THE Christmas reopening of Poole's Twin Sails Bridge proved to be a short-lived affair, after further 'unrelated' problems forced its closure on Boxing Day.

Borough of Poole (BOP) engineers and specialist contractors have been working on the troubled crossing for several weeks.

While residents and businesses welcomed news it would be reopened for Christmas, albeit on a reduced lifting schedule with the repairs yet to be carried out, these hopes appeared dashed soon afterwards.

On Boxing Day the leaves were stuck in the halfway position, and the structure has been closed to all traffic since.

Yesterday, BOP strategic director for place, Kate Ryan, said: "Unfortunately the Twin Sails Bridge had to be closed on Boxing Day after it developed a fault in an electronic sensor on the Poole side. This is unrelated to the ongoing issue on the Hamworthy side.

"We have already identified the new fault and are currently liaising with subcontractors around their availability at this time of year to make the necessary repairs as soon as possible.

"We will have an update after the weekend.

"In the meantime we apologise for the inconvenience."

With regard to the main fault on the Hamworthy side, BOP say specialist engineers are due to visit at the end of January.

The main sticking point has been a way of finding a way to extract a half-tonne pin from the assembly, but officials hope a method has been found.

Once the pin has been removed, engineers will be able to identify the fault and develop a programme to carry out the appropriate repairs, the council says.

These latest setbacks come as residents face more uncertainty following the ongoing problems with the Sandbanks Ferry.

The ferry will be out of action until at least the New Year because of severe technical problems.

Firefighters were called to the vessel last week, just two days after it had recommenced regular crossings following seven weeks of maintenance work.

They attended the Sandbanks side of the harbour entrance after the ferry's fire alarms sounded, prompting an emergency evacuation.

The problem was later identified as a hydraulic leak, which generated steam and triggered the alarms.