"We just want honest answers" — members of a floating bridge stakeholders group are asking the Solent LEP to step in to help the Isle of Wight get the truth as the fiasco continues into October.

A letter to the chair of the LEP, Brian Johnson, co-signed by East Cowes Town Council, the Floating Bridge Stakeholders' and Engineers' Group (FBSEG) questions whether they can intervene to help the local community to save it suffering further losses.

The LEP fronted more than £3.7 million in 2015 for Floating Bridge 6, which has been plagued with problems since it was put in the water in 2017.

However, the true cost of Floating Bridge 6, known to locals as 'the Wight Elephant', is not known despite repeated requests from interested parties, the FBSEG being one.

In the five-page letter, written by the group, it says the vessel is unfixable and "taxpayers should not be facing the financial burden of a failing floating bridge that this council has ploughed good money after bad into, despite many engineers' warning of major issues."

Cameron Palin, a member of the FBSEG and the council's Floating Bridge User Group, said the letter was to make the LEP aware of the situation which had only gotten worse following a meeting held with all parties in June 2019.

He said: "The LEP has to consider what actions it can take — if it has jurisdiction to look into a task and finish group into whether its money has been spent correctly, how the council has dealt with the Floating Bridge and has it kept the LEP informed.

"We want to meet with the LEP to discuss the situation because the council is not telling them anymore. We have had professional mechanical engineers and project managers offer to meet with the council who have been turned down.

"We have all been treated poorly as a community and any way to have oversight of the council over this is to go through its funders.

"We just want honest answers — there are serious questions of the council's ability to deal with this as they have dealt with it poorly throughout its three years in the water.

"Answers haven’t happened and potential solutions, such as side thrusters, aren’t viable."

Despite assurances from the leader of the council and cabinet member for infrastructure and transport the service would be working by the end of September, the vessel will continue to be out of action until mid-October and the council hopes to have it fully working for half-term.