There are dozens of design and engineering problems with this floating bridge the IW Council appears to refuse to acknowledge, let alone address.

There needs to be a completely independent engineering audit of the whole floating bridge to meet its true requirements and make it as good as, if not better, than floating bridge 5. It doesn’t need to be bigger; 45 per cent fewer cars use the floating bridge compared with ten years ago.

It needs to be frequent and reliable, and this design prevents this bridge from doing its job for the next 30 years.

Also, as a floating bridge campaigner I am fed up of being called the problem, when all I’m trying to provide is a voice for many members of the community who can’t speak out. I am proud to publicly scrutinise this council’s decisions when all it has done is fail the community of Cowes and East Cowes.

The council has tried to use a typical “divide and conquer” tactic; to turn the staff against campaigners and try to make them believe we are against the staff. We are not! We feel great sympathy for the staff, and believe they are doing a fantastic job in very difficult circumstances created with this bad floating bridge.

The council needs to admit defeat, accept help and listen to our engineers and to the current and former bridge staff who have been ignored consistently.

Considering the more than a million pounds of taxpayer money so far the council has wasted on unsuccessful attempts to fix some of the problems, sometimes — like in this instance — the cheaper and better option is start over, with a design more similar to floating bridge 5.

The council’s floating bridge statistics are all spin. I believe the council has acted unprofessionally and incompetently, which is why I am a not surprised people do not have faith in and do not trust our council.