asitis

3 hours ago, doc.fixit said:

Just read that they are still trying to sort out what rent we will pay. Rent? I thought we had paid enough.

Jesus Christ, so now we have staffing and rent to sort out for a facility, which if it appears the Manannan is the likely one to be using it this year, will only do so for a few months until winter returns !

This has to be the most costly cock up in a history of costly cock ups from this island !

1 hour ago, Jarndyce said:

The voice of experience?   How many do you have?

Probably ! But I'm wise enough not to rise to the bait !

You can have as many Phd's as you want and still be an idiot !

See, non offensive banter ! some please take note !!!!!!!

Just now, Happier diner said:

You don't even know what she looks like and you are assuming she would fancy you!

What makes you think my wife fancies me LOL !

I taking it Gladys is a lady in real life as she's repeated herself, hang on she could be my wife !

The bottom line is the Police are damned if they do, but if something goes horribly wrong, and there is need of firearms and they haven't deployed them, then they are damned if they don't !!! Twas ever thus !

Do we have to keep the Manannan for the shoppers for who we built a 100 million pound tin shed ?

1 hour ago, Kopek said:

If they say it's not on the Island yet, they say they'll deliver it to your door. when they've received your payment.............oooooooooo!

This Nissan leaf was an advert from Bristol Street Motors and the 44% off the new Corsa was Perrys.

Been sent a couple of ev adverts today, one for a 2023 Nissan leaf with 10 miles on the clock at £14,990 less than half new price and one for a new Vauxhall Corsa E with a discount of £13,000 off the retail price.

Can't wait to plow some cash into a new one LOL !

17 minutes ago, Dirty Buggane said:

And clearly £85,000,000 is not enough to buy you a bit of common sense or free design help. How much extra have has it cost for alteration and design 

Think you could be a bit shy of the final figure there fella LOL !

2 hours ago, Anthony Ingham said:

The jobs were advertised locally and we desperately need more people in planning to deal with the backlog.  There must be tens of millions of pounds worth of economic activity sat in planning

Whats the issue exactly?

I see the issues as, we can't keep solving mismanaged shitshows by throwing more money we don't have at them ! Like everything, planning has descended into a farce !

7 minutes ago, Loungehake said:

I understand that this whie elephant was the choice of policiticians. Steam-Packet wanted two more modest vessels. This error will for a long time be an millstone for the Isle of Man. £78million is extortionately expensive for a millstone. Will we have to put up with unreliable sailings for the next 25 years. I am assuming a 25 year life for Manxman. I doubt if it can be flogged off for anything like its price ticket. We are stuck with it big time.

Ben-My-Chree was and is a most reliable vessel.  I can no longer book my car for a trip to the IOM with confidence.  I guess that the numpties who approved the specification for Manxman will bury their heads in the sand and be in denial. No one seems to have thought about such a large vessel being compatible with modest size harbours like Heysham and Douglas on its itinerary.

I suppose that those responsible for Manxman were swayed by its glamour and size. There's one born every minute or so they say.

Wouldn't know whether you are correct, but if you are, re the choice of Politicians, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

9 minutes ago, Gladys said:

nothing to do with the Steam Packet.

I agree, however it's everything to do with the people who supply the money for Government largesse and profligacy i.e. the taxpayers ! I agree with your post, I particularly like the " safeguard public funds", just wondered when they might consider doing this ?

14 hours ago, Non-Believer said:

They're clearly unaware that Govt effectively own the Steamie with the entire motivation from the get-go being that profits be maximised to contribute to the bail-out of Govt liabilities and debts.

To be pedantic, and I apologise, you and I and the rest of the taxpayers on the island own the Steam Packet. The liabilities and debts bit is not going well, as we are now 300 million into the company, although having paid my June fare that would have helped LOL !

3 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

A reminder of how this all started from a piece on the Afloat website in 2016, itself mainly taken from a now-vanished IOM Newspapers piece (presumably lost along with the rest of the archive when Tindle bought it)

The Isle of Government, Tynwald has voted to acquire a site in Liverpool for a new ferry terminal writes IOM Today.

The Manx Government are also to continue talks with the island's sole operator, the Isle of Man Steam Packet over a new sea services deal.

But following a raft of amendments, and amendments of amendments, the near-four hour debate ended in farce as it became clear that the court was not sure what it had voted for.

New Tynwald president Steve Rodan remarked: ‘You can look up in Hansard what we have just voted on if you are unclear!’

During the debate, the Steam Packet was criticised for its ‘threats and blackmail tactics’ and its motive in pursuing an early deal questioned, with a number of MHKs claiming a distressed fund manager called Anchorage which has a 31 per cent shareholding was just after making a quick profit.

There was no such questioning of the role of the Peel Group from whom a 236-year lease on Princes Half Tide Dock is to be purchased for a new ferry terminal for a price of up to £3.5m.

Indeed all Tynwald members appeared to support the move to buy the site despite no clear explanation being given as to why the taxpayer is to get involved at all, given that Peel had originally indicated it would fund the facility in its entirety – if it could get a guarantee of long-term commitment to the route.

Infrastructure Minister Phil Gawne said it was ‘an opportunity we would not want to miss’. He said any agreement to buy the site would provide for it to be returned to the owner at no cost to government if the development didn’t subsequently go ahead.

Leonard Singer (Ramsey) said the purchase of the site would mean we would control both ends of the route.

There will be an open tender for the design and build contract for the ferry terminal, the £25m cost funded by the developer. The DoI report says no work would begin ‘until a suitable agreement has been reached for its long-term use by IOMSPCo’.

Of course a lot of those voting would have standing down at the election later in the year (or had already decamped to LegCo) and others were helped on their way out by the voters.  Only Cannan, Thomas and Watterson, plus Henderson and Skelly are still around.  Full debate is here is you want to depress yourselves.

Reading this just illustrates the footing on which all this began ! I see that drawling bastard Gawne was deeply entrenched !

2 hours ago, The Voice of Reason said:

Well so you say, but have you any evidence or is it just part of your anti establishment stance?

I am not saying you are  wrong but your “ it never gained wheels because one party had dirt on the other” needs a bit more substance behind it if you are to be taken seriously.

I don't give a toss whether you take it seriously or not, sometimes people are very close to the parties involved and don't wish to fill out their assertions. What I will say is a person close to one of the parties in that sorry saga said to me that one of the people involved had too much shade on parties in Government that an outcome largely passing over the matter would occur ! and it did !

Could this be the power station all over again, where nothing happened because of what one party knew about the other !

22 minutes ago, A fool and his money..... said:

Yes you can. There would be a clause in his contract to account for gross misconduct. If wasting tens of millions of public money on an extremely poorly thought out and implemented project isn't gross misconduct then I don't know what is.

We simply should not be paying to keep this prick in the lap of luxury for the rest of his life!

I think we need to know who drove the Liverpool centre at all costs scenario ! That would be interesting, I doubt that was one man !

4 hours ago, Happier diner said:

I am not making excuses. COVID is a reason for the cost going up. Fact. It's not the main reason though and I haven't said that have I?

All I am saying is that there is no one to sack for this. Black was responsible, he's gone. You can't take his pension away. Government is ultimately accountable. But you can't sack them.

So what's the point on folks keep saying someone should be sacked? 

You are correct in the difficulties of that I agree, however the taxpayers do need, going forward, some sanctions for the future instead of the constant "lessons have been learned", the only people learning the lessons appear to me to be the taxpayers and of course in respect of the SPCO those same people in the guise of users !

For the past thirty years all we have heard is lessons will be learned, no one person to blame, oh and we are where we are  etc etc etc ! Unless this is addressed we are going nowhere except back to spuds and herrings !

19 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

It definitely isn't. That's what I am trying to say. The mistakes are fundamental. Not by some DOI engineer sat at desk at the sea terminal.

The mistakes are right from the outset and then with the pre investigation and the scope. Then the error with the sea wall not being up to the scour of the boat. Further compounded by COVID.

There may have been some minor errors along the way but such things do not cause escalation of cost to this degree. 

The taxpayers purse strings are held by Government so any blame starts and ends there ! COVID and Brexit are the go to excuses for any manner of poor performance by Governments and companies alike, and at some time, as time goes by become less and less convincing.

The bottom line is the taxpayers could not afford 100 million to get to Liverpool, and our elected should have pulled the plug long before it got anywhere near that figure. I don't do excuses, and for an investment of what, 300 million, the performance of our ferry company is pitiful ! Reflective really of Government.

There is every chance that in effect this project was another ego driven project where a few individuals had to have a 'prestige' presence on Merseyside. Without doubt the TT and shopping trips to Liverpool One aren't going to finance the project ! I would love to know how a relevant business case for what I believe was 3.5 m many moons ago, now manages to still be relevant at 100m !

The Steam Packet has turned into  a Brian Rix farce !

8 hours ago, Thomas Dalby said:

Or even better, you could write down how you would govern the Isle of Man in a manifesto, give up the internet alias and see how many people vote for it. Scary thought isn’t it?

Sadly, that's what they all do, until they get elected, then they do what the civil service mandarins tell them to do !

As soon as Government became involved it was always going to go to hell !

I can't think of one thing Governments become involved in, which becomes more efficient and cheaper for consumers.