At Monday’s meeting of Newport and Carisbrooke Parish Council (NCPC), councillors voted overwhelmingly that the impending St Mary’s Junction improvements be halted by the Isle of Wight Council.
Members were informed by the Parish Chair, Councillor Julie Jones-Evans, that the Parish Council have twice requested a briefing on the St Mary’s Junction improvements to be held at a formal meeting of NCPC, in public, to fully inform councillors, local representatives, businesses and local residents of the scheme. This request has each time been turned down. Instead, an offer of a private briefing by Island Roads has been made.
Given the scale of the infrastructure, length of time to implement and the impact on the local community, the parish council felt this was an inadequate response.
Councillor Matthew Price, Parish Vice Chairman, proposed the halt saying:
“I have no option but to request that members of NCPC support me in asking the IW Council to immediately halt the proposed junction works at St Mary’s. While this scheme of course has some merits and would provide extra capacity, it fails to provide relief to the constant congestion experienced throughout Newport.
“I represent residents on Staplers Road, Fairlee Road, lower Newport High Street and part of Coppins Bridge. Residents and commuters daily have to put up with unacceptable levels of congestion. It is my view that alternative traffic improvement schemes should be implemented first. An example being adding the proposed extra lane between the Matalan Roundabout and Coppins Bridge – a scheme that would offer an instant benefit and solve multiple problems while also providing some future capacity.
“It is also worth noting that St Mary’s being the largest planned scheme, would prevent any other scheme coming forward for at least the next two years”
He went on to say:
“I am asking my colleagues to vote, asking the IW Council not to proceed any further on the St Marys scheme, until other improvements have been completed. This will send a clear message, voicing our overwhelming opposition to this scheme”.
Chairman of NCPC, Councillor Julie Jones-Evans pointed out during the debate that the new St Mary’s junction layout is fundamentally different from the one consulted upon a year ago and should have been resubmitted for public scrutiny…
“It’s the wrong scheme, at the wrong time and is going to cause massive disruption in addressing a problem that ranks well below those seen around Coppins Bridge and St George’s Way. Businesses on the industrial estate and town will suffer for many months, not to mention local residents. I fully support Councillor Price’s proposal.”
Wait a minute……..did common sense just rear it’s ugly head in some council office somewhere?
I agree it’s the wrong scheme sort out coppins bridge 1st. I agree with extra lane coming out on to carriage way by currys going to ryde
I do not know of anyone with any positive comments about these “Improvements”. Stop this waste of money NOW!
At last some common sense and logic has appeared so maybe posting on this site and others is worth it after all!!
Improvements? The money would be best spent on the forgotten scheme of a road from the gyratory system at the top of Staplers round the back of Pan to the new Asda roundabout. That would relieve the bottle kneck at the bottom of Staplers and Coppins where a real problem exists.
A step in the right direction, but will it make any difference ?
Do you really believe that our overpaid councillors will actually Back down I think not unless we sack them.
I agree it should be halted. There is nothing wrong with at Mary’s roundabout why fix something that’s not broken. Improvements need to be done to coppins bridge if this idea is going to go ahead or there will be chaos and gridlocked most of the day. Best thing that could be done to coppins bridge and is a cheap fix for the council and partners is turn the traffic lights off at coppins bridge Barr the crossing and bing bang bosh no more traffic problems in Newport that simple.
Totally agree with the extra lane from matalan roundabout to coppins bridge! So frustrating when you want to get in the Ryde/sandown lane! Also – and my biggest bug bear! The lights on Snook hill down to coppins bridge – only allow 2-3 cars to go through! These need adjusting! Doubt anything will happen though – and yes I have written to them about it several times!!
Hmmmm. Isn’t this what all of us have been saying since this scheme first reared it’s ugly head? Sadly I feel it’s too late to stop it. All those brown envelopes will have to be returned. But, fellow islanders, let’s have hope. Maybe, just maybe, sanity will prevail.
A waist of money , turn off coppins bridge lights and the traffic will flow .
This useless money wasting council needs to be gone. With the elections coming up will be our chance to vote them all out.. they need to give the brown envelopes back and stop this rediculous roadworks going ahead this council needs to work from common sense rather than their bank accounts and secret passing of brown envelopes..
The scheme has little to do with traffic management and is soley in place to put the infastructure in place for the developement of Camp Hill Prison site and possibly the whole prison complex if/when when it is closed. It will save future developers alot of money and increase profit margins. As the Council have declared a climate emergency why are they supporting a scheme that will remove around 50 maturing trees, if there is a needs for lights why not put them up on the current road. I will also ask why it was not put out to tender? My final and most important point is no safety management plan has seem ed to have been published, on a road serving the only hospital on the Island and a town with upwards of 20,000people this plan should be made availble before the start of work and not made up as it it goes along. Well done Parish Council my faith has been restored in the need for your existance. I sincerly hope you suceed.
Why not put a bridge in from Stag Lane area across the Medina. A lot of traffic comes in and out of cowes and heads to the east of the island, all of it has to go into newport and then come back out again along fairlee. A by-pass would solve a lot of the issues of traffic going towards newport.