AS THE Island prepares to welcome thousands of visitors for the Isle of Wight Festival, the traffic plan for the weekend has been released.

The Isle of Wight Council, Island Roads and Hampshire Constabulary have worked with the organisers of the festival to ensure traffic and disruption is kept to a minimum.

The plan is designed to ensure disruption to local traffic is kept to a minimum, although some delays are inevitable with the increased levels of traffic on the roads.

The main route for festival traffic from the East Cowes Red Funnel terminal will be up York Avenue and along Whippingham Road, where it will turn right onto East Cowes Road and into the festival car park.

Festival-bound vehicles travelling from the Wightlink terminal at Fishbourne will be directed to the right on to Kite Hill, through Wootton, down Lushington Hill and right at the Racecourse roundabout and then left onto East Cowes Road and into the festival car park.

A replacement bridge at the Sea Street entrance to Newport Quay will be in place prior to the commencement of the festival.

People requiring access to the quay in vehicles will be required to use the bridge and avoid going through Seaclose Park. There will be restricted public access through Seaclose from Wednesday 12 June.

There will be a one way system in place along Fairlee Road from lunchtime on Wednesday June 12.

If any of the entrances to the car parks are temporarily blocked, or an incident occurs on any of the roads being used by festival traffic, there are a number of diversion options where festival traffic can be temporarily ‘stacked’ away from the main roads and released into the network once the problem has been resolved.

Residents will be kept up to date with routine traffic information, details of road closures and diversions, and updates about those council services affected by the festival while Hampshire Constabulary will provide security and safety updates.

Messages will be shared via social media.

Cabinet member for infrastructure and transport, Cllr Ian Ward, said: "Once again, on behalf of the council, I would like to welcome festival goers to our beautiful Island.

"As usual, there has been a lot of hard work behind the scenes to ensure that this year’s festival runs smoothly and has the least amount of disruption for residents.

"Of course, I would highlight that Newport is still open for business throughout the duration of the festival."

The traffic plan and other festival information is available online.

READ MORE: Council services affected over the festival weekend.

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