A main road linking Ryde and Havenstreet is to remain closed overnight due to there being a thick blanket of mud on the carriageway making it unsafe for many road users.
Island Roads closed the Stroud Wood Road – between the junction with Main Road and Carters Road – at around 11:00.
Island Echo understands that tractors – who have been collecting harvested sweetcorn – have mudded the road upon re-joining the carriageway from the nearby fields. The thick carpet-like layer of brown ooze is making the road perilous for the majority of road users.
A clean-up operation has been in progress throughout the day but the road is to remain closed overnight whilst the mud is scraped and cleared from the road.
Island Roads have said they will inspect the road again tomorrow morning and re-open it when it is safe to do so.
In properly-run countries farm vehicles must clean their wheels before entering public roads. It’s done here during outbreaks of foot-and-mouth and SVD, so why not always?
On the Island many farm vehicles are not legal to be on the road.
I take it that you are conversant with the regulations applicable to vehicles that have the designation of “limited use vehicle “. If not then you need to be aware that such vehicles can legally be on the road without complying with all the requirements applicable to other vehicles. Details are available online on the NFU website. There is a maximum limit to how far the farm vehicle can be driven each week on the road in order for it to qualify.
Regardless of tractors being exempt from being road worthy. It is an offence under the Highways act to impede others by covering the road in mud.
Hope the farmers are footing the bill and not our taxes
I doubt they will, bit like horse riders, they don’t clear up the
Horses sh@T.
Nor do car drivers collect there fumes
I collect mine in my DPF filter thank you but still paying high road tax fuc@ ing robbery
But DPF collects only parts of exhaust fumes, no?
Also, wait, there’s a road tax?! Am I supposed to pay it somewhere? I thought there’s only VED?
Do you want horse riders to clean up horses shit?
It’s not unsafe (unlike dog shit carrying blinding pathogens) and it’s quite dry, it’d be just few kicks with horse riding boots onto a side where it can compost safely nourishing plants – I’m quite happy to do it.
But to do it safely I’d need to get off a horse, block road for a time, then get up on a horse again, and you’d need to pass me with at least 2m according to Highway Code and mind you I’m now taking twice as much space as normal so might be impossible to legally pass with 2m – so you’d need to wait patiently until it’s done.
Last time I checked drivers are quite anxious about any slow down but if you will patiently wait, I’m happy to 😉
Very well said!
Would I be right to believe that the farmers who damaged the roads will be charged to clean up their mess?
Too true ALL costs to be paid in full by those who caused this including cost to close the roads + a sizeable lump sum to compensate to clean and clear all the drainage, no mates rates
Good idea. They can just transfer price to higher food prices later and in the end we’ll all pay.
All the hundreds of acres of maize grown on the Island, is destined for the Anaerobic digestion plant at Arreton.This is then converted into so called green energy!!
Do you have a source for this claim?
A connection with Agriculture, and observation!
This is ridiculous!, Surely the more sensible option would be to levy a speed limit, instead of sending people miles out of their way! Island Roads presumably are incapable of clearing the worst of the mud, instead they have to close the road!!!!
Better late than never I guess. Went through there at around 5:30am this morning. It was like driving on ice.
It is an offence under the Highways Act 1980 to allow mud or debris from adjacent land to fall, be washed or carried onto a public road and can lead to prosecution
I was right behind the tractor and the other trailer type lorry as the mud was flying off the tyres, ten mins later headed back in opposite direction and all the other cars had spread it across other carriage way, absolutely deadly for motorcycles. Not too much the Farmer can do other than power wash tyres as they leave fields which is not always achievable.
Idk why you’re being downvoted, my rear tyre fish tailed on this mud the other day.
so why not close Newham road as well that was full of mud leading to the old brickfields
It is an all too common problem having a brown ooze leaving a tough to clean deposit.
I find these comments hilarious and annoying, we managed to drive through. These Farmers put food on our tables, yet people tend to forget that.! Be grateful you are alive and we have roads to drive on. Plus a bit of horse droppings never killed anyone, put it on your garden.
What an idiotic comment Carol. Farmers are legally required to not allow mud or other debris fall on road surfaces and make them dangerous. This is bloody-minded and arrogant negligence. The farmer should be prosecuted and punished with a hefty fine.
If the Tories had not slashed our police force there would be some spare time for them to check the famers are playing by the rules. Farmers think they are a minority group and somehow have exceptions from the law. They are not, they are just a business. As a life long motorcyclist, what these people do to our roads is very dangerous and makes many road unpassable by motorcycle. Time to start throwing some fines at them. A building company has to clean their trucks, why not famers???
The construction industry is required to have washdown facilities for vehicles exiting a site onto the public highway. Is this not the case for farm vehicles and machinery ?. Surely they are more likely to foul the roads with field mud etc. than any vehicle leaving a construction site.