A backlog of highways requests — including new speed limit signs, crossings, dropped kerbs and disabled bays — will not be dealt with until April next year, at the earliest.
The Isle of Wight Council has written to all town and parish councils, asking for help to prioritise a list of 880 highways requests.
To be dealt with as part of PFI contract
All requests for changes or additions to the roads network have been added to the Network Integrity Register (NIR) list, to be dealt with as part of the highways PFI contract.
A backlog of around 1,700 requests had built up by 2015, but a year later, former Isle of Wight councillor Phil Jordan, then responsible for overseeing the PFI, said it had been reduced to around 1,000.
The current list of 880 enquiries has been sent to town and parish councils to request their views on which schemes are highest priority.
The council said this would be taken into account, along with the professional assessment of the qualified Island Roads highways safety staff to prioritise the list and remove requests that are not considered appropriate.
Plans to close “inappropriate historic items”
Some of the schemes, the council said, were not required or even legal — but the requests have remained open on the register.
A spokesperson said:
“Part of the rationale behind sending it to town and parish councils was to officially allow us to close these inappropriate historic items down.”
They said schemes not prioritised for the next budget would be carried forward and implemented in future programmes.
It will not be possible to fund all the requests that remain open in the next year.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which OnTheWight is taking part in. Some additions by OnTheWight. Ed
Image: © Island Roads
