Steve Ashman, Island Roads service director:

Your correspondent John Craddock asked for an explanation of recent traffic lights on Afton Road, Freshwater (Letters, CP 10-11-23).

These traffic lights were in place at the request of Southern Water. They were part of that company’s emergency response to the recent flooding and their purpose was to set aside space, if required, for a water bowser to ensure local supplies could be maintained.

The location is adjacent to a water hydrant.

In the event, the bowser was, thankfully, not needed and as the threat to supply receded, the lights were removed.

By way of background, any public utility company has a legal right to work on the highway in order to maintain and improve their infrastructure.

Island Roads has no power to prevent these works – nor in circumstances such as these, would we seek to do so.

Our role is to liaise with companies to try to reduce the impact of works on the travelling public.

Sadly, given the nature of the Island’s network, it is not always possible to avoid some disruption despite our best efforts.

People, quite rightly, expect to receive uninterrupted (and improved) supplies of the utilities and broadband on which they rely. The price of that can, unfortunately, be some inconvenience.

I hope this information offers some reassurance to your correspondent.

Our website www.islandroads.com carries more information about third party work on the network and the extent of Island Roads’ role in administering those.