Residents of the Isle of Wight are being warned that they will need to get used to increased disruption on the roads while the road network is upgraded under the Highways Private Finance Initiative (PFI).
The councillor for Newport East said, "Cllrs Stewart and Ward may be having regular tea and biscuits with the Island Roads management, but they are clearly letting them off the hook"
Island Roads say representatives from 30 Arreton businesses voted overwhelmingly in favour of undertaking the work under one closure for up to 12 weeks, rather than in a series of shorter closures.
1st April was the first anniversary of the 25 year PFI contract between the Isle of Wight council and Island Roads. Yesterday they released info about completion of the first year of winter maintenance.
The Isle of Wight council say the cost to re-instate the road is estimated to be between £1 million and £2 million, dependent on whether the scheme allowed one or two-way traffic and if the new route was restricted to vehicles below a certain weight
Council say they have been talking to Waste Improvement Network about Waste Contract procurement, but the scope of their project is too wide for the framework. We're waiting to hear back on what is so special about the Wight scheme, as 141 other councils had used it successfully.
You many have seen a concept video on social media at some point over the last couple of years, but OnTheWight has found a company in the UK producing a similar pot hole repair vehicle and claim to have proof of several years of zero failures.
After Cllr Brodie's calls for Island Roads to be open and transparent about what he called the "unlikely delivery of the Core Investment Programme, the Cabinet member responsible says he's in talks about next stage of contract.
Work is not expected to start until at least September 2014 say Island Roads, despite the road being closed to two-way traffic for over seven months already.