From Martin Woodward, of Bembridge:

Many of us have to suffer the constant tailbacks from the Hare and Hounds traffic lights back to Arreton Cross, and this will inevitably worsen yet again in the summer season.

Even in April, the traffic queue has frequently been halfway back to Arreton Cross.

There is a simple solution to this problem, yet despite calls to Island Roads on the subject, they never seem interested in doing anything about it.

Inevitably, due to the Covid situation, UK-based holidays will be predictably much higher this year and it will be a very busy time for the Island.

As we all know, even in normal off-season times, the roads struggle to cope with the volume of traffic.

It therefore seems logical to try to ease the problems wherever possible, especially when it would be a simple and inexpensive task such as at Downend Road.

Many of us remember the long and frustrating queues from the Hare and Hounds back up to the downs before Island Roads eventually listened and put the extra left hand lane in for turning to Arreton.

That improved the situation considerably, and the same could be achieved for traffic coming from Arreton Cross.

With all the recent huge and expensive road ‘improvements’ on the Island, surely it would be a simple task to do a very low cost widening of the small section at the traffic lights.

All it would involve is a 4m wide strip from the field opposite the pub so traffic from Arreton Cross could be split into two lanes, one to continue to Newport, the other to turn right onto the Downs Road.

This would avoid the traffic continuing to Newport being constantly held up by traffic turning right to the Downs.

The response I got when I called Island Roads (on more than one occasion) was of disinterest.

I feel sure the farmer would be more than agreeable to sell such a tiny strip of land if it improved traffic flow to such an extent.

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