Residents of Heathfield Road in Bembridge have raised concerns after receiving a letter from the Council stating that waste collections could be stopped over health and safety fears – but it’s said the letter is factually incorrect.
The Isle of Wight Council and Amey wrote to residents of 29 streets recently stating that to enable the continued collection of waste and recycling, repairs must be made to the surface of the road, as previously reported by Island Echo.
One of the residents, who has been in touch with the council, has told Island Echo:
“It appears that Amey and the Isle of Wight Council have been aware of the ‘health and safety issue’ and have been monitoring this issue for over 2 years. Why wasn’t the issue raised until now and why is it considered that now is the appropriate time to issue concerns?”.
It has been suggested by concerned locals that the Council should release details of the waste contract and explain the basis on which it believes Amey’s ‘threats’ to remove the services are justified.
Another concerned resident has said:
“A significant number of the residents in the area are elderly, infirm, sick, or shielding as a result of COVID, meaning that they are already under a considerable amount of emotional and financial strain. The letter stating that residents have 28 working days to remedy the situation increases the pressure on these individuals and poses serious questions about the professional judgment and expertise of the individual that sanctioned the issue of this letter”.
The letter raises the prospect that vulnerable people will have to move their bins to an as-yet-undisclosed location, which is being deemed thoughtless and provokes more health and safety concerns for those individuals.
A different resident has told Island Echo:
“The [council’s] letter is terse, bureaucratic, factually incorrect, short on detail and intimidating.
“It has alarmed a significant number of the elderly residents who comprise the majority of the occupiers in this network of roads and has caused needless and unnecessary distress. The timing is particularly thoughtless as winter approaches and the country struggles to deal with the effects of the crisis posed by Covid”.
A spokesperson from the Isle of Wight council previously said:
“We recently wrote to residents and asked them to fix their roads within 28 working days, and following feedback from residents and ward councillors we are now also willing to agree a plan of repairs. This means that residents have 28 working days to either repair the road or agree with us a plan of repairs.
“As a last resort, and if we are unable to agree a safe way to continue collecting waste in a certain road we could ask residents to use temporary collection points further down the road. We are still working with residents, ward members and local town and parish councillors to resolve these safety issues.
“In any of these circumstances, anybody with an Assisted Collection will be unaffected, and will continue to have their waste collected from the agreed point on their property. Anybody affected who wants to talk with us or have a meeting to look at the site has been given contact details so we can arrange a meeting or site visit.”
Thats it Amey/IWC – do your very best to avoid your responsibilities, do as little as possible, and put the onus on everybody else- but increase the costs to us. Priceless.
Whilst I cannot agree with the apparent short notice given I have to say I can see why Amey might have concerns.
One look on Google Street View shows that the term “road” is a very charitable description for what is basically a gravel covered cart track with more than its fair share of of potholes.
A month is reasonable enough time to prove they have funds and have at least ‘booked’ a contractor or arranged themselves to do this easy work, which if shown to the legal dept at Amy would suffice.
Any decent digger driver could scrape the top and fill in the large holes within a couple of days costing little or a few pounds in materials.
The Bembridge residents being of a sort, just object to being told to do, what they ought and are legally responsible for. Hence the ‘time, the cost, the old the frail’ are used to try to gain sympathy but fails miserably to do so, and they cannot ‘prove a point’ as ‘they’ are in the wrong, and know it.
This road scatters gravel, slurry and soil onto Steyne Road, risking skidding accidents for cycles and motorcycles every time it rains.
So these selfish householders who expect others to risk harm and damage, just to save ever more money, need someone like Amey to kick them into action, or see them drag their lobster, champagne, old Financial Times discarded newspapers and caviar waste half a mile to a road which council tax payers have paid their way to maintain.
These people on private roads have less charge for waster water and council tax, but clearly wish to have their cake and eat it to, whilst watching others risk physical harm to themselves and damage to their vans, lorries and of course the dust cart and crew, being the only trades people large enough to stand up and speak out to these thoughtless at best householders.
Don’t back down Amey, the rest of us in Bembridge agrees on the whole with you.
Heathfield Road doesn’t adjoin Steyne Road 2 late. If you knew residents there you would know they are not in the lobster and champagne league. Heathfield Road residents also pay council tax which helps all Island roads to be maintained and services put in place.
Whilst Heathfield doesn’t its water run off runs onto two other dirt tracks which do, hence adding to the debris after heavy rains.
Those who own homes in any private road knows their duties when buying and whilst some are not as wealthy as others, or are less obvious with such, they if cannot afford to meet their obligations should sell up and move to a home they can afford to maintain properly.
That or pay some common person to drag their bins back and forth once a week.
I think you’ll find that we pay full council tax, and it may be in your best interest to know of the matters you speak of, before sticking one’s big nose in
If ‘one’ can’t afford the council tax on an expensive property AND find a couple of hundred every few years for safe, decent roads, then perhaps ‘one’ should either move, or place a charity donation box on each road, as a kind of ‘Toll donation’ to pay for the road to be made safe.
None of the residents own the road, so we are not liable for the condition it is kept it, a few residents have taken it upon themselves to manage the road outside their house, but what the council has proposed is that we pay for the road to be brought to the same standard as roads surrounding, which costs thousands and within a 1 month time frame? It’s almost comical. And you must have a very narrow field of vision if you do not see that not the entirety of Bembridge is rich and own lavish houses. Much of the area is made up of the elderly, who have lived on the road for many a moon, and working families who’ve come for the beauty of the area and its charm, not to be attacked and set upon by insufferable troglodytes like yourself, who lack compassion and make assumptions way off the mark. Remember ‘to assume does make an ass out of you and me.’
Amey took on the contract, they should have been aware of all circumstances involved in the operation of said contract. If they’ve suddenly decided some roads are “not safe “to service, the person who signed the contract to agree the council’s demands has basically made the wrong decision!
Unlike the real Plato your contribution to learning is wanting. Heathfield Road in question is not a civic property, it is a weird anomaly. Although The Queen’s Highway, as anyone may use it, it is, in fact, partly owned and ‘managed’ by a committee of wannabe residents, half of which do not reside there. To use an American phrase, ‘Go figure!’ Bin men work all early hours, have good wages, but a shite pension and serve your community well. I am so sorry you feel the need to complain about them and try to make their job harder…. ‘Like to see you do it for a week.,mate.
Anybody with assisted collections will not be affected.
So, the allegedly dangerous road surface is alright for some collections then!?
NO, not at all correct. Amey have to send men to WALK in all weathers to collect the bins from the handicapped, and take them all the way back as the dust cart which will then have to be parked on the nearest, safe road. This costs time, which is money, that WE other council tax payers then have to fund because of others scrimping.
Perhaps it is time for the very infirm to consider Silver Sands or other more fitting residential assisted housing if life is unable to carry on easily now for them which I do fully understand is hard or impossible.
That or pay out some of their savings or disability money and have the road fixed to a decent modern day standard. For who knows, these disabled or sick people may need an ambulance one day, and the journey up this road could cause them much damage to a frail body being rocked from side to side on such awful roads.
Doubt the Air Ambulance would be able to land their either due to lack of space and with the dusty dirt track would create a sandstorm in the dryer Summer months.
This road, and Mitten road and others in this area are a disgrace. These people know when they bought their homes that ‘they’ are responsible for their own road repairs, yet are happy to enjoy lower Council taxes because of this, but won’t spend anything on road repair.
Why should the dustbin men risk their life, or have a slipped disc and damage to their vehicles which WE will have to pay for, just because someone mean won’t pay for basic street repairs. No one ‘expects’ a billiard table flat finish, but these people have allowed this ‘road’ to become worse than a third world township.
The scruffy sign, huge craters filled with earth, rubble, tiles, brick and anything ‘free’ lets the whole of Bembridge down. One has had a skip in their garden for years now, brimming with household junk.
Perhaps if these residents are so poor they should sell up and move to areas where they ‘can’ afford to live and then be able to live a more slovenly lifestyle with people of that ilk, which, in other towns would be easily found.
Well for your information we don’t get lower council tax,we pay the same as residents in Swains rd(a made up road with lights ,and people to sweep the roads etc.I do agree that people should fill in holes outside of their properties but maybe some of these are holiday homes?
I presume that the residents of Queens Rd, Manor Rd, Mitten Rd & Preston Rd (all neighbouring roads) have all received the same letter, as all the aforementioned roads are in a similar condition & have been for many decades – & a long time before Amy took up the contract. Stop being a load of fairies hiding behind Health & Safety gone mad & do what you’re paid to do & empty the bloody bins!
You are the mistaken one here. Amey had a dustcart have an accident on a similar private unmade and ill kept road on the mainland which killed some of the workers.
So, far from being fairies, which I doubt you would call them to their face, these guys pick up your filth, dogs mess, babies nappies, and other disgusting material from you, risking wasp stings, flies and germs and now CV from YOUR infected materials, but NOT enough for you. YOU now expect them to risk harm, WHY ? Because of a tight bunch of penny pinchers. THAT is the truth of the matter, it is NOT the workers fault.
I doubt YOU ever did IF in work more than you were justifiably paid to risk in that job unless an idiot, which, could well be the case.
Think of others, not just your savings isa.
Amy staff have died on private roads on the mainland because of lack of maintenance. YOU would be first to ‘sue’ IF a part of a dustcart fell on you because ‘they’ never maintained their cart. They keep to health and safety rules, so should the tight fisted residents get their PRIVATE road repaired, so THINK and try calling them a fairy to their faces.
Get the residents to do what they should ‘pay to do’ and fix their appalling, dangerous, unsightly dirt track.
Sauce for the Goose, is sauce for the Gander, how do YOU like them apples?
I particularly like the language you are using. Very angry and forceful. Tight fisted, Fairy. As for those apples you speak of. Oh you beast
Bembridge has many, many unmade roads. Householders are not responsible for making up roads outside their homes. These roads are owned by old Bembridge families who have let them fall into disrepair to the detriment of residents. Many of those living in these particular roads when purchasing homes over the last few years have been advised by solicitors to take out an indemnity. Heathfield Road is by no means the worst road in the area. Look at the top of Dennett Road when it enters Manna Road, look at Queens Road, Preston Road, Mitten Road, Ducie Avenue, Swains Lane at the Swains Road junction and half way down Swains Lane. Station Road. One could go on. But let’s ask the one question no-one appears to have asked, when this contract was signed by the IWC with Amey what due diligence was done in respect of unmade roads throughout the Island? What steps did the IWC take to protect Islanders across the whole Island who live on unmade, unadopted roads and who pay council tax. And to the contributor who seemed to believe that unmade roads affect the level of council tax paid they are wrong. In a great many cases residents are paying more than those on made up roads with no street cleaning, lighting etc.
The reason some are paying more, than those with tar mac swept (rarely) roads, is because the houses they live in are worth far far more.
Why is this? Because many of those living cheek to jawl, in small semi detached homes, with gardens only large enough for ‘the’ wheelie bin don’t have the wealth others have.
Yet they suffer noise, fast traffic, vandals, rubbish, and live in small houses, small gardens, so, stop moaning, pay up to fix the road, OR move to the urban jungle and SEE where you, if ever, are happier.
STILL there? Thought so, now pay up.
About time these grubby little backwaters were improved to a more sanitary condition in the 21c. With no road drains installed or these houses and shack, no main sewer either, the surface water, and gardens of the houses run dirty water onto their dirt track until it reaches the tarmac highways and fills the drains with stone and other filth, doggy waste bags etc washed into and thus blocking them.
Pot holes which when filled look like village duck ponds hide the true depth and can ruin vehicles coming along these dirt tracks.
Let them drag their wheelie bins down to the main road, and after a month or two the ‘cash’ would suddenly be found to fund the road repairs, that I am certain of, and perhaps they would have a new respect for Amy and leave better tips this Christmas as well for those doing a vile job in dangerous times.
You imply a disrespect from the residents to Amey workers that is entirely in your own head. As for dragging wheelybins down the road I am sure the residents of Steyne road (apparently the nearest ‘safe’road)will be thrilled with 40 extra bins on the already narrowed by parking, busy, main route into Bembridge every Monday morning. BTW I am assured that no amount t of wheelybin-dragging makes money appear from nowhere or I think the IW council would have teams of people doing so !
The extra time it takes for Amey workers to collect bins and then have to walk such to a decent road for the disabled will cost money.
Sure, there are a few pot holes in Heathfield Road, but it is hardly a third world jungle track. I am sure a big refuse truck could proceed along it without being upended or falling into a 500 foot ravine. The council have been paid to collect the waste, so collect it!
And the households who OWN the road are contracted to keep such in a decent state of repair, so repair it!
In this case they don’t OWN the road that’s the point, but let’s not let the facts get in the way eh?
Manna road has the OWNER live at the far end of that road. The residents who ARE decent club together and pay to repair this road every so oft when it needs it.
That owner is supposed to collect funds from all to pay for the upkeep, but, as usual, only ‘some’ wish to pay or help.
So all these roads ARE privately owned, some by an individual others by each household which owns the area in front of their own home.
Let THAT fact get in your way chum; Eh?
Fact remains that this particular road is not owned by the residents so the abuse to them in this thread is unwarranted. Appears the ‘be kind’ message does not extend to Bembridge, eh chum?
Ted Lacy the residents don’t own the road, it is a local family that do. The Island Council have it in their powers to repair the road and charge the road owner for these repairs – that is not the residents. Oh and while we are at it I understand that residents of Red Road, Wootton also have had the same letter.
Manna road is owned by an individual as stated above, Mitten road the households are responsible for it’s upkeep, and similar for the others.
Stick your enormous hooter out what don’t concern you. You have an axe to grind, obviously. Make yourself useful and tidy your bedroom.
Blame everyone else but not yourselves. It’s only right they refuse to take the trucks up heathfield Rd it’s a death trap. And a privet Rd why leave it to get so bad if they actually maintained their road they wouldn’t be receiving such letters the road has been in complete disrepair for well over 10 years COVID has been 9 months! So poor excuse
£475,000 for a house in Heathfield Road in Bembridge. Tell me, again, exactly how much financial strain they are all under…. If you can’t operate as a responsible citizen and move your bins to where the poor sods who collect your rubbish find it best, then you should probably move into a care home and sell your house to a local family. Oh, hang on it’ll go to your ungrateful city-dwelling children who palm it off for a fortune under Hose, Rhodes, and Dixon’s Entitled Superior Being Right to Buy Scheme.
Touched a few raw nerves there m’lady. The old adage says, ‘The truth hurts’, and, as we know the rich always plead poverty.
If ‘struggling’ the they could always sell up and buy a house at P enny F eathers when built and still have hundreds of thou in the bank? NO; I thought not.
Happy to see others having to endure such though, whilst they whinge over a couple of hundred pounds each to meet their responsibility and ensure safe passage for ambulances, fire engines, and the no less needed dust cart.
Don’t give in Amy. YOU hold the upper hand, and they don’t like it.
Perhaps an influential resident could gain the support of a celebrity football player for their plight.
Instead of forcing the public into paying for your responsibility as one of these chaps have managed to do with school lunches for the growing number of irresponsible parents we now import, they could have, instead, a donate some rubble appeal and fill the holes themselves.
A disgrace to our village as it is, and putting us in the news for all the wrong reasons. Pay your way residents as we all have to.
People like you Ted Lacey are really bitter and twisted me thinks. Contankerous too. I would imagine that you have nothing good to say about anyone. You like being mean and I suspect you suffer for not being loved.
Poor you
The picture sums up the Island in a nutshell really. A decaying sh1thole.
Isn’t there a bowling green up Mitten road where non locals use the road?Also isn’t there a scout hall where people turn and make big potholes in the road outside peoples property? Yes it would be nice for them to fill in the holes so more people can use these facilities without getting their cars ruined,but perhaps these people are a bit fed up with it? Or maybe they shouldn’t of brought a house on such a road near these buildings. Anyway isn’t it the dust cart causing the giant pot holes as well? Can’t they use a smaller one as they have become larger than they used to be.I don’t like the way some people are so snobby about these roads,there quite,you can walk up them without getting run over and probably safer than living on a Made up road,in which there are plenty of made up roads with potholes and rubbish everywhere,in which the council has workers come along and pick up people’s rubbish off of the road!
There’s are a few tight residents in Shanklin who are too tight to do anything about the state of the unmade roads outside their properties.
Some residents think it’s ok to chuck bricks and the contents of their skips in the potholes.
Look at the state of Beatrice Avenue and Culver Road.
Lady Popham completely ignores her responsibilities as well as the landowner.
Let us hope that the owner of the house in Heathfield road doesn’t put the content of his skip, which has been there years now, into the potholes, for it’s contents would likely fill the Grand Canyon.
I have seen mud bits of turf used by some, to fill in holes.
This is a much needed wake up call for complacent lazy, and mean private road home owners. They are lucky that young motor cycle riders or drivers don’t use such, as they can without holding a licence to roar up and down on…..Yet.
2 late you seem to be keeping a very close eye on Heathfield road and it’s residents. What is your problem with a resident having a skip on their own drive? All a bit odd really.
We lived in Heathfield Road for 22 years in the 80s till 2004 we all maintained the area in front of our house to the middle of the road we tried a digger to level the potholes and once had 9 tons of ashfelt chippings but after a few months it was just as bad the road is privately owned by the preston family I believe, and we had to take out an indemnity insurance when we left to cover access to the property for future owners.
Well, now with owners, or their long suffering gardener ‘chappy’ having to drag their bins, and stale food, lobster shells and all, a half a mile away each Monday, these homes will be the ONLY houses to be lower in value in Bembridge, unless the owners give in and spend what is likely down the back of the ‘chaise’
Well if you like you can earn yourself a pound each way moving bins on a Monday cos that’s Chappy’s day orfff what what.
See? Being silly gets you no where. Don’t think it’s ever been about “giving in”I think it’s about 28 days to make up the road being a bit mad.
I do know people who live in this particular corner of Bembridge tho definitely not the lobster and London set of your dreams 2 late.