By Tilly Walder
Mother Nature showed she couldn’t be tamed this week, but the Isle of Wight Council wants to find a way to work with her to protect an iconic Island road.
On Tuesday night, plans to install a 26 metre (85ft) long wall, with 21 metre deep piles, to save the Military Road between Brook and Hanover Point, were rejected by the council’s Planning Committee by seven votes to two.
Sections of the road are now just a few metres from the cliff edge, and Island Roads say the road may collapse within seven years if nothing is done. However, the temporary solution, proposed by Island Roads, was judged to be too harmful to the environment, with ward councillor, Nick Stuart, saying it would cause major damage to the geology, scenery, botany and wildlife in the area.
Two councillors, Matt Price and Claire Critchison, voted in favour of the plans, although with some reservations, saying they feared the complete closure of the road. Cllr Critchison highlighted the impact the potential closure of the road would have on traffic levels in nearby villages.
Other councillors believed that refusing the plans would allow a better long-term solution to emerge, one which would not have the same detrimental impacts on the local environment.
Leader of the IW Council, Phil Jordan, said, on Wednesday, that the council will continue to explore potential solutions to preserve and protect the important route and to secure all the necessary consents in a highly protected and geologically sensitive landscape which can be implemented as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, coastal erosion further along the coast to the east has led to the collapse of part of one of the Island’s most historic batteries onto the beach below. The corner walls of Red Cliff Battery had been sticking out of the cliff-face for many years, but were finally felled by the elements over the weekend. The battery was one of the many Palmerston Forts built on the Island to protect against anticipated French attacks in the 1860s.
Coastal and geotechnical expert, Professor Robin McInnes, said that other structures on the cliffs in the area may suffer a similar fate. He said: “This is an undefended cliff which is susceptible to the high rainfall we have experienced recently, as well as coastal erosion. We must expect this to get worse in the future because of the effects of climate change.”
Isle of Wight Observer