From time to time, readers get in touch to talk about Island Roads and one question that regularly gets raised is, “How much to they get paid?”
For the current year, OnTheWight has, with some difficulty, extracted that figure from the Isle of Wight council. Many will find it shocking.
This article lays bare how OnTheWight has been misled by the council and details the barriers that they continue to put in place to stop you finding out much public money has being paid to Island Roads.
How much so far?
A full month ago OnTheWight got in touch with the Isle of Wight council to find out how much they’ve been paying Island Roads since the contract started on 1st April 2013.
We asked,
“Please could you advise the total amount of money paid to Island Roads each month (on a month by month basis) since the start of the project?”
The full amount?
A couple of days later we received the following response,
Island Roads Services Ltd receives an Annual Unitary Charge paid on a monthly basis. The current amount is £1,445,730 per month.
The contract requires this figure to increase by small percentage points annually based on Island Roads Services’ achievement of contractual milestones.
Further questions
Once we’d pulled ourselves back up off the floor, we asked a few further questions,
1. Does that include VAT?
2. So the amount the gets paid doesn’t depend on how much work has been done/started?
3. What will the %age increase be for the second year and what will the monthly amounts increase to?
A week later we received the following from the council,
1. The amount previously provided excludes VAT
2. The payment from the council to Island Roads has a mechanism linked to the condition of the network and the completion of specific works. If this is not achieved the unitary charge (monthly payment) is reduced accordingly. This is measured independently. The unitary charge which started at 70 per cent of the full unitary charge in year one, steps up in a series of 14 steps during the core investment period to the full 100 per cent at the end of year seven of the contract.
3. The amount provided in the previous email was the year two monthly amount.
Our first question not answered
It was very clear from the council’s reply that our first, simple question, “Please could you advise the total amount of money paid to Island Roads each month (on a month by month basis) since the start of the project?” had not been answered.
We’d asked how much had been paid and were given the figure of what is currently being paid.
That, combined with the year-two monthly figure being exclusive of VAT felt very much like the council were trying to mislead.
Still no answers
Thirty days later and we still haven’t received an answer to our original question.
The council tell us,
I’m afraid it isn’t easy to provide you with quick answers on this matter as there are confidentiality clauses in the contract and we have to go through due process before releasing information on the matter. I will continue to work with the appropriate departments to progress your query.
Is this the ‘open and transparent’ council the Island was promised by the Island Independents in their election campaigning?
