The DoI Minister has told Keys her department should have dealt better with the proposed 20mph rollouts in towns and villages.
Dr Michelle Haywood was asked about the process in Keys where she confirmed the DoI had received many words of support from residents in response to the statutory required process.
During a fierce question time, Dr Haywood said: “Department communications with the public were primarily focused on the first delivery phases of the scheme Port St Mary and then Douglas and Onchan.
We did not proactively address the scheme for the rest of the island, and we regret treating this project like any other traffic regulation order.
“We should recognise that public interest was significantly higher for this particular scheme.”
Fury
The apology did little to placate angry members.
Glenfaba and Peel MHK Kate Lord-Brenann said: “We seem to have an attitude which is saying we’re just going ahead… There’s been a flagrant disregard not only to members who are in touch with the views of their constituents, but also to Tynwald.”
Her concerns were echoed by colleague Onchan MHK Rob Callister, who said there had been a “total lack of engaging of publicly elected members” and accused the minister of an “air of arrogance”, which Dr Haywood denied.
Support
Amid the political fireworks, Dr Haywood confirmed that over 700 correspondence had been received which would be assessed by the DoI.
She stressed many responses had been supportive of the policy, saying: “Lots of them have said, ‘Please, can you include my road?’, ‘Thank you very much for doing this, because I’ve wanted this for years.'”
Wrong Email
Dr Haywood also apologised for the DoI issuing the wrong email address for residents to respond to the notice, something the minister accused Manx.News of getting wrong after our readers highlighted the issue.
She said: “We’d like to apologise for the typo in the initial version of the press release, which unfortunately caused a little bit more stress and confusion amongst the public because they started believing that they couldn’t comment and that we weren’t listening.”
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