There’s a meeting today between the IWALC (the Isle of Wight Association of Local Councils) and the Isle of Wight Council where IWALC will be expressing their considerable concerns at the possibility of the Military Road being closed.
This follows a Special meeting to discuss the Military Road held by IWALC in Ventnor, at the start of June.
Beside the IWALC members, who are made up from representatives from each of the Island’s Town or Parish councils, a number of interested parties and businesses gave presentations.
We carried out three interviews that night and thought it would be of value for you to hear what those people had to say.
Clive Tilley: Commercial Director of Wightlink
The first interview is with Clive Tilley, Commercial Director of Wightlink, who are concerned about the Military Road closing.
Tourism worth £500 million
His presentation had shown that tourism has a £500 million value to the Island, excluding secondary spend (what people spend in the shops, etc) – and employs 22,000 people over the Island.
Speaking to VentnorBlog he said that he felt it would be worthwhile to get more facts and statistics together to feed into a business case as to why the road should stay open. “Attractions like the Military Road form part of the total fabric of tourism,” he told us.
5,000 cars / day use it
The figures that he has say that daily 5,000 cars use the Military Road in the peak season, with 3,000 still using it off-peak.
He mentioned Bruce Denness’ proposals which were “worthy of further exploration.”
We’ll be bringing you our chat with Bruce Denness a little later today.
Have a listen for yourself … [audio:http://otw-audio.s3.amazonaws.com/clive-tilley-wightlink-non-closure-of-military-road.mp3]
