Isle of Wight Council will carry out a “detailed assessment” of movement at the site of a significant rockfall in Ventnor on a road that previously suffered a retaining wall failure.
A section of rock that overhangs Belgrave Road collapsed last Friday night (7 March) and brought large amounts of debris onto the road.
The council closed Belgrave Road and Rex Steps following the incident. It has said that it will continue to monitor the significant rockfall and take all appropriate actions to protect the public.
A spokesperson for the council said that a “detailed assessment of the movement” will be carried out as the area “is known to suffer from geological instability”.
“Island Roads and the council will then work towards determining what action is required to ensure the safety of the area with the intention of removing the fallen rocks and reopening the road at the earliest opportunity,” they added.
“As always, this will be done when we are sure no further imminent movement is likely at this location.”
The rockface is on private land, so Island Roads will also be contacting the private owners of the rockface to discuss their role in this process, the council said.
The rockface overhanging Belgrave Road in August 2024. Credit: Google Earth
Belgrave Road previously suffered a partially collapsed retaining wall in January 2020, which led to a major project to investigate the cause of the collapse and rebuild the wall and road.
The geotechnical work on the road included several stages of ground investigations to help to establish the complex geology and landslide model of the site. Belgrave Road is set on the lower tier of the Ventnor Undercliff landslide system.
The remediation scheme to fix the retaining wall, carried out by Atkins Réalis, Ringway Island Roads, Stoneham Construction and Corefix, won in the UK Project with a Geotechnical Value of between £1M and £3M category at the 2023 GE Awards.
The recent rockfall occurred to the east of the retaining wall scheme at the junction of Belgrave Road and A3055 Road, known locally as “Windy Corner”, according to Isle of Wight County Press.
A spokesperson for Island Roads told GE: "Island Roads previously rebuilt Belgrave Road as the collapsed section was part of the public highway network for which we are responsible. The rock in Belgrave Road is in private ownership and therefore not part of our network nor included in the scope of the previous project."
Following the latest incident, MP for Isle of Wight East, Joe Robertson, called for a “comprehensive long-term strategy” to tackle geological hazards in the area.
Writing on Facebook, he said: “Rather than simply reacting to problems as they arise, the Isle of Wight Council must develop comprehensive long-term strategy for the whole area. Only then will we be in the best position to seek financial support from government and public bodies to secure the town's future.”
He criticised the council for spending millions of pounds on securing the road with a new retaining wall but failing to address “the obvious overhanging rock just above”.
“As expected, it has fallen and damaged that new wall and we are back to square one with all that money wasted. A new approach is needed.”
But landslide expert and University of Hull vice chancellor Dave Petley has said this criticism of the local authority is “somewhat misplaced”.
Writing about the rockfall in his landslide blog, he said that Ventnor is founded on “the largest urbanised landslide complex in NW [North West] Europe, for which the Isle of Wight Council has taken a very proactive approach”.
He added: “Managing a hazard on this scale, with this level of complexity, is extremely difficult.”
Commenting on the recent rockfall, Petley noted that it “is interesting that this collapse occurred during a period of unseasonably warm early spring weather”.
The previous partial retaining wall collapse at Belgrave Road had instead followed a period of heavy and sustained rainfall.
The Isle of Wight Council recently announced that it had received funding to help communities affected by landslides and coastal erosion on the island. The money will be used to recruit a landslide and coastal loss community coordinator for two years. They will work on the southern and southwestern coasts of the island, which are facing serious erosion and landslide problems.
On the Wight also recently reported that the Isle of Wight has approved a spending package worth £600,000 for “essential works” on the landslide-hit Leeson Road as part of its 2025/26 budget.
Comments