Third time lucky and Island Roads appears to have finally installed the bench at the top of Ventnor’s cascade correctly and putting their hands up to the calamity to say “we accept we got this one wrong ” on Twitter. Yes folks, it looks as though benchgate is over.
As first reported by OnTheWight on Thursday last week, a replacement bench was installed, facing away from the view and on a massive wonk. The following day it was switched around, but still positioned on a wonk.
National media attention
The OnTheWight story made it into The Times, The Telegraph and the Mail Online, as well as being featured in Zoe Ball’s Radio 2 programme this morning, where she said,
“There’s a really lovely picture of the Isle of Wight, lovely place called Ventnor, and they’ve had some extensive work done and a bench has been put up so people can can enjoy the view. But unfortunately a workman accidentally turned it the wrong way round, so the bench instead of facing the lovely sea view and the sunsets, it just basically faces a grassy bank, two 30mph speed limit signs and a row of houses. They’re going to have to turn it around.”
Happily this should be the end of it, as by last night, the bench had been correctly installed.
Island Roads sent their best and brightest
Islanders keen to see the newly-famous bench made a pilgrimage to Ventnor over the weekend to have their photos taken with it, but on Monday afternoon Island Roads sent their best and brightest, along with a spirit level, to fix the wonky bench.
The civil engineers cut into the concrete platform the bench was sitting on and inserted one end of the bench into it, ensuring it is now level, albeit pretty short at one end and longer at the other.
Island Roads tweeted at 6.50pm on Monday night:
Stunning bench
There’s no denying that the new bench is far more superior in aesthetics and durability than the previous one.
It’s great to see the bench Islanders deserve finally being properly installed.
It has left many in Ventnor asking why it took three attempts and a lot of media attention to do so.
