ISLANDERS living on unadopted roads are having to pay hundreds of pounds each household to improve the surface — or Amey won't collect rubbish from the kerbside.

Twenty-nine of the Island's unmade roads are affected.

Cllr Barry Abraham, who represents Wootton, questioned the necessity of the demands during a pandemic when people are already struggling to make ends meet.

Amey states that uneven and potholed surfacing is a risk to loading operatives, and overgrown hedges and trees cause visibility issues.

If the roads don't meet the required standards, within 28 working days of getting the notice, householders may have to take their wheelie bins to the end of the road on bin days.

Red Road in Wootton is one of the roads currently served notice to improve.

Cllr Abraham said residents were getting quotes to see how much the work was going to cost.

He said: "The instruction comes across as officious and not sympathetic, and it is not the ideal time to do the work considering we are still in the middle of a pandemic.

"Not everyone has a lot of spare capital to bring their road up to standard.

"I have been trying to help residents and have held a zoom meeting with them, and I would be interested in getting a group set up to help people living on unadopted roads."

A spokesperson from the Isle of Wight Council, also representing Amey, said: "There are over 250 private and unadopted roads on the Island that we collect waste and recycling from every week.They have not been deemed unfit for collection.

"The council and Amey both have a legal obligation to ensure that our collection crews have a safe working environment, so we do ask people living on private roads to make sure the areas where waste is collected from outside their properties are reasonably level and safe, so our staff can move the bins across, and load into the vehicles.

"We've made a smaller list of 29 private roads where repairs to the roads are needed so collection staff can work safely.

"Residents have 28 working days to either repair the road or agree with us a plan of repairs.

"As a last resort, and if we are unable to agree a safe way to continue collecting waste in a certain road, we could ask residents to use temporary collection points further down the road.

"Anybody with an Assisted Collection will be unaffected, and will continue to have their waste collected from the agreed point on their property.

"Anybody affected who wants to talk with us or have a meeting to look at the site has been given contact details so we can arrange a meeting or site visit."