The Independent Labour councillor for Pan and Barton, Geoff Brodie, made his views on the highways PFI contractor very plain Brodie for all to see at Thursday evening’s Isle of Wight council cabinet meeting.
Referring consistently to Island Roads as “Island rogues”, Cllr Brodie, who is also Chair of the Newport and Carisbrooke Community Council criticised the manner in which the works currently taking place to Coppins Bridge traffic signals, was “bounced on to Newport at the last minute, with no input from local councillors or the community council”.
Island Roads “are out of control”
He asked for Island Roads to be forced to ensure that ward councillors and local councils get sufficient notice of road works on the Island, and have a reasonable period of consultation for proposed traffic management schemes.
Cllr Brodie said one of the more restrained members of the council had stated that Island Roads “are out of control”.
Jordan: Contracts Management Team “decimated”
Cllr Phil Jordan, the cabinet member for transport replied,
“It’s true to say that we are under testing times.”
He went on to add that the Contracts Management Team (who oversee the PFI work) has been “decimated” by some serious illnesses, by an upcoming retirement and the inability to recruit suitably qualified engineers on the Island.
A disagreement over timing of works
Cllr Jordan went on to explain that the IWC disagrees with the contractor on the notification of the work and said he only found out about the scheme 48 hours before the ward councillor did.
The contractor argued they told the IWC around a year ago that it would be carried out after St Mary’s junction and St George’s Way roadworks were completed.
Cllr Jordan said there was “a disagreement” that Island Roads had told the IWC Coppins Bridge traffic signal work – which was supposed to have been done during the core investment period – would be the next scheme.
Jordan: Contract should not be self-monitoring
Cllr Jordan added,
“I agree it’s not good enough in terms of consultation. We’re doing all we can to manage this contract.
“The contract was set up, in my view, wrong in the first place as a self-monitoring contract. Other similar contracts around the country have a far bigger contracts team, even after the core investment period and we have a small team.”
Jordan: We’ll do much better in the future
He went on to explain that the resources are “stretched to the utter limit”, but that:
“I apologise on behalf of our contracts management team because of their lack of resources that things weren’t delivered in the way we would have liked to have seen and I reassure you we’ll do much better in the future.”
Article edit
10.58am 12th Nov 2021 – Cllr Brodie’s ward corrected from Newport East to Pan and Barton
