Collapsed Isle of Wight road to finally be repaired

Two sections of the A3055 Undercliff Drive suffered landslips in February 2014

A main road on the Isle of Wight is to be repaired more than two years after it collapsed due to heavy rain.

Two sections of the A3055 Undercliff Drive suffered landslips in February 2014, creating a three-mile detour between Niton and St Lawrence.

Some residents, frustrated with delays, resurfaced the road themselves in October 2014, but the council shut it again for safety reasons.

The authority says the new route will only be open for local access.

The landslide, which happened during work to repair the road, caused eight homes to be evacuated.

The council said the collapse was caused by unusually heavy rain in an area of "known land instability" where there had been numerous landslips in the past.

The authority's planning committee has approved a new route, slightly inland, providing full access for local residents' vehicles, walkers, cyclists and horse riders, but closed to through traffic.

The road will remain closed to through traffic once repairs are complete

The work will be carried out by the authority's contractor Island Roads under an existing Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deal.

The company said the work would last eight weeks.

Resident Tim Wright said the solution was a "temporary scheme" which failed to address drainage problems.

The council said "retaining the existing drainage arrangements for the highway would not increase the potential for ground movement to occur".

Planning chairman Bob Blezzard said he hoped in the future there would be another application for the road to be "fully reinstated".