The chair of an Isle of Wight parish council has demanded answers following reports of significant delays and ‘absolute carnage’ on a diversion route today (Monday).
Northwood Parish Council’s (NPC) Councillor Steph Burgess Flux said residents ‘deserve some transparency” over who is responsible for ensuing ‘traffic chaos’, after a one-way system between Newport and Cowes took effect today.
Due to junction improvement works, Horsebridge Hill is now one-way until 4th July.
The roadworks form part of the construction of the Island’s largest affordable housing development in a decade: Captiva Homes and Sovereign Network Group are building 131 houses and 72 flats on a greenfield site at Acorn Farm.
Traffic is being diverted via Forest Road, Whitehouse Road, Rolls Hill and Pallance Road. There have been reports of significant delays, ‘absolute carnage’ on the diversion, ‘bumper to bumper’ traffic on Forest Road and a standstill on Pallance Road.
Councillor Flux said:
“I think the general public deserve some transparency over whose fault this chaos is.
“The Isle of Wight Council and Island Roads seem to be blaming each other. In the meantime, the lack of consultation and rushing through a ‘plan’ has led to misery for many.
Article continues below this advertisement “NPC’s main concern was safety of residents on Pallance Road.
“Why wasn’t there any consultation and what is going to be done to try to ease the situation and allay residents and road users’ concerns?”
Following a meeting last Tuesday, NPC sent an email with ‘concerns, questions and suggestions’ to council leader Phil Jordan.
A total of 8 suggestions given included a ‘one-way system uphill on Pallance Road’, a 20mph speed restriction along the length of Pallance Road, temporary speed bumps and police enforcement.
Emailing back, Councillor Jordan said:
“I have asked for relevant stakeholders to provide answers to these questions, along with others I and other councillors have posed.
“The works on Horsebridge Hill are third party works, not council works, and the Traffic Management Plan is approved and implemented by Island Roads. The council has not been directly involved in the roadworks which are contracted out to a third-party contractor via the developer of the site.
“Other councillors and I have continued to ask for changes to the Traffic Management Plan, some of which have been adopted, and others under consideration.
“I have not been involved in the traffic plans nor any of the works plan until a single meeting just over 10 days ago.”
Councillor Jordan added that along with councillors, he had asked the council to ‘assist with getting information out’. County Hall has been approached for comment.
hour longer delays crashes pollution..who allowed this..
who runs the island the council or useless shite island roads..
Why build an estate there! Newport is so over developed.
When that estate opens which I understand will be 130 homes.
if each home has two vehicles you will have around 260 vehicles trying to get in and out of there onto an already congested road.
It appears there will be only one way in and out!
HOW on earth could someone with the power to have refused such a development let this go ahead.
Build on the West Wight if you must NEWPORT IS FULL!!
The island should be part of Disney
The island is run by Mickey Mouse and that is why the island is
Donald Ducked!!
Like many other road closures on the Island, why aren’t some of the works undertaken at night? Small time pain for long term gain. Maybe the stakeholders don’t want to pay for night workers, and only worried about profit, instead of getting the job done quickly!
It wasn’t actually carnage though was it? I think there was a lot of hype and many people would like it to have been chaos, in reality it was actually completely manageable. I live in Newport, work in Cowes and had to come back and forth for appointments yesterday and there was a slight delay on Forest Road but it was absolutely fine. Stop making drama!
yesterday, @ ~ 8:30 am, I sat for maybe 10 minutes in statioary traffic on the north-bound dual carriageway, & then took maybe another half-hour to get to the junction of Whitehouse road…… so yeah, it was pretty bad..
Today, however, same time,.. hardly any traffic (lesss than usual)
It think it’s like the festival, (one-way) traffic arangement…
First day is carnage,
Next day & following days,.. no worse than normal
So yeah, it’s a pain in the ar$e to have to go all the way round, but as Horsebridge hill is often bad anyway,.. it’s not that much worse than normal..