For a while, the question of how much is spent by the Isle of Wight council maintaining Island roads has been in the air, remaining unanswered.
The interest in the numbers has arisen due to the ruling Conservative councillors revealing to the people of the Island the amount that will need to be paid to the PFI consortium
Local journalist Mike Starke has today circulated the figures to IW councillors outlining the numbers for the last eight years. He’s sourced them from two council documents (that we’ve embedded below) that were used in the preparation of the PFI bid.
| DATE | REVENUE | CAPITAL | TOTALS |
| 2001/2 | £4,522,000 | £3,151,000 | £7,673,000 |
| 2002/3 | £4,373,000 | £5,450,000 | £9,823,000 |
| 2003/4 | £4,424,000 | £4,654,000 | £9,078,000 |
| 2004/5 | £4,650,000 | £3,597,000 | £8,247,000 |
| 2005/6 | £4,976,000 | £4,287,000 | £9,263,000 |
| 2006/7 | £1,803,228 | £1,516,897 | £3,320,125 |
| 2007/8 | £1,661,255 | £750,520 | £2,411,775 |
| 2008/9 | £1,969,760 | £2,724,633 | £4,694,393 |
| Average | £3,547,405 | £3,266,381 | £6,813,787 |
Massive drop in spend
What jumps out is the significant drop in money spent on Island road maintenance following the years the current Conservative administration came into power at County Hall.
Broadly two-thirds of the spend was lost, with the amount dropping from £9,263,000 to £3,320,125.
The following year the reduction continued with nearly another million less pounds being spent on the roads – £3,320,125 down to £2,411,775.
The last year that these figures cover, the amount nearly doubled – £2,411,775 up to £4,694,393.
Source documents
Isle of Wight Highway Maintenance PFI, Expression of Interest (Internal)
