As the heavy rains from January and February continue to make their through the chalk of the St Lawrence Undercliff and beneath Undercliff Drive, so the land around the area continues to respond.
It’s a tragically sorry story for the residents of the nine properties who were forced to evacuate back in February 2014. Their plight still continues, even if their story has dropped out of sight from the other news sources.
With nowhere else to live and no money to afford rental properties, some residents have been forced to return to their homes. OnTheWight were invited to take a look at the impact of the ongoing slip.
Why the large hoardings?
It was surprising to see that since contractors John Peck Ltd have left the site, large, 7ft+ high grey solid hoardings have been placed each end of the roadworks, shielding whatever is happening behind them from the public eye.
After visiting the site, OnTheWight got in touch with Island Roads asking why they chose to use the hoardings rather than the see-through Harris fencing that has been used elsewhere on site.
Even after twelve days waiting for a response to this apparently simple question, OnTheWight are still waiting on a reply from Island Roads.
Has anyone got any idea as to why they might be so shy about their reasoning?
Update 22nd April 2014:
Thirteen days after first asking the question and subsequent to publishing an article about it, Island Roads finally respond saying,
“The boards have been erected to keep people away from this particularly dangerous part of the landslip. They are solid because we do not want to encourage people to visit this particularly unstable area to sightsee or take photos and they offer additional protection for homeowners.”
