A Ventnor councillor has written a damning letter to the leader of the Isle of Wight Council stating that the only thing standing in the way of reopening roads in the town is his own political will, or lack of it. Councillor Ed Blake has blasted the Alliance administration in a letter to Councillor Phil Jordan this week, in which Cllr Blake expresses his dismay at the current situation in Ventnor in respect of ground movement and road closures at Undercliff Drive, St Lawrence and Leeson Road. Cllr Blake – who represents Ventnor and St Lawrence – has urged the Council Leader, who also happens to be the Cabinet Member for Transport, to meet with Government representatives to seek substantial funding to secure routes in and out of Ventnor for the long term. In his letter, which has been shared with local media, Ed Blake said:
“I watched the meeting of Cabinet last week and have read your subsequent press article regarding the land movements in St Lawrence. Together with fellow residents of Ventnor and St Lawrence, I am deeply concerned. Despite being Leader of the Isle of Wight Council, you seem painfully relaxed about the critical situation in one of the Island’s main towns. “You say that Island Roads are monitoring the situation on Leeson Road (currently closed) but if you had turned up to the public meeting on the 29th February to listen to over 300 residents, you would have heard the boss of Island Roads confirm that the all the necessary monitoring equipment had not been installed nearly 3 months after the landslip on 10th December. Three Councillors spoke at that meeting but nobody from your ruling Alliance Group. “The only thing you seem to be saying with any certainty is that you will not contemplate the possible reopening of Undercliff Drive because there was another landslide nearby. Using your own logic, are you saying if Leeson Road becomes unstable you will also consign it to the history books as a road for vehicles because there was a nearby landslide? Just how far are you prepared to go with your policy of managed retreat? Shrugging your shoulders and giving up to nature is not an answer. “All four of the roads into Ventnor have been rediverted at various times; some of these historic falls are right next to the current carriageways. You cannot possibly be prepared to give up on them all. When I asked at Full Council on 28th February what contingency plan the Council has in place for Ventnor and its residents should further roads be closed you said there are no plans. That is a complete failure of leadership. “You say it is too risky to reopen Undercliff Drive. Please outline these risks. In 2014, the road could have been repaired to allow single lane of traffic for £1.6m. The cost-benefit was obvious then and I am confident that it still is. The only things standing in the way of any reopening of the existing roads is your own political will, or lack of it. “I urge you, as Leader of the Isle of Wight Council and Cabinet Member for Transport, to meet with Government representatives in person, to seek substantial funding to secure routes in and out of Ventnor for the long term. Please also meet with me and Ventnor residents and show us some leadership rather than leaving Council employees to step into your shoes”.
Well said,but remember he’s leader of IOW council , you don’t need Intelegence or common sense for this role, you are just a puppet to others. Wonder how much council tax is at stake if Ventnor resident’s withdraw paying until Council has a plan.Ocean View Road could close any moment due to landslip or not,but if did what would Council do then ?. All those millions spent on StMarys and Smallbrook that’s changed very little.
The council asked the government for money to change st marys roundabout they said no they asked for money to open undercliff drive they gave them the money then the council spent it on st mary roundabout this council or island roads do not care about ventnor or St Laurence you only have to look at the state of a roads to see that
Also know that Mr Blakes CLOSE family member runs the art shop at the Old Park complex, so have very ‘vested interests’ of keeping that particular route going for family income.
Not saying he doesn’t care, but we would all fight harder and encourage others to do so, if we too had our family hit in the wallet by such. Be nice if all was openly declared as people would then not feel any concern might be for personal, not public good.
I’m surprised to there was no mention of the fact that IWCC do not actually have the legal power to just abandon an A road to the elements.
Or, that their delays to this point might well be illegal and expose the island to significant compensation claims – not just from directly affected residents but also for businesses and others who have suffered knock-on impact and losses.
In short, the sooner this gets referred to the DfT for support and guidance the better. Even if that will mean an awkward explanation as to why it took them ten whole years to admit the blindingly obvious.
IW Council should charge Households permit parking fees
the revenue generated could be used to re-open such Roads.
It would pull in Millions of pounds.
This guy is another level of jackass
dave stewart said that the undercliff would re open under his watch,he lied
ed blake is another example of a bumbling finger pointing tory.
i know,lets plough millions into the undercliff,a few weeks after it opens and a bit of rain,and bingo!
its gone again,there was another slip a few weeks ago near there,ed blake obviously thinks he is a geologist.
you cannot predict mother nature,but this pilchard thinks he knows better.
Well he gets my vote.
By the thinking here, should we give up on Sandown and Shanklin seafronts?
Thought not.
Ventnor is a wonderful town with fantastic scenery and deserves to be properly serviced by transport, albeit these days by roads as a railway was deemed as not required.
I would say, it should be a public duty to maintain the transport infrastructure.
Remember, this moaning cash strapped Council wasted millions on the magic roundabout to do..well to do what? And more millions on St George’s Way for a reason that no-one seems to know?
Strange that money is available for vanity projects but not for Ventnor’s roads?
Putting up coastal defences behind a beach is expensive, but preventing a cliff from collapsing is another order of cost. As for money wasted on road projects, I would imagine most of that money came from central government. Moan at Jordan all you like (yes, I know it’s fun !) but the only hope is that Rishi/Keir have a sudden rush of generosity. Don’t hold your breath now.
Yeah but he fails to recognise equality and diversity targets are being met fully at county hall, pride month celebrations will be fully supported and rainbow flags plastered everywhere and of course hundreds of new road restrictions are being introduced to discourage and even prevent car use for islanders in order to meet net zero targets, not to mention millions obtained to build houses for Ukrainians and lots more housing estates sanctioned to meet demand from our growing population erm along with closure of schools due to our falling child population (a simple imports vs home production equation there)
Another moronic comment miles away from the topic just to try to have a pop at equality, LGBTQ, environment, Ukrainians, social housing, and a veiled suggesting that schools close because of immigrant children. At best, ignorant and uneducated, at worst nasty, disgusting, unwarranted, inhumane and wrong on so many levels. Worse still there was no point, except to attempt to incite hostility towards out-groups and those who support initiatives for protecting the world we all live in.
“Worse still there was no point, except to attempt to incite hostility towards out-groups and those who support initiatives for protecting the world we all live in”
What a vile fool you are, (at best).
So by allowing in endless, in the true sense of the word, ENDLESS newcomers, who do YOU think will have to pay for them all?
Do YOU not see that each one will take another piece of the UK to build a home on, and, as most have large families then for ever more each couple of decades will require even more land built over to house all of those too.
Do YOU assume they wont age, and add to the growing elderly.
Do YOU assume they won’t do as many Brits do, ONCE firmly established here, and just do a few hours work, and claim u/c
Another clueless Tory
So, what’s your solution to the problem of the landslips etc?
Driving into Ventnor through Wroxall is not pleasant. The road surface is shocking in many areas, and parked cars just make it painful. Gonna get worse this summer.
What’s the answer tho?