Battle of the bridge(poole)lost.

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mm1

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Have just learnt that Gordon Brown & his pal Alistair are going to stump up the final £13.5million to Poole council for a second bridge to ease traffic flow even though the major ferries are no longer coming into Poole.Due to open 2012. A very sad day for boat owners in holes bay,the estimates are 1hr to navigate through both bridges.obviously the town of Poole(a seafaring town or so we thought)do not give a toss about leisure boat owners or their needs. What a serious waste of money!!!!!regards mm1.
 
"We have not yet begun to fight"!

Once it is in place we will be watching like hawks for accidents and as soon as we have reasonable grounds - which we're certain there will be given the bridges are planned to operate in tandem rather than simultaneously - we plan to call in the MCGA for a safety review. They have the power to make the HM change the way the bridges operate.

There's no way that 50+ boats can mill around in the small space there will be between the bridges for an hour in windy conditions without there being some kind of incident, so we'll just have to make sure they are all logged and properly presented to them.
 
Yep announced here

Trouble is that the bridge(s) are not operated and controlled by HM, but by Poole B C. The operation is overseen by the Bridge Operating Board (BOB), but this seems to have little in the way of teeth. What Poole BC says seems to go.

Interaction between MCGA and PBC would be interesting, we've seen in other areas how little regard PBC have for being reasonable.

Don't know why link doesn't work, try this

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/ne...60040.Go_ahead_for_Poole_s_Twin_Sails_Bridge/
 
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Another £13 m wasted.
Dont they realise we have a little bit of debt to pay back.They are in cloud cuckoo land.
If they just stopped wasting money and giving it away to Europe and everybody else in the world for a couple of years, it would ........nope I refuse to rant on here.I come here to chill out.
 
I have lived in Poole all my life.

When at school the history teacher used to say due to maintenance costs the lifting bridge was a thorn in the councils side and that its life expectancy was limited ie short term. It was deemed then that a fixed link with little in the way of maintenance charges was the way to go. Now 40ish years later we are in the position of having another lifting bridge with the maintenance charge of not one but two lifting bridges to contend with. How deep are our pockets I ask. Maintenance will come from council coffers not HMG. I believe due to cost of maintenance it will only be a matter of time (not long) before the original bridge is demolished, hopefully anyway.

Perhaps when the old bridge is gone I will consider keeping my boat at either Davis's or MDL marina but until then with lack of air draft no chance

Martin
 
originally the bridge project was going to cost £30m now they say £37m, i am guessing that this is the cost of the bridge itself not the entire project! It would be interesting to see how much the council have spent to date and what they plan to spend on the approaches etc.

with the election coming i suspect that the government funding will be withdrawn and nothing will happen, much the same as last time with the proposed fixed link they came up with last time.

all IMHO
 
Think the latest figure is £37 million, Martin, with the extra £10 million coming from the Southwest regional Development fund, so £24 million from gov all told. They're good at keep quiet on total costs and funding.

We all know the project will go over time and budget, so can expect the council to go cap in hand again, and as the thing will be part built, extra money will be forthcoming, grrrrr!

Let's hope Steve is right about elections. Although I fear, even with change of gov., I can't see Poole's bridge being top of the agenda.
 
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