Residents from the landlocked properties on Undercliff Drive were present at last night’s Isle of Wight Executive meeting (read the round-up of live reporting) to watch the decision-making process that could lead to their homes once again being accessible to vehicles.
The meeting began with a public question from Mrs Hall. She asked,
“As the funding for the temporary road/footpath option is to be allocated from the contingency fund, not the PFI, can the Isle of Wight council tax payers be assured the contract for the above option goes out to open tender?”
Not going out to tender
Members seemed stumped by the question, with lots of whispering and shrugging of shoulders.
Leader of the council, Cllr Ian Stephens replied,
“I thought we were moving away without a tender, moving straight forward onto that.
“We weren’t going into a full-blown tender situation on that at all.”
Executive member for the PFI, Cllr Phil Jordan, added,
“The works are not covered under the scope of the PFI, but they could be. That’s a choice that we can make.”
He went on to say the decision being made last night was to simply to agree spend on an option rather than to agree where that work is placed.
Sadly, this didn’t explain why the work would not go out to tender.
Road re-patched by volunteers
A group of volunteers re-patched the landslipped road in October so they could reach their vehicles by car.
However, it was closed a week later by Island Roads upon the instruction of the Isle of Wight council.
Next stage approved
Last night (Tuesday), members of the Executive approved the recommendation to go ahead with option 5 (a combination of option 1 and 4) to build a temporary low cost road from the West and pedestrian access.
Although as OnTheWight pointed out in September, it’s unlikely the works would now commence until after the rainy season (ie. winter).
