Island Roads sent OnTheWight the following, after publication of a report by Yarmouth Town’s Mayor, Steve Cowley of Monday evening’s meeting in Yarmouth. Ed
I see that you are running a story on your site with a ‘report’ from the meeting at Yarmouth town council. I’m disappointed that you didn’t approach us before running this online as there are a number of things which we would strongly refute.
“It would appear that Island Roads are pushing on with the work without due regard to the cost and risk to residents and businesses”
The work at the Bouldnor site is necessary to stabilise the highway structure. Without this, the local area could lose the use of the road within a short period of time. We have worked to keep Bouldnor Road open for as much as our works as possible to help minimise the disruption to residents, however for both safety and practical reasons we now need to put in place a road closure so that we can complete the final stages of our stabilisation works and associated road surfacing and so that the utility companies can complete their works. By doing this in one operation, we hope to avoid ongoing disruption to residents and, crucially, complete the works ahead of the Easter holiday. We do recognise that this closure is inconvenient for residents and we are sorry that that is the case however we hope that this will be outweighed by the long-term benefits of having stabilised and maintained the use of this road for local residents, visitors and businesses.
With regard to the risk to residents – it is for this very reason that the road closure is now necessary. We have continued to keep the road open for as long as it has been safe to do so but the extent of the works at this final stage and the movement of vehicles, both our own and those undertaking utility works, means that it is no longer possible to keep the road open safely. We will be maintaining access for residents who live in the immediate vicinity of the works, they have been provided with information and they will be guided by our staff on site to maintain their safety.
“It was obvious that no proper provision has been made for the emergency services to access or leave Yarmouth” and “There was a lack of consultation with the NHS for emergency ambulances into the town”
This is absolutely not the case. All of the emergency services were informed as soon as we had confirmation of the road closure and they have disseminated the information to their stations and staff as appropriate. As with any of our works, we maintain a constant dialogue with the emergency services to ensure that they can plan their operations effectively so that they are able to continue to provide support to residents and businesses.
“The RNLI had not been consulted about access for lifeboat crews’ callouts”
We accept that, despite informing the harbour commission we did not directly inform the RNLI of the forthcoming road closure. However we have acted swiftly to put arrangements in place, working with their operations manager, so that the crews are able to reach the lifeboat station.
“There will be no bus services to Cranmore or Bouldnor”
We inform Southern Vectis as we do with all of the key transport operators about any of our roadworks and major schemes so that they can plan their routes accordingly and make alterations to these where they feel it is appropriate to do so. Leaflets from Southern Vectis were made available at the meeting for local residents.
“The issue of re-routing when Yarmouth Bridge is closed had not been considered”
That is not the case. There are no plans in place which might make the bridge inaccessible during these works other than, as usual, when it is required to be opened temporarily for river traffic. Consideration has also been given to the unlikely situation of the bridge becoming inaccessible for a longer than planned period (e.g. through mechanical failure) and appropriate action would be taken to ensure that residents and the emergency services could reach their destinations.
“David Gibby …agreed they had failed to ensure an adequate supply of steel piling from Germany”
This is not the case. At the meeting Kieron Blamey (the Geotechnical Project Manager) explained that storage facilities for the giant piles were simply not available on the Island therefore a small number were kept on site, others were called off from storage in Southampton.
“It seems that the plan drawn up by Island Roads had not taken this fully into account before the work started.”
This is not the case. This is a major geotechnical scheme and we have endeavoured to keep the road open for as long as possible. The only unforeseen elements of the programme were:
- The impact of the exceptional weather which has caused some delays due to fact that it is not safe to operate the 20 metre high cranes required to complete the piling operation in these particularly strong winds.
- The fact that the gas and electricity companies have asked for additional time to complete their works rather than returning to the site after the surface has been laid. The works at Bouldnor were originally planned to take place in two phases – some works now and further works later in the year. The original works now would have required a two week closure and the works later in the year would have required a further closure at this time. Due to the number of utility companies wanting to carry out works in the location now, it was decided that the most expedient way of addressing this was to go for a longer closure now and get all of the works completed in one go, before Easter, thereby avoiding the need to return to do the works later in the year. This will also avoid the utility companies carrying out unnecessary excavations after the new road surface has been laid.
“Residents and business owners’ questions and concerns mostly went unanswered”
We spent considerable time during the meeting endeavouring to answer as many questions as we could. We also had our mobile visitor centre in Yarmouth on Tuesday morning and had advertised that to residents in the second of two letter drops to over 700 homes and businesses in the area. Any questions we were unable to answer there and then we have committed to responding to as quickly as we can.
“Poor information and lack of consultation”
From the point at which Island Roads had confirmation, on Monday 3 February, that it could proceed with its road closure, the company has instigated a number of communications to provide information to local residents, businesses and other key services. For example, by the evening of the same day, we had posted letters through the doors of over 700 homes and businesses in the area with information and had been in contact by phone and email with all key services, schools and transport and ferry operators, town and parish councils. The following day, once we could be certain all local residents and businesses had received their letters, we also issued a press release to the papers and radio and other media and issued updates on social media and our website. A further letter drop took place on Monday 10 February with more detailed information about access and diversion arrangements and our mobile visitor centre was based in River Road car park on the morning of Tuesday 11 February with staff on hand to answer questions. We have also spent time on the diversion routes checking that any major defects have been repaired and signage along the diversion routes will be in place shortly. Official notices for the road closure have also been published.
We are committed to keeping local residents informed throughout this closure period with any significant developments and remain on hand to answer any queries through our contact centre 01983 822440, website or at our Daish Way visitor centre in Newport.
Image: Ell R Brown under CC BY 2.0
