Back in February 2017, Leader of the Isle of Wight council, Cllr Dave Stewart, said the Conservatives would get Undercliff Drive open again.
He revealed that he’d commissioned a feasibility study by Professor Bruce Denness on solutions to reopen the road to through traffic. In June this year, at a meeting in Niton, Cllr Stewart gave local residents an update on the key findings of an Impact Study carried out by Bournemouth University.
Another feasibility study
Fast forward to October 2018 and an item about a feasibility study for “Niton Undercliff” was tabled for discussion at this week’s Cabinet meeting, but at last night’s Scrutiny Committee (catch up here), the Chairman, Cllr Andrew Garratt, asked is there was any explanation to to why the item had dropped off the Cabinet list.
Issues affecting decision-making
Cllr Stewart replied,
“It is the intention of this administration to reopen Undercliff Drive, subject to a feasibility study.
“Undercliff Drive has two aspects to it at this point in time. One is the specific work needed to reinstate the road and underpinning that, is work needed to deal with the pressure of water that is causing the landslip.
“What we’re currently doing is exploring the cost of the feasibility study which is from my point of view the process by which we can reach a decision and we are doing some soft testing on that at the moment, engaged with a number stakeholders and on the Forward Plan you will see the report is up for Thursday [Cannot find reference of the report on the latest Forward Plan. Ed] and I shall be clarifying where we are on Thursday.”
The Cabinet will be meeting at the Ventnor Winter Gardens on Thursday 11th October at 5pm.
Article edit
Note about meeting in January corrected to June.
Image: © Lois Jennings
