THREE years after the Undercliff Drive landslip that forced some homeowners to abandon their properties, the Isle of Wight Council has agreed to pay £5,000 in compensation to one family.
The Local Government Ombudsman has criticised the Isle of Wight Council and Island Roads over their response to the February 2014 landslip - which saw the Army helicoptered in to evacuate residents.
The LGO has ruled in favour of one of the affected families after they complained about the way the council handled the situation.
The family, some of whom live with long-term medical conditions, complained the council's actions and delays in reinstating access to the road had caused significant disruption to their lives, financial loss, and stress.
The family also complained roadworks carried out before the slip during a period of heavy rain was reckless and increased the risk of the landslip.
The ombudsman described the Isle of Wight Council and Island Roads' response as disjointed and reactive and said: "The council fell below acceptable standards both in delivering a timely and suitable solution to the road failure and in supporting householders.
"Given the family were evacuated from their home, and faced continuing uncertainty about their future while the road failure remained unresolved, this caused them substantive injustice."
The family also complained residents were kept in the dark by the council, who failed to keep them adequately updated.
The ombudsman said: "This added unnecessarily to the family's inevitable distress and worry following evacuation from their home."
The Isle of Wight Council agreed to pay the family £5,000 compensation and send them a written apology.
The council also agreed to review how it communicates with residents when carrying out major roadworks to improve its customer care.
Isle of Wight Conservative group leader, Cllr Dave Stewart, said the failures happened under the authority's previous Independent administration.
He said: "Whoever runs the council from next month needs to get a grip of the problems there and the Island Conservatives have already pumped money into research to find a solution and get the road open.
"I have worked hard to ensure we have a future plan for the Undercliff, but there is also a need to review what happened with the past management of the work which has cost Island taxpayers a lot of money and, more importantly, had a detrimental effect on local residents."