Cowes Town Council Shares 'Serious Concern' Over Horsebridge Hill Roadworks

An Isle of Wight town council has voiced serious concerns with an upcoming roadworks scheme, set to cause disruption on one of the Island’s main road networks.

Cowes Town Council has said it was “not consulted”, nor “made aware” of the junction improvement works on Horsebridge Hill, which from Monday next week (May 12) will result in a one-way system between Newport and Cowes.

Horsebridge Hill will be one-way until July 4, meaning motorists driving from Newport will have to follow a six-mile diversion to get to Cowes.

The one-way system is being put in place to facilitate the construction of the Island’s largest affordable housing development in a decade.

Located on a greenfield site at Acorn Farm, Captiva Homes and Sovereign Network Group are building 131 houses and 72 flats.

A Cowes Town Council spokesperson said:

“We are very concerned about the planned roadworks between Cowes and Newport over the next couple of months, and how these will affect Cowes’ residents.

“The town council was not consulted, nor made aware of the roadworks, so we have not had the opportunity to raise concerns on behalf of Cowes’ residents.

“We would very much welcome the opportunity to share our concerns with the relevant authorities.”

County Hall has said a one-way system around the roadwork site has been chosen for two reasons: traffic lights would cause more disruption due to the volume of traffic and shutting one carriageway allows more workers and plant machinery to be on site and work on various jobs at once.

Closing a carriageway will also be safer for the work crews, according to the Isle of Wight Council.