It’s that time of year again as the Island prepares to welcome thousands to the Isle of Wight Festival. The Isle of Wight Council, Island Roads and Hampshire Constabulary are once again working closely with the organisers of this year’s festival to ensure traffic flows smoothly and disruption is kept to a minimum.
The council and partner agencies have approved the traffic management plans submitted by the event organisers, covering areas such as event car parks, separating Red Funnel and Wightlink traffic and measures to ensure close co-ordination between partners. The plan is designed to ensure disruption to local traffic is kept to a minimum, although some delays are inevitable with the increased levels of traffic on the roads.
The main route for festival traffic from the Red Funnel terminal at East Cowes will be up York Avenue and along Whippingham Road where it will turn right onto East Cowes Road and into the festival car park. Festival-bound vehicles travelling from the Wightlink terminal at Fishbourne will be directed to the right on to Kite Hill, through Wootton, down Lushington Hill and right at the Racecourse roundabout and then left onto East Cowes Road and into the festival car park. For 2017 there is only 1 car park, not 2 separate car parks.
If any of the entrances to the car parks are temporarily blocked, or an incident occurs on any of the roads being used by festival traffic, there are a number of diversion options where festival traffic can be temporarily ‘stacked’ away from the main roads and released into the network once the problem has been resolved.
The council are reminding people that the one way system along Fairlee Road, Newport will be put in place from lunchtime on Wednesday 7th June. All outbound traffic from Newport will be directed up Staplers Road.
Councillor Ian Ward, cabinet member for infrastructure and transport, said:
“In order to make sure that year’s festival is another success, the council has been working closely in partnerships with the event organisers and our partner organisations. Thanks to the hard work involved in ensuring the event runs smoothly, I hope there will be the minimum amount of disruption to residents.
“Newport will be open for business as usual for the duration of the festival, and I would strongly encourage members of the public and visitors alike, to continue to support local shops and other businesses during the event.”
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The Isle of Wight Council is asking that Island residents plan their routes carefully to avoid the designated festival traffic routes on the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday of the event – when traffic volumes will be their highest.
The first day of the festival, Thursday 8th June, is also the day of the General Election and all polling stations will be open as usual from 07:00 to 22:00. All residents (including those who use the polling station at Summerfield’s Primary School) will be able to access their polling station as set out on their poll card.
