THE Sandbanks Ferry remains out of action after an "hydraulic fluid leak" in December ground the service to a halt.

This came on only the second day of the ferry's return from annual maintenance work.

The firm who run the service, the Bournemouth-Swanage Motor Road and Ferry Company, have not been able to provide a date for when the crossing between Sandbanks and Studland will return.

Now 12 weeks have passed since the ferry last completed a full week in operation.

Here are seven events, facts and statistics which have occurred in this period:

  • Commuters travelling from Swanage to Poole five days a week have faced more than 1,600 extra miles on the road compared to if they had been able to use the ferry.
  • Almost one million people came to Bournemouth's Christmas Tree Wonderland between November 15 and January 2.
  • AFC Bournemouth have played 16 matches in three competitions, winning four, drawing one and losing 11. They also signed two players from Liverpool, Dominic Solanke for £17.5m and Nathaniel Clyne on loan.
  • President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, started and maintained a shutdown of the federal government, which has currently reached the 30-day mark.
  • Theresa May called a vote on her proposed Brexit deal, postponed it to obtain assurances, survived a no confidence vote from within the Conservative Party, rescheduled the Brexit deal vote for a month later, lost this vote by a margin of 230 but then survived a no confidence vote in her government the following day.
  • Around 150,000 babies have been born in England and Wales (conservative estimate based on the birth rate in 2017 released by the Office for National Statistics). Globally, there have been 29 million births (based on UNICEF estimates).
  • Gatwick Airport was brought to a standstill after drone sightings around the airfield and an O2 signal outage across the UK caused widespread disdain.

Read more on the past few months of the Sandbanks Ferry: