The Pennyfeathers proposal in Ryde

The Pennyfeathers development at Ryde

Many people on the Island are concerned about this development, not because of the layout or appearance but because off the impact of the whole development on Ryde. There are two main problems, water and traffic.

Considering the traffic, Ryde is a divided town with the Monktonmead Brook cutting the community in two. The railway line follows the course of the Brook. At the end of Gobles Close the railway line and brook go underground. Road traffic crosses the brook at The Esplanade, The Strand and Simeon Street. All road traffic south of this has to cross the brook and railway line by bridges at Park Road, St John's Road and Smallbrook Lane. All these bridges were built in the middle of the 1800s and were not designed for today's traffic.

The Developers propose to build a replacement bridge for the one at Smallbrook Lane to straighten the road and provide easier gradients on the approaches. At the same time the road from the bridge to its junction with Preston Road will be improved. The junction with Marlborough Road will be improved. The road will still only be wide enough for one carriageway in each direction.

While this will improve the ability for heavy traffic to cross the the brook and railway line, it will still be served by narrow roads to the west that are essentially old cart tracks covered by bitumen. The improved road is likely to attract a greater proportion of the traffic crossing the brook and railway line so the junction with Marlborough Road will probably handle more traffic.

This set of circumstances is the culmination of years of poor planning. The situation has become steadily worse since permission was given for the Tesco Store on the East side of the brook. The Island Council does not have the money for any road improvements. The Public Finance Initiative for the Highways is only for remedial work, not new roads.

Therefore the situation can only be worse if this development goes ahead.

The water problem is not so simple. The geology of Ryde consists of a layer of gravel overlying clay. Over the millennia Monktonmead has cut through the upper gravel leaving a valley whose lower slopes consist of clay. Rainwater percolates through the gravel of the higher ground and emerges from the ground as springs lower down the slopes where the clay emerges from under the gravel.

Already there is a problem with rainwater in Ryde. The discharge is out on Ryde Sands but the end of the pipe has been buried by sand gathered by the presence of Ryde Harbour. The rainwater collects in a sump that is pumped out by an electric pump. Because the end of the pipe is buried the pump cannot cope with large amounts of heavy rain. This was experienced last autumn when the properties along the Strand were severely flooded.

The rain that falls on the Pennyfeathers area percolates through the gravel, emerges at the spring-line two-thirds of the way down the hill, runs over the clay and joins the brook to flow down into the centre of Ryde. When the roads, driveways and houses are built a lot of the water will not be able to seep down through the gravel but will run down the surface of the hill, collecting more rapidly at the bottom. The developers intend to take several measures to deal with this. Firstly as much of the surface area will be as permeable as possible. Rainwater will be collected for use in flushing toilets. Ponds and tanks will be created to hold most of the surface run-off. This will be released in a controlled manner at a rate equivalent to the average rainfall. The aim is to control the water flow to avoid the sudden extreme demands on the system.

Sewerage is a more difficult problem. Southern Water have stated that there is reserve capacity at the Ryde pumping station that sends the waste to Sandown. However local residents are not convinced as the storm water drains and sewerage systems are interconnected in the older part of the town. This causes effluent to flow out of the drains when the system cannot handle the storm water. It appears that what is needed is a new piping system to send the sewerage directly towards Sandown and not add to the load on the Ryde pumping station.

A cause for concern is that, while Southern Water and the Environment Agency are official organisations that the Planning Committee are required to consult, they do not have to comply with the recommendations given to the planners. It appears that there is financial incentive for the planners to approve the additional housing. Looking at the track record of the planning department and Councillors over the last few decades, many residents are afraid that those who do not live in the Ryde area may impose a development before the infrastructure has been improved to handle the impact of the thousands of residents that will occupy this addition of a thousand new homes.

Credit should be given to the Developer's Consultants who staged a comprehensive presentation for the public at Appley Manor Hotel. Many members of the public took the opportunity to inspect the display and talk to the considerable number of consultants who were on hand to discuss and explain. There was a very good two-way dialogue with the consultants gaining local information as well as giving it. The Consultant specialising in the hydrological aspects is has accepted an invitation to attend the next meeting of the Ryde Flood Committee which is made up of residents and councillors, mainly from Northeast Ryde.

The one consultant who was not busy talking to visitors was the gentleman dealing with the upgrading of Smallbrook halt for improving rail communications. It seems that everyone is fully in favour of that proposal.

Further information from http://rydeagainstpennyfeathers.co.uk/

At the meeting of the Planning committee of Ryde Town Council in March many members of the public attended. Presentations were made by members of Ryde-against-Pennyfeathers including Mr Roger Whitby-Smith of the IoW Society. The general feeling of the public was against the application and the Planning Committee unanimously voted to reject the application in its present form.