An opportunity to relieve Pan of through traffic will have been missed unless the estate is given a by-pass as a benefit of a proposed new housing development there. That’s the verdict of Island MP Andrew Turner, who has written to the Council criticizing plans for the development as ‘creating rat-runs through a residential area.’
He points out that the provision of a peripheral road from Staplers to St George’s Roundabout would not only cut traffic in Furlongs but enable motorists from Ryde, East Cowes and Wootton to avoid Coppins Bridge.
In a letter to Cllr Ian Ward, Cabinet Member for Transport, Planning and Environment, Mr Turner says:
“On Tuesday planning permission was given for 150 houses off Sylvan Drive between Hunny Cross and Carisbrooke. These will push traffic through both that road and Mountbatten Road, and add congestion to the junctions at Hunny Cross and Wellington Road. Your council appears to have inherited no clear plan from its predecessors to deal with the additional traffic which is generated by such housing developments.
“The same is true in Pan. The development plan for that area includes a road through the middle of the estate, which is sure, like Furrlongs, to attract people trying to avoid the queues in Staplers. Your predecessors appear to have missed the opportunity to provide a by-pass or peripheral road so that motorists can get into town without going through Coppins Bridge. I urge you, if at all possible, to secure from the developers as planning gain the provision of such a road.
“I realise that it may be too late to achieve such a benefit, and that the responsibility would lie clearly with the last administration at County Hall for not insisting, as you very sensibly have, on no higher housing targets without proper infrastructure. But I do not believe that Islanders would forgive us if we didn’t flag up the need and make every effort to meet it.”
