Windermere Councillor Ben Berry has suggested that the new Windermere Ferry Ticket machines should be dumped in the Lake. The new ticket machines have caused misery and annoyance to thousands of residents and visitors.
After being installed in late June and the machines have been the subject of hundreds of complaints and have caused reduced crossings due to delays. The machines are seen as overly complicated with customers having to navigate multiple menus with little instruction to simply purchase one ticket. Yesterday Cumbria County Council finally gave in to community pressure and said they would have a member of staff to operate the machines for customers for "the rest of the Summer".
Windermere Councillor Ben Berry said this wasn't a solution "This is classic Cumbria County Council: They hoped this failed digitisation exercise would make things easier and save wages but the opposite has happened with using the service now more complicated and with an increased cost to taxpayers. If the Leadership of the Council had any business sense, or common sense, we would have a customer focused solution that maximised the enjoyable use of this valuable highway crossing, instead we see politicians ducking and sticking their heads in the sand. These ticket machines should be thrown in the Lake and users should receive an apology for this complete mess."