Following a recent visit to Medina Court in Newport, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for the Isle of Wight, Bob Seely, has given his support to long suffering residents who have declared nearby Mill Street ‘unsafe’.
Residents have frequently complained about near misses due to speeding vehicles and the development manager of Medina Court has now written to local councillor Julie Jones-Evans to officially complain on behalf of McCarthy and Stone.
2 resident surveys have been carried out showing a sharp increase in vehicle movements on the ‘rat run’ route, which many motorists are using to avoid the congested Coppins Bridge and South Street. According to the Isle of Wight Council 240 vehicle movements per hour is considered safe, however the surveys have identified 275 vehicle movements in an hour.
Campaigner and Parish Councillor, Steve Hastings said:
“The Council has told us that up to 240 vehicles per hour is considered safe so given the numbers that have been counted at 275 in an hour surely this means that the road is unsafe and should either receive a crossing or should be shut down at busy times for health and safety reasons as there is a clear risk of injury or death on this road. I think the Council has a responsibility here for the safety of vulnerable people”.
“The Development Manager of Medina Court has written to Cllr Julie Jones-Evans to officially complain on behalf of McCarthy and Stone as a potential sale appears to have been lost due to the lack of safety on Mill Street so this issue is now costing commercially the company that had to pay a levy to build the development in the first place.
“The Section 106 money has been put into a pot for the wider area according to Cllr Jones-Evans, but surely some of this should be spent on the immediate area for infrastructure”.
Bob Seely has said:
“It is clear that the current situation cannot continue. I applaud the residents of undertaking their own traffic count, showing that the usage of Mill Street has reached unsafe levels.
“Cllr Hastings is right to take this up with the IW Council, and he has my full support. If elected on 8th June, I will be taking this up directly with the local authority as one of my first items of casework. This is a problem which isn’t going away and must be tackled.”
