an old model.”
A “lengthy and complex exercise”
The Gateway 5 Review reveals what necessary steps would need to be taken in order to replace FB6 with FB7. It explains that process would “involve a lengthy and complex exercise”.
In particular, they say it would require the following:
- revalidation of the business need and required outcomes,
- revalidation of the appropriate delivery model and contracting structure,
- identification of lessons learned from FB6 to inform future approaches,
- pre-procurement market engagement to assess the health and capacity of the market and help shape the Council’s requirements in line with the latest best practice (see Government’s Playbooks),
- assembling a dedicated and well-resourced project delivery team (supplemented by external advisers as appropriate) to support successful delivery of a robust procurement and
- consideration of appropriate governance arrangements for Council oversight and direction.
Need to ensure FB6 working in parallel
Whilst this process was taking place, in parallel, the report explains:
A suitably skilled and resourced contract management team will continue to be needed to ensure FB6 delivers against its required outcomes and to address any future interruption in the FB6 service.
The Corporate Scrutiny Committee will consider the report at tonight’s (Tuesday) meeting, before it heads to Cabinet on Thursday.
Delay to mediation potentially beneficial
A date for mediation with the two companies that designed and built Floating Bridge 6, Mainstay Marine and Burness Corlett Three Quays (BCTQ), has been set for the beginning of March 2022.
Legal mediation was originally planned for January 2021, but Covid has been cited as the reason for the delay. However, the ongoing delays in agreeing a date for mediation has potentially been beneficial for the council.
Readers will remember that when the Bridge was out of action from August for three months, further faults and failures were discovered. These failures, and the knock-on cost to the council, can now be included in the discussions.
