From Brian Ash, East Cowes:

With most things in life I am fairly laid back, but recent events have stirred me into voicing my thoughts.

Why is it East Cowes gets dumped on at every possible turn? We are Islanders too and need to be treated the same as any other resident.

If it is not Red Funnel demolishing our town for its own financial interests, it seems the IW Council is determined to allow building on every available plot of land with no regard to the struggling infrastructure.

We are the only town of significant size that has one single road access. The other possible outlet is a very failed white elephant of a floating bridge (grounded at time of writing).

Most of our teenage students need to cross the river twice a day in all winds and weather to attend Cowes Enterprise College. Where else would this happen?

Our seafront is a disgrace, with a landslip closing part of it for years now with no prospect of it being cleared.

We cannot support even more houses/people/cars/local employment. Schools full, Doctors non-existent/ Ferry traffic with lorries and trailers hourly. On top of that, Where is the employment coming from for all these new residents? No wonder all our youngsters are leaving the Island to seek a better future elsewhere.

It is very frustrating trying to get from A to B and back. I ask, does the leader of the council have these issues in getting to and from where he lives?

It seems the council can do what it wishes without any consideration, common sense or respect to us lowly people who are expected to put up and shut up.

There is talk of a bridge over the River Medina. It sounds as though it will (if it happens) be at the Newport end. With respect, Cowes to East Cowes is in desperate need of one but it would benefit all Island drivers to have one at each end of the river. This would be a far better way to spend traffic improvement money on instead of the not- necessary, St Mary’s Roundabout to traffic-light show. and a very costly and useless chain ferry being paid for by all Island residents. Where is the logic?

I would suggest a bridge at the East Cowes end could be from the bottom of Saunders Way across to the west side, linking in to the back of Kingston on the west side of the river. At the Newport end, from Seaclose area to the Dodnor area, with further thoughts to linking major roads around Newport loosely forming a circular by-pass keeping all unnecessary traffic away from the Newport bottle neck.

It is time for us to make our voices heard and start remonstrating to inform our governing powers. Enough is enough! The island is a special case and deserves to be treated as such.

Not In Our Backyard, East Cowes or anywhere else on the Island. Remember the island motto “All this Beauty is of God” unfortunately being ruined by our politicians!