Bouldnor Road closure meeting and Shalfleet Parish Council meeting

News during week commencing 10^th February 2014

There were two significant meetings affecting the Parish. A public meeting with Yarmouth Town Council and Island Roads, on 11^th February and then the Shalfleet Parish Council meeting on 12^th February. Bouldnor Road was discussed at both meetings.

Proposed Closure of Bouldnor Road

Public Meeting Island Roads and Yarmouth Town Council held at Yarmouth Institute on Tuesday 11^th February. 

The meeting was very well attended, with standing room only, for some, and difficulty for others to even get their heads round the corner and into the room! Clearly the interest overwhelmed the Council and, I imagine, Island Roads. I am not attempting here to write up the notes of the meeting, which will no doubt be published by the Council in due course, but to pick out the key concerns.

Safety 

Island Roads were unable to provide a satisfactory answer to questions asked by the public and councillors. In my opinion Island Roads have been grossly negligent with insufficient risk assessment/management, insufficient consultation and neglect in planning and agreements with the emergency services. I believe that there is a significant risk of injury or loss of life during the proposed seven week period. I expressed these views at both the Yarmouth and the Shalfleet meetings and have written to the YTC, the SPC and Cllr Stuart Hutchinson with a link to the official manual setting out the rules for temporary traffic arrangements. The manual can be downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/poqgvd5 One would think that whatever Island Roads' contract states, they must still abide by Government rules. The closure could still at this stage be stopped at the eleventh hour on safety grounds.

Yarmouth Businesses 

A number of Yarmouth businesses were represented at the meeting and the general feeling was that the total road closure will make it uneconomic to even open.

Wightlink 

Apparently Wightlink will be showing some information on a TV screen (the advertisement screen). I don't believe that is sufficient. I believe there needs to be a printed leaflet showing the diversions and showing where the local shops and hostelries are. That is not intended as a criticism of Wightlink, it isn't their job but they might be persuaded to hand a leaflet to every motorist arriving at Yarmouth.

Buses

There are now timetables for Route 7 covering the proposed closure period, which were freely available at the Yarmouth and Shalfleet meetings.  They are also online on the Southern Vectis website.  Many concerns were raised.  This is still being worked on by Shalfleet Parish Council and there are discussions with the FYT bus.  Funding is an issue and at the meeting Island Roads promised to consider funding the extra fuel FYT bus would need to extend their service.

Shalfleet Parish Council meeting 12^th February 2014

The agenda is available on the link to the right side of this page. I won't cover the purely procedural or trivial matters.

The Ashlar proposed Housing Estate

Spectrum have written to SPC with an offer stating that if they get planning permission, go ahead, and purchase the land they will gift the land to SPC for the sum of £1 on condition that the land will be used for community purposes or returned to Spectrum. There were various points raised by the councillors and, later, by the public. It was decided that a working party be formed including members from the Council, School and the public. I don't believe that anyone was charged with getting the WP together and there was no discussion about terms of reference...not off to a flying start?

My own view is that Spectrum's offer is to cover an objection in the planning process. Namely that while in the plans they mention giving the unwanted land to the community, it was a valueless offer without explicit detail. Now they have given that detail, that objection is overcome, helping to free the way for planning consent. If I understood the councillors correctly, they instructed the Clerk to write to Spectrum, accepting the offer in principle, subject to agreement. [Note: Since writing that I have discussed with Pam Broadhead, Chairman of SPC and my understanding was wrong.  In fact the council decided to form a working party and not to discuss with Spectrum until the WP have reported.  Sorry for the misunderstanding and I am pleased to make this correction.] The working party is likely to consist of two councillors, one from the school and one from the public, but the exact constitution hasn't been decided.

I have expressed my view to the SPC that there are legal issues.  Spectrum don't own the land (yet), existing restrictive covenants, planning consent, and the School's need to keep and maintain their septic tank and drainage field on that land.   Shalfleet Parish Council should take professional legal advice before entering into any detailed discussion, in my opinion.

Finally, on the matter of The Ashlar, one councillor referred to Spectrum as being a 'Housing Association'. In the public questions session I pointed out that Spectrum is a Property Development company NOT a Housing Association. For anyone wishing to see for themselves just how many companies are tied up in the Spectrum group, see http://companycheck.co.uk/ which provides a great deal of free information or Companies' House online service, which charges a few pounds per company, but is the source of the registered information.

Shalfleet Parish Precept rise

The precept is the money available for the Parish Council to spend. See http://www.cpalc.org.uk/q-what-is-a-parish-council-precept-or-tax This year the SPC have agreed to raise it by 1.7% in line with inflation bringing the figure to £28,336. You have a right to see all the accounts and budgets. I will ask the Clerk to let me have the figures and post them as pdf files on this blog. To my mind we get amazingly good value for money, as residents. This is only possible because most of the hard work is done in the free time of the unpaid councillors. They spend a lot of time on our behalf who get a lot of stick and usually very little thanks. That's why the cost is so low for what we get (in my opinion).

Wightlink

Our Ward Councillor, Stuart Hutchinson, is meeting with the MD of Wightlink to discuss the Yarmouth service. Wightlink claim that the Y-L service is the least profitable of its routes. I did question why, if it is so unprofitable, Wightlink spent a vast sum refurbing the ferry dock in Lymington last year and have continued to fight against movement limitations in Lymington. If it is so unprofitable why would they bother? No doubt Stuart will find out when he meets with them and will share his findings with us.

Andrew Turner coming to town!

Andrew Turner (our Island MP) will be coming to meet folk at the regular Wellow Institute coffee morning on the last Saturday of March between 100-1200, and then onto the Sun where, I believe, we are welcome to buy him a pint to wash down the coffee! Andrew has a website at http://www.andrew-turner.org.uk

I think those are the main things. Quite a long list. Please leave your comments by clicking on the 'No comments' link below or in the comments box if that has opened up for you automatically. You do not need to register for this site or leave your name. Your comments can be entirely anonymous or you can give your name. There is no way that I or anyone else (GCHQ excepted) can identify you. If you leave your email address in the box, you will get an email whenever this blog is updated but of course you lose your anonymity unless you use a junk email address.