Island Roads have confirmed to OnTheWight that Belgrave Road, Ventnor will be reopened to pedestrians and vehicles on Friday 19th December 2025.
The road has been closed to vehicles since March 2025, when part of the overhang rock fell onto the road with some tumbling onto the road below (Esplanade Road).
Closed for more than 9 months
Residents waited until 29th September before work began to clear the rock debris and a high-tension steel netting system was installed.
Pedestrian access was reopened during November and closed whilst the resurfacing took place earlier this month.
Project Manager Nathaniel Saunders said,
“We’d like to thank the Ventnor community for its patience during these works.
“It has been a complex project given the confined nature of the site, the unstable nature of the rockface when we started and also some severe weather.
“But we are delighted to be re-opening the road ahead of the Christmas period and, once again, it’s been great to work with some excellent Isle of Wight companies, including Stoneham Construction, CoreFIX, G Filer Engineering, Mills & Son, Nigel Early Services, Crown Park, MG Scaffolding, Wight Building Materials, JMC Hire, Reynolds & Read, to deliver a local solution.”
Petition, march and pressure
Ventnorians expressed their frustration in a variety of ways about the length of time it was taking to remove the rocks.
In April, someone climbed onto the rockfall to spray/paint the word ‘Help!’ in giant lettering.
In early September, 150 Ventnor residents marched through the town protesting about the many road closures in the town, demanding urgent action from Isle of Wight Council.
An online petition gathered more than 1,00 signatures.
New systems in place
Following pressure from the community, Isle of Wight Council officers acknowledged that the delays had been unacceptable.
They said new systems are being put in place to speed up how closures are dealt with in future.
Article edit
2.25pm 18th Dec 2025 – Opening date corrected from Thursday to Friday and NS comment added
