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Everyone must know that we should have gone for a higher bridge that ; 1. Does not open/close 2. Does not therefore fail open or closed, bringing traffic to a stop. 3 Does not cost a fortune in maintenance over its lifetime 4 Does not need a team of 32 people and a dedicated VHF channel just to get it opening and closing to schedule.

If they do want a quote for Labour get one from Dianne Abbot, the figures are amazing and change each time you question her.

I spoke with the Mayor at the time. He had all the plans for a fixed span bridge, but was overruled because the rest wanted something for the Millenium. London had the O2, Portsmouth the Spinaker Tower and we got the Booby Prize. I've edited Bobby to read Booby. 😎

The trouble is, the people who make the decisions are never held accountable.

I think it was under discussion for 30 years or so. They asked local people what they thought. I've never heard of any local people that said " another lifting bridge ? what a good idea! "

I'm afraid we will never regain the reliability and longevity of the engineering of the Victorian age (there were a few exceptions I admit) when it seems that projects based on tendering to achieve the lowest price and quickest delivery win the day. I am sad to say that in my experience many Companies that win these projects have no idea of what they are getting into as they are basically shell companies reliant upon a previous old school reputation and now have minimal resources so that once they win the job then panic sets in and they try to recruit "staff" to complete it relying on managing the contract to save or make even money . The Victorians generally provided a realistic fixed price for the job and selection was based on the preferred design solution The quality of the available mechanical/electrical equipment available in today's throw away society is price driven and is selected to meet the warranty period which is generally 13 months from customer takeover by which time it has served its purpose and is generally worn out and gets replaced by the customer (or left to rot) with an identical 2 year lifespan unit and so the cycle continues. Granted the Victorian engineers way over designed their projects but they were also maintainable unlike those of today as the necessary skill sets have been purposely removed from the marketplace by the Government sacrificing the Manufacturing for the Financial markets. If the bearing set needs replacing on the twin sails bridge I suspect that it will be replaced with exactly the same type that has failed. There will be no money available or interest it getting the fault properly analysed and an improved design implemented . It will come back to bite them mark my words Just my three penne'th😎

Thanks for the clarification Brian. I couldn't get my head around a viable alternative engineering solution to the original scheme. Now I understand viable engineering wasn't part of the decision making process it clarifies things

what`s a local bobby

Don't bring the local Bobby into it Brian. That's a subject for another time!!!!!!

As I'm not "Local" I don't know the history of the bridge construction but I can see that construction had begun on an alternative design across the bay. The 90 degree dogleg access on the Hamworthy side shows a piece of road heading for the bay. When was the design changed to the twin sails route and other than being a shorter route why was it chosen (other than I assume those in charge assumed it would be cheaper because it was shorter) Surely they would have considered all issues before changing the route? Or am I not understanding the Poole Council mentality.😎

Should have gone high enough over Holes Bay and joined the Holes Bay Road, would have kept all the lorries etc from the port out of Poole.

As the wind had gone around a little NE I decided to go blow out some cobwebs today at the Rockley end of the harbour with Mr Nash. The plus side being we used about £2.50 in fuel and managed to drown a few worms. The bonus was my first flounder of the season, followed up with plenty of small bass. Not a huge fish but very thick in the body. However as Allan said plenty of crabs stealing the baits still.