PFI given go-ahead

By Martin Neville

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

 

THE massive upgrade of the Island's entire road network is now a reality.

Tonight's (Wednesday) extraordinary meeting of the Isle of Wight Council overwhelmingly voted to accept the proposal for Vinci Ringway to carry out the Private Finance Initiative contract, beginning in 2013.

Only three councillors, Ian Stephens, Jonathan Bacon and Pat Joyce, voted against, while Cllr Reg Barry abstained.

The remaining 29 voted in favour.

See this Friday's Isle of Wight County Press for an in-depth interview with the man who will be in charge of the project.

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Displaying the last 10 of 12 comments - Show All Comments

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by Pete Watson

24th August 2012, at 19:03:02

Its time that us Islanders vote these Conservative Useless bunch of idiots out,This PFI scheme is another ill thought out, waste of money.Why have the council still got a highways department, when nothing is done to the highways.If the Island had less pensioners we would never have this shower of s..t conservatives ruining our Island.. the older voters always believe the c..p the conservatives dish out on election campaigns.

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by Stephen John

24th August 2012, at 10:11:05

The Press suggest the cost of this PFI is £517 million.

Yet, press releases from Construction News, Highway Magazine and New Civil Enginerr give costs ranging from £720 million to £1.2 billion.

What is the true cost?

Room for some investigative journalism here!!

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by Kevin Barclay-Jay

23rd August 2012, at 13:51:36

How can anybody be so stupid as to not understand that this is a disaster for the island that will llast 25 years and cost us millions and millions in cash and lost services. We have been betrayed

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by Lee Majors

23rd August 2012, at 11:46:17

At this point, chocolate roads sound so inviting. Cheaper too, unless the price of Cocoa and milk goes up.

Maybe the highways director may like to look in to the road construction company "Heijmans" as they have announced a worlds first.
In Tilburg they applied a pavement made ??of self-healing, noise reducing asphalt, It is asphalt with bitumen and filler particles and processed wool, maybe our island could benefit from self healing roads, be cheaper and quicker than waiting for them to be repaired, then melt again.

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by Susannah Thornton

23rd August 2012, at 09:17:22

PFI can be pretty much described as Pretty F (your choice of word!) Idiotic. Having worked at an NHS PFI project, it costs thousands of pounds above what it would normally cost to build the equivalent via other sources. Agree with all the comments here and would certainly hope the IOW Council are prepared to take the backlash of the consequences of this project.

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by jack jones

23rd August 2012, at 08:57:12

PHWEHW, i GIVE UP WITH THE RESTRICTION ON WORDS ALLOWED PER POSTING..

jj

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by jack jones

23rd August 2012, at 08:50:33

@kevin froment:

Clearl;y you need to go away and read and research just what the PFI entails, how it is financed, by whom and the likely true cost to Island residents (one clue, half the consortium are a merchant bank ...).
Any objection to the scheme is not because of the upgrade our roads need but the complete and utter dispair at PFI's that are already discredited around the UK and causing financial instability already in the NHS. Worse, it appears that most Councillors have little idea about the true nature of the scheme when voting it in. Ignorance is bliss. On a quick pass, it looks like the Island are going to get a great deal, all the roads upgraded within 15 years (15 years!) and a cost saving of £1M per annum across the whole scheme. The reality is that inflation

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by Alan Bennett

23rd August 2012, at 01:02:19

Did Reg Barry abstain because he missed the IOW Planning Meeting on 31st May, or perhaps the Economy and Environment Scrutiny Panel the day before? Perhaps he didn't know what was going on.....

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by Alan Bennett

23rd August 2012, at 00:56:13

OK, so the PFI gets the go ahead. Can anyone give me an example of a PFI that has been totally successful? If my road needs repairs now [as it does], the PFI aim is to repair every road in the IOW to an acceptable standard in 7 years. So my **** road will be repaired in 2020 if I am last on the list. Judging by this Councils record on achievements, I am not holding my breath.

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by nigel challis

22nd August 2012, at 20:45:48

I believe they are the same ones who worked so hard to ensure undercliff drive falls into the sea, and they're supposed to be representing the council tax payer!

Any views or opinions presented in the comments above are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the Isle of Wight County Press.

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