Following the report of the Island Roads meeting arranged by Yarmouth Town council, we heard the following from the Isle of Wight NHS.
The roadworks, originally planned for two weeks, have been extended to seven weeks by Island Roads – Ed.
In relation to the Bouldnor Road closure, the following plans are in place if we are responding to a 999 call:
- In daylight hours (when actual workers are on site) we will be able to go through the works, if using blue lights and sirens. To ensure the site manager is aware of our impending approach, we will advise their Control Room, so that the workers can be made aware. Due to the requirement to safely make our way through the road works, we might see our speed slightly reduced driving through them, but we do not anticipate this to significantly increase our usual response times
- Out-of-hours (when no workers are on site) a short section of the road will be closed off by a locked gate at either end. Our crews will be supplied with the code for the padlock, and so will still be able to travel through the road works, though they will have to stop and unlock the gate at either end
- Island Roads have assured us that we, as a blue light service, will at all times be able to travel through the road works, albeit slower than we would without the works in place
- We also have an active Co-Responder scheme operating in the Yarmouth / Freshwater area, and this will not be affected by the road closure either
- We will also seek to maintain an operational resource in the West Wight area, according to our existing deployment plan, and dependant on call volumes / activity elsewhere’
A spokesperson for the IW Ambulance service has stated:
“We are in regular contact with Island Roads, and receive emails throughout the day advising us of closures, repairs etc. we also have a direct dial number for their Control Room (which is manned 24 hours a day) if we need to speak to them.”
Image: Eoghan OLionnain under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license
