More than 200m of protected hedgerow will be removed at the notorious Vittlefields crossroads near Newport, which is deemed to be the Isle of Wight’s most dangerous junction, say local councillors. The Isle of Wight Council is targeting Vittlefields Cross — where Betty Haunt Lane, Forest Road and Whitehouse Road join — in the hope of improving visibility for motorists. 2 rows of hedges will be removed — around 215 metres in total — and replaced by new native hedgerow plants and a fence, set further back from Forest Road and at an angle to the main road. The Isle of Wight Council gave conditional permission for Island Roads to remove the protected hedgerow — as designated under law in the Hedgerow Regulations — earlier this week. The authority said exceptional circumstances are because it currently blocks visibility, compromising highway safety. In the space of 4 years, there have been 9 collisions at the junction, resulting in 1 death and 29 injuries. After 2019’s fatal crash, County Hall bought the land on the corner of Whitehouse Road and Betty Haunt Lane for highway safety improvements. Coroner Caroline Sumeray has previously said that County Hall should take action to prevent future deaths occurring there. 
Newport and Carisbrooke Community Council told the Isle of Wight Council that while it was regrettable to lose ecologically important habitat like hedgerow, it needed to be balanced on how much safer the works would make the junction. The community council said the crossing is ‘renowned as one of the most dangerous highway sites on the Island’. Planning officers say the hedgerow must be removed within 2 years of the decision and it cannot be touched during the 1st March to 31st August nesting season, without consent from Natural England. In a bid to further improve safety around the junction, skid-resistant surfacing has been laid.
VITTLEFIELDS HEDGROW TO BE REMOVED AS PART OF SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS
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So ridiculous that it’s taken a death,life changing injuries,9accidents ( many more not recorded as not reported to police) and 4yrs for something that’s common sense to majority. Get on with it before another death. Imagine blaming a death on fact a sparrow was nesting in hedge !. Why is our council so slow at anything?.
more destruction of wildlife habitat for our native birds, instead of road furniture calming measures on the road itself, once again wildlife suffers due to needless human activity
Controlled crossing?
It’s not the hedge causing the problem, it’s peoples driving!!!
That’s right. The poor woman who was killed there a few years back was killed by a driver who wasn’t paying attention and simply pulled out in front of a bus. The sentence she received for killing someone was a joke. The crash had nothing to do with the junction, just bad driving.
It’s a crossroads at the end of a long, straight stretch of road! Taking the hedges out (to the detriment of wildlife) might make the junction a little more visible, but will do nothing to improve the speed or standard of driving.
Would be nice if they could just dig out the hedge and move it back thus retaining native species of hedgerow which is natural and native. For as we so often see any ‘new’ type of import brings in disease which can devastate our long standing trees and hedgerows such as Ash die back, costing millions to cut and clear.
Not too much effort to dig a shallow ditch and push the original hedgerow back into it, as at this time of year most would survive and likely flourish, as would any wildlife hibernating in it, which will now be burnt to death.
A little thought goes a long way, so the Council won’t do it.
Moving the hedgerow will help, but the other big issue here is the fact that the road climbs away from the S bends at Vittlefields farm. When you are trying to come out of Whitehouse Road, the distance you can see towards Yarmouth is limited due to the brow of the hill. Often vehicles accelerate out of the S bends and have built up a reasonable turn of speed by the time they come over the hill and come into sight, by which time they are almost on top of you.
that’s not going to stop speeding cars going to Newport or Yarmouth needs a speed camera
LOL. Pretty sure there are hundreds of better methods to stop accidents, most of them in a TC category rather than cutting down nature to allow for greater visibility (and hence presumably people driving even faster).
I swear, our safety engineering is at the levels of 60s, maybe 70s in international academia.
Why? If people learned to drive, there would be no problem.
4 yrs 1 death 29 injuries and the IWC have finalised realised !! There’s a problem .. lovely Hedgerow.. but lethal junction .. Wots the priority .. do nothing Incompetent amateurs .. !! Top to bottom
Should have been done years ago.
Couldn’t the hedge by dug up with diggers and used to be replanted in the new position?
Common sense would have been to add signage at the crossroads which was reflective at low light like other crossroads instead of causing mass destruction of valuable wildlife habitat. I think this is a lazy solution. It’s not going to stop the accidents as at night it’s hard to see the approaching Forest Road from either side roads. It needs reflectives or road texture humps. It also needs decent marking of the two side roads on approach as the red tarmac areas are poor in low light.
Ye late as usaul..im surprised the eco lunatics havent got it stopped …think of the animals and flowers…
If this is absolutely necessary do it the right way and plant new native hedging FIRST in winter to give it a chance to thrive, then remove the old hedgerow not the other way round.
the hedge could be moved back if a ditch was dug at this time of yeer.
The birds won’t be very happy but safety must come First
Needs must, but a great loss of habitat for wildlife. At least there’s no nesting going on this time of year. I hope a good job is made of creating a different but still useful habitat for creatures.
amimals is hibernating in hedgerows door mice, voles, slow worms, lizards and tons of tiny creatures all will be dug out and burned to death. think about the silent screams of such
With the appalling driving I have witnessed on this Island, I hardly think the removal of a protected hedge will make any difference. Why is deemed necessary for total destruction of yet more hedges that are already under threat.
The council say its regrettable to loose hedgerow, well how about peoples lives, unbelievable. They don’t mind contractors digging up farmland for hundreds of houses. My old grandfather used to say ” If you are no good at your job and don’t study you finish up on the council”
I believe the hedgerow is in the Parish of Calbourne so has SFA to do with Newport. If not consulted probably illegal. Unnecessary habitat destruction due to halfwit drivers, mostly incomers or over 75’s
Why don’t they put sensor traffic lights in stead of ripping out hedgerow which not only houses 100’s of birds and wildlife, it will also help absorb water which will now produce more flooding. Lights will also help do the speeding cars along that road!!!