RYDE’S SCRAPPING DEADLINE LOOMS
PRESERVATIONISTS have perhaps a year to rescue Isle of Wight paddle steamer PS Ryde before it is broken up for scrap.
Beached on the banks of the River Medina at Island Harbour Marina, just two miles from the Isle of Wight Steam Railway’s Wootton terminus, the 1937-built Southern Railway vessel must be removed owing to redevelopment. When planning permission for the development including new apartments and leisure facilities - was approved by Isle of Wight Council in 2008, removal of the derelict wreck was one of its conditions. Island Harbour Ltd - the new owners of the site, who took over after the previous firm went into receivership - applied to the council for a three-year extension to the deadline, in the hope that Ryde could be saved. But this stay of execution will run out in November this year - three years after work began on the development in November 2014 - and although Darren Cooke, the manager of the marina, could not confirm an exact deadline, he said that the ship is expected to be removed “within the next year” before the development is completed at Easter 2018. Options for preservation were explored, he added, but proved prohibitively expensive: “Our favoured proposal was to restore it on a concrete base as a conference centre, café and museum - but even that would have cost £5 million, and without grants we couldn’t fund it ourselves.” The last hope for the vessel lies with the Paddle Steamer Ryde Trust, set up in 2010 when initial scrapping work took place (SR377), and which is still prepared to make a rescue bid - if funds can be found. Chairman David Edwards said: “We would still very much like to save it, and a home has been offered if we can find the costs of moving it - although it would have to be broken into sections.” He contends that full restoration is not an impossibility, citing the example of Medway Queen - another paddle steamer that had its hull completely rebuilt between 2009 and 2013 in a £1.9m Heritage Lottery-funded project. However, an inspection in 2010 concluded that to make Ryde seaworthy again could cost £7m (SR377/378) - and since then, its condition has deteriorated further, with the bridge having collapsed in the last six months. Famous for taking part in the D-Day landings in 1944, Ryde sailed for the last time on September 21 1969. It was moved to the marina for use as a nightclub, but has been abandoned since the late 1980s. Mr Cooke said: “We would still be open to anyone trying to save her - but she’s in a poor state now.”