By Press Release
A letter from the leader of the Conservative group on the Isle of Wight Council alleging a “cover-up” has drawn a robust response from council leaders.
Last week Cllr Joe Robertson sent an open letter to council leader, Lora Peacey-Wilcox, setting out his “serious concerns” about the figure paid to the Isle of Wight Council to settle the dispute over Floating Bridge 6, remaining “a secret forever”. He said: “I am sure I speak for the vast majority of Islanders when I say that this is completely unacceptable”, adding: “This all looks very grubby”.
He also alleged that the problems with the vessel were the fault of councillors involved in ordering the vessel, and who are now members of the Alliance Cabinet.
Yesterday afternoon (Thursday), the Alliance Group issued a point-by-point rebuttal of Cllr Robertson’s allegations and claimed his letter was “littered with misinformation, assumptions and hypocrisy”.
Confirming no settlement would have been possible without commercial confidentiality, the statement also revealed that the previous Conservative administration had signed their own Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), which settled a multi-million-pound contractual dispute with the PFI highway contractors. The NDA was authorised by Cllr Robertson’s fellow Tory, Cllr Ian Ward. It also pointed out that independent reports had confirmed no councillors were involved in the tendering contract for the Floating Bridge, and in 2021 a Conservative majority Scrutiny Committee accepted there were “no issues with the approach taken to procurement, tendering and contracting”.
Cllr Phil Jordan said: “I cannot help but comment on the utter hypocrisy and dual standards on display in Cllr Robertson’s misplaced comments regarding NDAs. The Conservatives believe it is perfectly in order to enter into commercial confidentiality agreements whilst in office, but object to them when not in office. I’m sure the public will make up their own minds about such hypocrisy.”
Cllr Robertson accused the Alliance of being vague about the NDA details and said: “I don’t see how I can respond. If the other party is supposed to be Island Roads then there will have likely been the additional issue of how to preserve an ongoing contractual relationship long into the future which didn’t apply to the floating bridge situation – but I cannot possibly speculate on a hypothetical.”
A number of Freedom of Information requests have been submitted about the Floating Bridge settlement.
Header image: Joe Robertson – accused of hypocrisy