The council ought to bridge that gap
And sell this bloody thing for scrap.
- Lauri Say, 'All Together on the Floating Bridge'

Floating Bridge No. 6 is a floating bridge¹ chain ferry that operates between Cowes and East Cowes on the Isle of Wight, transporting pedestrians and vehicles across the River Medina. Although it looks nice, it is largely useless. It has not actually sunk at time of writing, but it has broken down on numerous occasions, broken World Health Organisation and Maritime and Coastguard Agency regulations, broken car bumpers and exhausts, collided with numerous yachts, run aground regularly, been blamed for the collapse of local businesses and so can certainly be classed as a metaphorical shipwreck.

Floating Bridge No. 6 was built to replace the Isle of Wight-built Floating Bridge No. 5 which had been in service since 1975. It is the ninth floating bridge on the route, which has been operating without issue since 1859, but is called Floating Bridge No. 6 as the first three bridges were operated by private companies. When it works, Floating Bridge No. 6 is operated by the Isle of Wight Council. Unlike crossings on the old bridge, which were free for pedestrians and cyclists, a fee is charged for all passengers and vehicles.

Why is a Floating Bridge Needed?

East Cowes, one of the three vehicle ferry ports on the Isle of Wight, is a town that only has road access along one road. The only other way for a car to get into and out of East Cowes is by crossing the River Medina to Cowes on a floating bridge chain ferry. As this area has very strong river and tidal currents, chain guidance is considered essential for safe crossing, despite the potential risk of the chains snagging the heavy yacht traffic.

Consideration was given to building a conventional bridge with a clearance of 200 ft to allow craft to pass underneath. However, as both Cowes and East Cowes are built-up areas, there is not room for a road ramp to achieve such a height unless it is built a distance out of town, where it is unlikely to be of much use to pedestrians. In 2015 it was projected that acquiring the land and building such a bridge would cost at least £65 million. A swing bridge or other opening bridge would also cost too much and, as river users would have priority, would spend most of its time closed to road traffic and so be of little benefit. Building a tunnel beneath the river between the two towns was also considered; however, based on the 2011 Hindhead Tunnel, it was estimated that the cost would be £150 million. In comparison, a budget of £3.5 million was agreed for a new floating bridge.

Before Entering Service

The controversy began when the Isle of Wight Council announced that they would replace the existing - and perfectly working - Floating Bridge No. 5 with one that would be built in Wales², rather than with one built on the Island, such as by Wight Shipyard who had successfully built high speed ferries Red Jet 6 (2016) and Red Jet 7 (2018) as well as Thames Clipper ships for London. The old floating bridge was removed from service in January 2017 and the council announced the new one would not enter service until May that year. Floating Bridge No. 5 was put up for sale and, after a lack of interest, it was announced that it would be turned into razor blades. Although a pedestrian launch was used to ferry pedestrians across the Medina, vehicles had no choice but to make a 12-mile detour via the Island's most congested point at Newport to get from Cowes to East Cowes.

It should be noted that in the May 2017 elections the Island Independents lost control of the Isle of Wight Council, having held it since 2013, and the Conservatives regained a majority. This change in council coincided with the period that Floating Bridge No. 6 came into service.

Name and Shame

In March 2017, hoping to generate a sense of pride and interest in the new vessel, the Isle of Wight Council announced a competition to name the new ship. This was not the first time that a public competition had been held to name a ship. In 2016 there had been a nationwide public vote to name a £200m polar research ship. The overwhelming choice, Boaty McBoatface, was overruled and the ship was named RRS³   Sir David Attenborough instead, although the automatic yellow submarines the ship carries are called Boaty McBoatface.

Predictably, the runaway choice of name for Floating Bridge No 6 was Floaty McFloatface, with Blyskawica a second choice. The Isle of Wight Council at first announced it would veto that name, then rescinded the veto following an outcry, and then announced they would postpone announcing the final decision for at least a month. They have not made any announcements about the floating bridge's name since, with the decision not so much swept under the carpet as sunk without trace.

Since the vessel has come into service and its unreliability has become apparent, it has become (un)popularly known as Floaty McFloatfarce.

Vehicle Specification

A number of requirements were listed for the new Floating Bridge:

• Provide direct pedestrian access between the two town centres of East and West Cowes, to ensure their future vitality and competitiveness in a global tourism market.

• Allow for continued river access upstream for commercial and private vessels with an air draft of up to 200 ft and maintain the existing water draft of up to a minimum of 1.3m.

• Improve reliability in operation.

• Minimise congestion on the local road network, particularly where this negatively impacts the economic potential of town centres.

• Ensure affordable fares for a population that experiences high levels of deprivation.

• Safeguard and enhance the value for money of the delivery of the East Cowes Project Masterplan.

• Enhance environmental sustainability, through reduced operational energy requirements and carbon emissions.

Burness Corlett Three Quays were appointed as the Naval Architects tasked with designing the bridge. In preparation for the bridge coming into service it was advised that a 30-metre section of the River Medina be dredged to allow an additional 1.5 metres of depth. This was not done, although work was carried out on the chain pits, chains and both slipways in preparation for the new vessel's arrival.

Floating Bridge No. 6 was built to have an expected lifespan of 40 years like its predecessor (which, considering it broke down within 24 hours of becoming operational seems incredibly optimistic) and 'around twice the carrying capacity of previous vessel, Floating Bridge No. 5'. This seems an odd definition of 'twice', as the (theoretical) maximum number of passengers is still 400, for safety reasons, and 20 is not twice 15, but average car size had increased since Floating Bridge No. 5 was launched.

'Be a complete, disastrous laughing stock' was not one of the official requirements, which is a shame as that would have been the only requirement that could reliably be met.

Service Record Timeline

O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in Peril on the floating bridge.

Please note that this list does not include the numerous yachts that the floating bridge has collided with or snagged with the chain, nor the cars that have had damaged bumpers and exhausts disembarking from the vessel.

• 13 May, 2017 – Floating Bridge No. 6 launched.

• 14 May, 2017 – Broke down. Photographs in the News show adult passengers wading from the middle of the river carrying their children on piggyback.

• 15 May, 2017 – Service suspended by order of the Maritime and Coastguards Agency.

• 5 June, 2017 – Service allowed to resume.

• 7 June, 2017 – Floating bridge runs aground.

• 9 June, 2017 – Floating bridge runs aground again.

• 9 June, 2017 – The Isle of Wight Council announces that it has cleared the silt build-up that caused the floating bridge to ground and that therefore it wouldn't ever run aground again.

• 10 June, 2017 – Floating bridge runs aground again.

• 12 June, 2017 – Service suspended due to 'wind'.

• 13 June to 3 July, 2017 – No service able to be provided during low tide due to high likelihood of running aground.

• 30 June, 2017 – Breaks down due to electrical fault.

• 21 July, 2017 – Withdrawn from service at night due to noise levels being 'well above World Health Organisation guidelines'.

• 4 September, 2017 – Withdrawn from service indefinitely until the builders have fixed problems.

• 26 October, 2017 – A Freedom of Information Request reveals that 12 people had successfully claimed compensation for damage to their cars caused by using the floating bridge.

• 11 December, 2017 – Service resumes as part of an extended trial.

• 30 December, 2017 – The Isle of Wight Council's report claims the problems were caused by the crew not being familiar with the vessel and had absolutely nothing to do with the Isle of Wight Council.

• 2 January, 2018 – BBC film crew travel to the Island to film some stock shots of the floating bridge. As soon as they start filming, the bridge struggles to dock without crashing into everything.

• 2 February, 2018 – Taken out of service due to broken prow chain.

• 14 April, 2018 – Council leader Dave Stewart, who had authorised the design of the ferry, said it was providing 'nearly a good and reliable service'. The ferry promptly runs aground again. By now the floating bridge's grounding is such a common occurrence that it is no longer considered news.

• 30 April, 2018 – The Isle of Wight Council announce that they cannot berth the floating bridge without crashing it into a wall.

• 15-16 July, 2018 – Out of service for 'improvements'. (Well, surely they couldn't make it any worse..?)

• 1 August, 2018 – Councillor Ian Ward announces he wants to provide visitors with 'a good floating bridge service during the period of Cowes Week'. This is considered a snub to Islanders, who want a good floating bridge service all year round.

• 8 August, 2018 – Out of service due to grounding.

• 9 August, 2018 – Out of service due to prow lifting mechanism failure.

• 11 August, 2018 – Only allowed to operate during Cowes Week when accompanied by two 'Safety Boats'.

• 13 August, 2018 – It is announced that the floating bridge will need to be assisted by a barge during strong ebb tides for the foreseeable future. Hiring a barge to push the bridge against the tide costs £192 an hour.

• 4 September, 2018 – Out of service to allow matting to be placed on the slipways while the ferry's ramps are covered in 'shoes' to reduce the noise and vibration problems when the ferry docks.

• 11 September, 2018 – The Isle of Wight Council announce that the floating bridge is 'a reliable craft as it stands'. Islanders, though pleased that the floating bridge has reliably mastered the ability to stand still, would prefer a reliably moving floating bridge.

• 26 September, 2018 – Pulled from service for 24 hours following an accident in which a member of staff fell unconscious below deck in the engine room. Paramedics, the Bembridge Coastguard Rescue Team, Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service, Isle of Wight Ambulance and East Cowes firefighters were called and the man was airlifted to Southampton General Hospital. No further details were released at that time.

• 25 October, 2018 – Out of service following a snapped prow cable.

• 7 November, 2018 – Out of service due to high tide. It is revealed in a Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) report that the floating bridge's failure to date has cost £6.4 million.

• 12 November, 2018 - A petition calling for the floating bridge to be replaced is handed in to the Isle of Wight Council. This campaign demands the Council scrap it, sell it or give the bridge to Lake Windermere⁵ and build a replacement to the older bridge's specification.

• 6 December, 2018 – The corner of one of the shoes, which the Isle of Wight Council spent £8,106 on in September, is crudely cut off in a bodge-job aimed at preventing the prow from hitting the railings and chain anchor point.

• 8 February, 2019 – The Isle of Wight Council announces an intention to pursue legal action against the bridge's designers.

• 15 March, 2019 – Out of service due to a 'combination of wind direction and low tide'. The East Cowes Councillor declares that Brexit will be fixed before the Floating Bridge.

• 21 March, 2019 – Out of service due to trials focussing on maintaining a minimum depth water over the vessel's chains at all states of the tide.

• 3 April, 2019 – Following a Freedom of Information request regarding the accident on 26 September, the Isle of Wight Council's report of the incident is released. It states that the risk assessments were inadequate and 'failed to identify or control' 'significant hazards'. It was revealed that there had been a leak and, on being informed that it would take at least three hours for an engineer to call, the ferry was kept running which 'exacerbated the problem'.

• 13 April, 2019 – East Cowes Councillor Karl Love describes the LEP report on the bridge to be a 'catastrophic failure' that 'cannot represent any kind of perspective on which policy or future actions are based... We submitted several hundred pages demonstrating that the floating bridge has hurt the economy and that the Council appears to have provided deceptive information to the LEP in their business case.' The report states it only received 14 responses to its consultation from the Isle of Wight, grouping the many hundreds of responses from members of public together and summarily dismissing them with the words 'one response was received from a stakeholder group'.

• 3 May, 2019 – Out of service due to repairs to south-east prow hinge.

• 9 May, 2019 – Out of service due to 'mechanical problems'.

• 12 June, 2019 – A new Floating Bridge Service Charter is published. In this the Council stated it would 'operate a high-quality service focussing on passengers' requirements irrespective of nationality, gender, race, language, religion, political opinion, wealth, social and psychophysical characteristics', but without mentioning the passengers' need to get to the other side of the river. To be fair, one of the charter's aims was to 'protect the environment' and by being a floating bridge that doesn't actually move, there can be no denying that in one way the ferry has been environmentally beneficial. However, for each crossing cancelled, up to 20 cars have driven an additional 12 miles.

• 8 July, 2019 – Isle of Wight Council announces the floating bridge will be out of service for a week from this date to have its chains replaced. The Council then announced they had accidentally given the wrong dates and it actually wasn't out of service that day. They later clarified the bridge would be out of service from 9 July. No resumption of service date was initially given, with estimates ranging from three to five days. The new chains are expected to last three years.

• 10 September, 2019 - Broke down. Notice stated that the ferry would be out of service for a week due to prow and hinge assembly needing repair.

• 18 September, 2019 – While the floating bridge is still out of service, the East Cowes Councillor calls for the bridge to be scrapped.

• 20 September, 2019 – Additional repairs needed to the ferry's prow and hinge mechanism on both the Cowes and East Cowes sides to prevent the problem from recurring. The Council Leader's response to the East Cowes Counsellor is: 'When I say to people it is good and reliable, I do believe it is good and reliable. If people say to me, "yes, but it breaks down," I say, "so does the 'Red Jet". People need to understand we, as an administration, inherited the floating bridge the previous administration had ordered. We are about to embark on some major roadworks though Newport. Now our goal is to make sure that the floating bridge is available so people can use it. We have got it, we have paid for it and now we have to make it run.'

• 26 September, 2019 – Former Isle of Wight Council Leader Debbie Andre, Leader of the Isle of Wight Independents, replied to the Council Leader's comments by saying: 'The Independents were responsible for accessing and securing the funding to replace the floating bridge, and not involved in the procurement, design or building of the vessel that was delivered. This was carried out by a project board that included stakeholders and senior council officers, but not any councillors... councillors are not, nor should they be, involved in operational matters. The Conservatives took delivery of the vessel and brought it into service without completing full trials. Then they blamed public pressure as the reason they did not complete necessary trials and tests. It needs to be asked why yet more money is being poured into modifications when the design is so obviously not fit for purpose.' Floating Bridge users look on in envy as blame regularly goes back and forth and wish that one day the floating bridge will be able to do the same.

• 30 September, 2019 - Back in service. The main road between the towns of Newport and Cowes is dug up in a controversial scheme to remove a roundabout, with disruption expected until December 2020. With the main road to Cowes out of action, concern over the consequences should the floating bridge break down are high. Residents wonder, if they were to put the current Isle of Wight Council on one side of the Medina and the former Isle of Wight Council on the other, whether the resulting hot air shouted between the two would part the seas like in that old Charlton Heston film.

• 1 October, 2019 – Proposals are announced that paying for tickets on the Floating Bridge itself will become cashless, using contactless card payments rather than physical money. Onshore ticket machines either side of the Medina will still allow tickets to be bought with money. (Cashless payments are already allowed, but in keeping with the spirit of the floating bridge this doesn't really work due to connectivity problems - discrepancies between cash takings and sales recorded range from an excess of £2,538.81 to a loss of £368.33.)

• 11 October, 2019 – Floating Bridge runs aground due to 'high winds' in the early afternoon but is back in service by mid-evening.

• 5–6 January, 2020 – Out of service due to 'a fault with the generators affecting the electrics, including the lighting'.

• 24-25 March, 2020 - The council initially announces that the ferry will be restricted for use by essential workers only, then the following day the decision is reversed and the ferry is open to all, but essential workers would be given priority.

• 26 March, 2020 - All crossings suspended and no replacement foot passenger ferry provided.

• 14 July, 2020 – Planned maintenance work to replace part of the vessel's two main drive wheels and complete noise mitigation measures. It is announced this will take ten days, but it takes much longer.

• 23 July, 2020 – Announced that it will definitely return to service on 28 July.

• 27 July, 2020 - An engineer begins investigating an 'issue with the prow hydraulic system.'

• 30 July, 2020 – Announcement the floating bridge will not resume until 5 August due to 'essential maintenance work'.

• 4 August, 2020 – Announcement that the floating bridge cannot currently return to service due to 'a major problem with the hydraulics'.

• 7 August, 2020 – Announcement that repairing the floating bridge's hydraulics will take '8-30 weeks' as 'the main components of the hydraulic system including the main drive and auxiliary pumps and motors need to be fully examined and inspected, cleaned and repaired. This work may identify yet unforeseen faults within the parts and appropriate replacements may be required.'

• 29 August, 2020 - Isle of Wight Council Scrutiny Committee floating bridge report announced as being published on 8 September, and that it will conclude the floating bridge's flaws are 'a result of the failure of the two companies contracted to design and build the Floating Bridge to comply with the council’s requirements'.

• 30 August, 2020 – Return to service date for the floating bridge announced as being unclear, with the council announcing 'Once the full reports are received from the engineers, we can plan to resolve the issues, establish the time it will take to complete the works and to resume the service.'

• 2 September, 2020 – It is revealed that since being in service Floating Bridge No 6 has cost over £2,000 per day, losing over £60,000 per month, in comparison with the old bridge making £250,000 profit per annum. Cameron Palin of the Floating Bridge Stakeholders' and Engineers' Group stated, 'In several formal meetings our engineers gave the Isle of Wight council and the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) – which provided the funding for Floating Bridge 6 – several documents that analysed the engineering problems and proved that this floating bridge is badly designed and too big, will never work properly, and will continue to damage the economy and waste taxpayer money.'

• 10 September, 2020 - Councillor Ian Ward, Isle of Wight Council cabinet member for infrastructure and transport, said, 'We are now looking at getting spares to repair [the hydraulics] — and I find it difficult to believe myself — but those spares need to be manufactured. The manufacturers hope to achieve the repairs, and we hope to get the craft back in the water this month. If all goes well at the end of the month we will have that vessel back in the water doing what it was intended to do.'

• 15 September, 2020 – The Isle of Wight Council states it will not listen to Island resident's demands to buy a replacement bridge even though the lack of bridge during the time of the St Mary's Roundabout roadworks has brought gridlock to the whole Island and virtually cut-off the town of Cowes. Council Leader Dave Stewart states, 'we did not expect was the catalogue of problems we have since experienced over the subsequent years. Added challenges recently has been the need to remove it from service during the main parts of the St Mary’s Roundabout roadworks from August to September, creating a perfect storm of destruction when we least needed it. Our plan is to fix the current problem and ensure the vessel is back in the water as soon as possible. We have no plans at this time to order a new floating bridge.'

• 16 September, 2020 – Cameron Palin of the Floating Bridge Engineers' and Stakeholders' Group, objecting to the Council Leader's statement that they did not expect the catalogue of problems, stated 'In May 2017, our engineers warned the Isle of Wight Council, including Dave Stewart, that these exact problems were going to happen, so it is completely disingenuous of him and the Council to say that they did not expect these problems. Not only that, but we offered our engineers' expertise to show the council how the problems cannot be fixed. When Floating Bridge 6 hit the water back in 2017, we told the Council that this bridge is not fit for purpose, and gave them numerous engineering documents to prove it. Now, three years down the line there is no solution to its many faults in sight, especially those related to the bridge being too big. It's clear that the only feasible and practical way forward now is to a purchase a new floating bridge.'

• 19 September, 2020 – Official announcement that the floating bridge will be back in service on 28 September.

• 20 September, 2020 - The Floating Bridge Stakeholders' and Engineers' Group send a 5 -page open letter updating the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership with the current state of affairs and calling for their intervention to persuade the council to order a replacement bridge.

• 28 September, 2020 – Official announcement that the floating bridge will be back in service on 9th October.

• 6 October, 2020 - Suggestion that the Floating Bridge to be equipped with 'side thrusters' to replace the need for a pushboat, the hire of which is currently £97,000 a year.

• 20 October, 2020 - after over 3 months away (a quarter of the year) Floating Bridge No. 6 returns to service having had its hydraulic systems completely rebuilt. The cost of hiring a replacement boat to take children to school - with a delay of up to 2 hours due to Social Distancing regulations - reported to be £80,000.

• 23 October, 2020 - Isle of Wight Council report reveals that they 'do not know' why the hydraulic system's parts had failed so spectacularly.

• 29 October, 2020 – Isle of Wight councillors spotted sneakily travelling to Gosport and visiting the old Floating Bridge No 5 which is still moored there. Councillor Dave Stewart since stated, A lot of people talk about bringing Floating Bridge 5 back, so we said to ourselves sometimes you need to inform yourself on what the state was. Now, I can say I have physically seen it and I would not bring it back. To be honest, I would call what I saw a rusty wreck.. During this trip it was apparent that they were not following lockdown restrictions of wearing facemasks, keeping to the rule of six or social distancing.

• 30 October, 2020 - Freedom of Information request reveals that Floating Bridge No 6 has cost £1.2 over the last 26 months after any income has been deducted, with costs including professional services, private contractors – including the Jenny Boat and Water Taxis hired to offer a replacement foot passenger service and the barge used to help the Floating Bridge during strong tides, banking fees, - and medical fees. Not running the Floating Bridge in September 2020 alone lost the council £95,000 – hiring water taxis cost £114,000 while ticket prices generated £14,000.

• 1 November, 2020 – Out of service for the day due to failed hydraulics despite 13 weeks having been recently spent repairing the hydraulics.

• 7 November, 2020 – Out of service due to a hydraulics ram fault preventing the prow hinge from lifting. Work is also taken to ensure this problem does not affect the other four rams and discovered that one of the inner piston ends was sheared off with fatigue damage. Councillor Dave Stewart stated, All four ends are being checked to ensure they do not have similar problems. This work is thought to be completed shortly and the vessel will then return to service. It is very disappointing that the service was taken out in the first two weeks it was back as we carried 4,000 passengers, a similar number of vehicles and generated income over £10,000 so when the vessel is in play it is used and its income generation to cover costs is there — but at this moment in time we have a problem… The Floating Bridge returned to service on 16 November.

• 22 November, 2020 – Mainlanders become aware of the situation as Floating Bridge No 6 makes it onto the BBC's Sunday Politics national television programme.

• 27 November, 2020 – Out of service due to 'a hydraulic oil leak occurring from the south west ram, which left unattended will ultimately dispose of hydraulic oil into the river.' It returned to service on 4 December.

• 5 December, 2020 – The Floating Bridge No 6 saga once again makes national news, being discussed on the BBC Radio 4 news with the words, ...Since it replaced an older version in 2017, the 3 million pound vessel has been out of action nearly 60 times, including for most of last week. It's faced a series of problems with everything from its hydraulics, to docking. When tides are strong, it even needs a separate barge to help it across. And when it's not running at all, drivers are forced to take a 10 mile road detour. The Isle of Wight County Council, which operates it, says it's trying to resolve the issues. There's been a floating Bridge in Cowes since 1859, but local people, who've staged street protests to express their anger, say the latest version should be replaced.

• 15 December, 2020 - out of service in the evening due to 'minor maintenance'.

• 12 January, 2021 - out of service for 'fuel problems'.

• 13 January, 2021 - it is revealed that the council has begun 'a substantial legal claim' over the bridge's failures. How this will help passengers cross the river remains to be seen.

Floating Bridge No. 6 is far, far noisier than its predecessor. The sound can best be described as like a blue whale in labour with the only available midwife being a wailing banshee assisted by the heavily-chained ghosts of Jacob Marley and Ebenezer Scrooge, only much, much worse.

January 2018 Report

The January 2018 official report stated:

It remains impossible to assess whether Floating Bridge 6 will achieve all of the required outcomes provided to the Naval Architects that designed the vessel, until such time as the council has resolved the two principal issues in relation to the clearance over the chains at an ebb tide and the noise of the vessel... the report itself presents a number of findings in an open and transparent way - so that the local community, local interest groups and the wider Island are all able to understand how a new vessel, costing over £3.7 million pounds of public money to build, has failed to provide the service expected.

Since then the ferry operated for 89.5% of schedule in September 2018, 79.4% in October 2018 and 88.0% in July 2019. A new low occurred in September 2019 when it only met 33.3% of its scheduled service. This was surpassed a year later when through August and September 2020 it met 0% of its scheduled service.

November 2018 Report

In November 2018 it was revealed that between May 2017 and September 2018 the floating bridge had cost more than £6.4 million:

The report also stated:

Some observers have said the design of the bridge means it will never be able to operate to its full specification.

October 2019

A Freedom of Information request in October 2019 revealed that the 'new, more efficient Floating Bridge' had, between October 2018 and September 2019, resulted in costs of £149,115.33 for hiring MV Seaclear as pushboat barge to assist during crossings against the tide, plus £181,189 to hire a passenger launch when the bridge was out of action, as well as £110,760 on chain depth surveys.

Unlike the previous floating bridge, which made a steady annual profit, Floating Bridge No. 6 cost the Isle of Wight Council money that could have been used for other vital services.

Declining Vehicle Numbers

One of the aims of Floating Bridge No. 6 was to 'double passenger capacity'. However, although the ferry is much larger than its predecessor, it has been revealed that the number of vehicles carried dropped 53% in 2017/18 compared to 2015/16. Although exact numbers were not recorded as pedestrians and cyclists were not ticketed before Floating Bridge No. 6 came into service, it is estimated that foot passenger numbers fell by over 40% in the same period.

The following table shows the number of cars carried on the route between August to July each year. 2015/16 was the last full year in which Floating Bridge No. 5 operated. In 2016/17, Floating Bridge No. 5 was in service between August and January 2017, and Floating Bridge No. 6 did not enter service until May, so a dip in numbers was to be expected. However, even fewer vehicles used the ferry in its first full year of service, 2017/18, than in the year when there wasn't a ferry for half the year.

Councillor Karl Love commented:

It's disgraceful. People don't have the confidence to use the floating bridge - they don't trust it. It's affected tourism, investment and the community's ability to interact.