£5,000 in compensation is to be paid by the Isle of Wight Council to a family from Undercliff Drive following an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO).
The unnamed family lodged a formal complaint with the LGO regarding the way in which the Isle of Wight Council dealt with the evacuation of the area back in February 2014. The family said that the situation, which resulted in the Army evacuating residents, had caused ‘significant disruption, financial loss and stress’.
Following a thorough investigation, the LGO has now sided with the family and has criticised the Council stating it fell below the acceptable standards in delivering a timely and suitable solution to the road failure and in supporting householders.
As well as paying £5,000 in compensation it has also been recommended that the Isle of Wight Council pay reasonable costs to the family to allow them to reinstate their home into a habitable condition.
Leader of the Isle of Wight Council, Councillor Dave Stewart has said:
“These failures happened under the previous Independent administration of the council and make for grim reading.
“While I fully understand the council then had a very difficult problem to deal with, it is clear it fell below the accepted standards and leadership when dealing with this one family and other householders when the landslip took place.
“This has been a traumatic few years for many who live on or near Undercliff Drive. Whoever runs the council from next month needs to get a grip of the problems there and the Island Conservatives have already pumped money into research to find a solution and get the road open.
Article continues below this advertisement “I have worked hard to ensure we have a future plan for the Undercliff, but there is also a need to review what happened with the past management of the work which has cost Island Taxpayers a lot of money and, more importantly, had a detrimental effect on local residents. We must ensure this does not happen again”.
