ONCE upon a time there was a ferry, which regularly crossed back and forth across Windermere. Then there was a change of management which decided that a new cable was needed.

Admirable you may say. It was replaced with a much lighter cable, which meant that the ferry could not travel in a light wind of which Windermere gets its fair share.

As a result the ferry was often out of commission. Something new for the ferry, which always ran, whatever the weather. Not a good situation but one

that stoic ferry users tried to cope with.

Then there was a new management at Cumbria County Council again and they decided on a new strategy. They installed highly technical machines for travellers to pay before they boarded the ferry.

Enough has been said about that fiasco. But, needless to say, CCC lost a lot of valuable income, just as it now doing.

One would have thought that in the middle of the tourist season all effort would have been made to get the fire damage quickly repaired and even a heavy weight cable to have been installed while the ferry was being made lake worthy.

It is well known that the ferry gathers a lot of money for CCC, which they can ill afford to lose.

Rose Holliday

Windermere

l Editor's note: The Westmorland Gazette contacted Cumbria County Council after receiving Rose Holliday's letter and here is a response from Stephen Hall, the council's Assistant Director for Highways and Transport:

After extensive assessments it has been concluded that Windermere Ferry requires a new engine and due to the specialist nature of this it could be up to October 2018 before normal service is resumed, although every effort will be made to bring the boat back into service sooner if at all possible.

This is a very unfortunate situation but the safety of our passengers must come first.

To put this in context this ferry has operated with very few interruptions over the years and just like any vehicle it is subject to the daily wear and tear of being constantly in use.

We have exhausted every option to provide a similar service but this news sadly means that over the summer period there will only be a passenger service as provided by Windermere Lake Cruises. As work is carried out we will do our best to keep people informed and hopefully we can get the ferry operational sooner, rather than later.