A consultation on the future of Undercliff Drive has come out in favour of re-opening the road to through traffic.
The council carried out a 6-week consultation over the summer seeking the views of residents, businesses and visitors on possible plans to re-open the road, which suffered significant landslips in 2014.
Around 770 surveys were completed either online or in hard copy form with 58% of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing to the reinstatement of the road to vehicular traffic. This compared to 40% of people who strongly disagreed or disagreed with the reinstatement proposals. The remainder neither agreed nor disagreed.
Almost two thirds (63%) of people who gave a PO38 Ventnor postcode – the area in which the Undercliff is located — either agreed or strongly agreed with the proposal. However, the views of the rest of the Island were less clear with 47% of respondents either agreeing or strongly agreeing with the proposal and an almost identical proportion, 46%, disagreeing or strongly disagreeing.
The full findings can be viewed here.
Councillor Ian Ward, Cabinet member for infrastructure, said:
“The Undercliff is a complex issue that doesn’t lend itself to a quick solution.
“Following the outcome of this survey, we have asked officers to source possible funding for a range of investigative studies which we need before we can consider an appropriate way forward.
Article continues below this advertisement “However, in the meantime, I have asked officers to consider a potential package of road safety improvements for Niton to address the influx in traffic the village has experienced since the road closure.
“This includes measures Niton Parish Council discussed with me earlier in the year.”
Council leader, Councillor Dave Stewart, said:
“Firstly, can I thank everybody who took the time to complete the survey on this very important issue that not only impacts on Niton, but the whole Island.
“We fully appreciate that some local residents do have legitimate concerns of which we will be mindful.
“My view is it cannot be beyond our engineering capability to find a way to remedy a landslip of less than 100 metres.
“We have houses and businesses spread along the length of the Undercliff but the economic damage of the closure has spread well beyond these areas with businesses as far away as the West Wight also noticing a drop in trade and tourism following the closure.”
Undercliff Drive was affected by major ground movement during the very wet winter of 2013/14, which resulted in the Army being called in. The landslides led to the loss of the road at 2 locations, land-locking nine homes.
The main reasons given by those in favour of reinstating the road were improved accessibility, the benefit to tourism and businesses on the Island and the increase in traffic in other locations resulting from the closure. Those against the proposals cited the cost of the work, the risk of future landslips and the ecological impacts among their concerns.
The cost of producing a design to re-open the road to traffic is estimated to be around £200,000 and would involve topographic surveys, ground investigation boreholes, stability analysis and an environmental impact assessment.
Currently, the cost to reinstate the road is estimated to be between £1 million and £2 million, dependent on whether a scheme allows one or two-way traffic and if the new route was restricted to vehicles below a certain weight.
The council has acknowledged that ground movement will continue in the future and any investment in the area will need to take this into account.
Ventnor provides direct access to the West Wight for many tourists who would not otherwise take the convoluted route around the Undercliff closure. The charm of this accessway was what brought people back to the Island again, and again. Not to mention lost business at Niton and elsewhere.
With tourism spend at £286 million pounds per annum, what’s controversial about a £1-2 million pound spend on reinstating the road for light traffic?
The broken segment of road is small. One could throw a brick from one side to the other, easily. There is NOT a deep chasm the other side even if it were to slip more.
All it needs is a steel bridge laid along it’s length as they did in Victorian days for railway crossings over rivers etc.
That way, the land underneath can be monitored for movement and for the paranoid, it could be closed IF it moves again.
I KNOW the land ‘further’ than the damaged area is also unstable, yet cars still access property both sides of the narrow, short closed portion.
A steel bridge, laid upon the land bridging the gap, from the ‘thus far’ solid road surface would be cheap, could be moved should the land move again, and extended or re-laid IF necessary.
It could be made for single traffic to limit weight and land movement.
Yet as it is simple and cheap, with no chance as in large, expensive, lucrative projects of any backhanders, it will not happen.
God only knows how bridges over chasms hundreds of yards wide were built to take Army Tanks during the war under enemy fire, yet this lot cannot ‘bridge’ a few yards with modern tech equipment.
You do not need investigative studies. Drain the water and the land will stabilise.