The closure on Monday of a section of the old A3055 (Undercliff Drive) at the Niton end of St Lawrence, which was informally adopted as a footpath six years ago due to no pedestrian provision on the new section of road, is putting walkers, people in wheelchairs, cyclists and horse riders at risk, say residents.
On Monday afternoon two contractors working for Island Roads, under instruction from the council, closed the ‘footpath’ which runs parallel to the new section of road created by Island roads in 2016, following the 2014 landslide that left residents land-locked.
Closed due to ‘asbestos being dumped’
Residents were told yesterday that the footpath was closed due to ‘asbestos being dumped’ there.
This is the section of the road that residents patched up one weekend eight months after the closure of the road in 2014. A fortnight after the work was carried out by the land-locked residents, the council closed the road again, claiming it contained asbestos, but wouldn’t tell News OnTheWight what type or how much.
Now six years later, residents say the council are using the same excuse to close the ‘footpath’.
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“Dangerously poor visibility”
The reason the old part of the road has been used by pedestrians as a ‘footpath’ for the last six years is that the new section of road is a considerably steeper single carriageway road with, as one resident explains, “dangerously poor visibility due to the road veering round to the right and then a dogleg corner”.
Having been to the location this morning, you can see from the photos just how overgrown Island Roads and the council have allowed the road and footath to become. Buddleia now covers several feet of the already narrow road, making it impossible for pedestrians to keep safely to the edge of the road, now the footpath is closed.
Local resident John Bagshawe told News OnTheWight,
“It’s inevitable that somebody, especially a child or a dog, walking on the road is going to get hit by some idiot.
“There is absolutely no need to block it off.”
“Some drivers become angry and drive back not expecting anyone else to be coming through the single track carriageway“
Another Undercliff Drive resident, Clare Wright, shared with News OnTheWight an open letter that she has sent to the acting Chief Executive of the Isle of Wight council, Wendy Perera.
Clare says,
“Whilst there are two ‘no through road’ signs prior to the single carriageway, visitors and Islanders who do not know the road have already driven a mile from Niton and have continued to see if they can get through.
“When they get to the cycle and footpath, some become angry, turn around and drive back not expecting anyone else to be coming through the single track carriageway.”
How to reduce risk of accidents
Clare has suggested a number of ways that the increased risk of accidents happening on the single carriageway could be reduced. She shares these common sense solutions below:
- To use the section that has just been blocked off as a designated walkway / cyclepath.
To schedule the maintenance of the Undercliff Drive to cutback the vegetation during the growing season to keep the carriageway clear and safer for the public. This road is being promoted as a ‘quiet road’ encouraged by the footpath to the south of Fleet House and Woodlands. - To reduce the number of vehicles mistakenly coming down the Undercliff Drive from Niton by putting a second no through road sign on the right hand side post after the turn off to St Catherine’s Road, and removing the vegetation that totally obscures the existing single no through road sign on the left hand side.
- To give prior warning that the new section of road is a single carriageway for all road users with traffic travelling in both directions.
Questions need answering
Along with Clare, News OnTheWight has put a number of questions to the Isle of Wight council and will update once we hear back.
They include questions such as, if asbestos is the reason for the closure, why has it taken six years for Island Roads to act? As well as, if asbestos there why the two contracted workers creating making holes and inserting metal poles in an allegedly contaminated area without any PPE and without any warning to the public passing the area whilst works were in progress?
For a background on Undercliff Drive, see our archive of over 140 articles.
