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This Open Letter to council leader, Phil Jordan, comes from Ed Blake, Isle of Wight Councillor for Ventnor and St Lawrence. Ed
I watched the meeting of Cabinet last week and have read your subsequent press article regarding the land movements in St Lawrence. Together with fellow residents of Ventnor and St Lawrence, I am deeply concerned.
Despite being Leader of the Isle of Wight Council, you seem painfully relaxed about the critical situation in one of the Island’s main towns.
Where is the monitoring?
You say that Island Roads are monitoring the situation on Leeson Road (currently closed) but if you had turned up to the public meeting on the 29th February to listen to over 300 residents, you would have heard the boss of Island Roads confirm that the all the necessary monitoring equipment had not been installed nearly three months after the landslip on 10th December.
Three Councillors spoke at that meeting, but nobody from your ruling Alliance Group.
Managed retreat?
The only thing you seem to be saying with any certainty is that you will not contemplate the possible reopening of Undercliff Drive because there was another landslide nearby.
Using your own logic, are you saying if Leeson Road becomes unstable you will also consign it to the history books as a road for vehicles because there was a nearby landslide? Just how far are you prepared to go with your policy of managed retreat? Shrugging your shoulders and giving up to nature is not an answer.
Where are the contingency plans?
All four of the roads into Ventnor have been rediverted at various times; some of these historic falls are right next to the current carriageways. You cannot possibly be prepared to give up on them all.
When I asked at Full Council on 28th February what contingency plan the Council has in place for Ventnor and its residents should further roads be closed, you said there are no plans. That is a complete failure of leadership.
Undercliff Drive can be repaired and reopened
You say it is too risky to reopen Undercliff Drive. Please outline these risks. In 2014, the road could have been repaired to allow single lane of traffic for £1.6m. The cost-benefit was obvious then and I am confident that it still is.
The only things standing in the way of any reopening of the existing roads is your own political will, or lack of it.
Meet with Gov and residents
I urge you, as Leader of the Isle of Wight Council and Cabinet Member for Transport, to meet with Government representatives in person, to seek substantial funding to secure routes in and out of Ventnor for the long term.
Please also meet with me and Ventnor residents and show us some leadership rather than leaving Council employees to step into your shoes.
