Cllr Matt Price, Fairlee and Whippingham ward:
The abandonment of the sustainable drainage schemes in Gurnard is both concerning and in my opinion frankly ridiculous.
How such a project could be allowed to start without the issue of future maintenance first being agreed is simply beyond belief.
Why were the highway authority not included in the planning of this scheme?
This almost incredible failure to plan has caused months of unnecessary local disruption, wasted precious resources and scuppered a project that sought, in some part, to reduce sewage discharge into the Solent.
- Read more: Southern Water scheme scrapped in Gurnard
It was supported by local residents and would have also provided a visual improvement.
I have recently read many letters and articles contained within the press and social media with examples of the council failing to address major infrastructure problems.
Now it seems even the projects it does manage to get off the ground, soon run into major problems.
Residents of Gurnard and the Island deserve better.
They certainly deserve answers to the many questions raised by this latest calamity.
Why was the maintenance issue not considered and agreed before work started?
What political oversight did the project have?
Who will bear the cost of the substantial work to reinstate the roads and where does this leave Southern Water’s plans for other similar sustainable development schemes – there were five planned for Gurnard alone?
Have they now all been scrapped? Will sewage discharges into the sea off Gurnard continue at recent levels now these schemes are dead in the water?
It would be comforting to know that lessons will be learned from this latest fiasco.
But given other wider issues and in particular road safety projects piling up at the door of the council leader I doubt this will be the case.
The failure of this scheme will have cost well over a million pounds after reinstatement and there is no doubt it may have jeopardised all the schemes across the Island.
I have written to Cllr Phil Jordan but as yet have had no reply.
Editor's note: The County Press is also pursuing these questions with the council and Southern Water.
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