Ventnor Blog

It was with great dismay that we heard on Tuesday evening that the Planning Committee refused the application for conversion and continued use of cottages as shepherd’s accommodation at Couthy Butts, Downcourt Farm, Godshill. As our readers will be aware, these are the last remaining examples of Georgian workers cottage on the Wight and now the planning officers have their wish, it is likely that the owners will be required to demolish the 200 years+ buildings.

As we were unable to attend the committee meeting, we’re grateful to Professor Russell from the CPRE for allowing us to publish his report below. If you don’t have time to read through all the details, skip to the Councillor’s Discussion at the bottom for the guts. Ed

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Whilst we were roaming around the recent Isle of Wight Festival we were drawn to a tent bearing the name ‘Give Bees a Chance’.

We’d heard that a couple of Bees were asking for a second chance that weekend, so we made our way into the tent to chat with the lovely Sam from Gift to Nature to find out more. (more…)

The fate of the last remaining Georgian workers cottages on the Wight will be decided next Tuesday at the Planning Committee.

We’re astonished that the planning officer has recommended refusal to retain the cottages and convert into them shepherd’s accommodation.

For those not familiar with the case you can read some background posted by one of the owners over on the forum.

To see the application and plans take a look at the Council Planning Web site, and to read the officer’s recommendation to the Planning Committee check the Council Web site.

Great news reaches us this week that Ventnor Beach has once again been awarded Blue Flag Status!

This is fabulous news, not only for visitors to our lovely beach, but it should have a great knock-on effect for the whole town.

There has been a huge amount of effort put into winning the award, so everyone involved should be heartily congratulated! (more…)

Two exciting Blue Flag educational initiatives are about to be launched in Ventnor. It’s all part of the drive for Ventnor to gain Blue Flag status (we’ll be able to give you more news on that soon).

The Ventnor Partnership (which is a sub-set of the Ventnor Town Council) has joined forces with the Isle Wight Council’s Coastal Visitors Centre (CVC) to devise two valuable surveys, that will not only help discover how the beaches are used and can be improved, but will be a great educational tool for any children or young people who get involved.

It is hoped that residents, visitors and schools will help complete the surveys, one of which is on Beach Use and other on Rock Pool Habitat.
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Anyone interested in the history and renovation of Freshwater Court, don’t forget that the Jarman family will be giving a talk tonight on that very subject.

As part of The Farringford Tennyson Literary and Arts Society meeting, Chris and Hilary will talk you through the trials and tribulations of taking on the renovation of this impressive house. (more…)

This Thursday, the Isle of Wight Coastal Visitors Centre in Ventnor are inviting families along to the Rockpool Ramble.

The rocky shore of Ventnor’s Coastline is home to a fascinating array of creatures adapted to live in this hostile environment.

Hunt for crabs under rocks, prawns in pools and blennys hiding in the seaweed.

To book your place on a rockpool adventure please telephone the Coastal Centre on

01983 855 400 or e-mail coastal.centre(at)iow.gov.uk.

Image: G-Hat

Many thanks to Chris Jarman for sending through details of a talk taking place next Thursday that we’re sure will be of interest to many of our readers.

The Farringford Tennyson Literary and Arts Society meeting, held at Farringford (Freshwater) plays host to the Jarman family, who will be presenting on the subject of renovation of Freshwater Court.

Anyone who went along to the Wessex Cancer Trust Spring Fete last weekend, will agree that Freshwater Court is an impressive building with beautiful grounds.

But it wasn’t like this when the Jarmans took it on several years ago. They have lovingly renovated the property with traditional materials and methods. (more…)

In the final part of the interview with Freshwater resident Chris Jarman, amongst others things, the subject of development and how this works with communities across the Island is discussed.

As we stated previously, even though the Real World Trust have since pulled out of Weston Manor, we still felt it was important to publish these interviews which took place back in January, as they raise many contradictions and discrepancies.
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Jonny Fitzgerald Bond! Wow, what a guy!

He never ceases to amaze us and on Tuesday night at the Ventnor Town Council Planning meeting he reinforced our views of him once again.

When discussing the planning application to build a house in a garden on Madeira Road (since when does an established 150 year old garden become an infill site?) he stated that he had no problem with the Victorian wall being demolished to make way for the proposed dwelling, because IT WAS MADE OF BREEZE BLOCKS.

Come again old boy? (more…)

Tomorrow sees the launch of the very first RiverFest.

It takes place in Newport by the quayside and surrounding river area.

There are tons of activities taking place over the day including a six mile river walk, street theatre, stilt walkers and fire show (with the amazing Matt Splatt) and even a mini beast safari. (more…)

Another demolition order from the County Council is still on the cards.

Following the posting last month about the proposed demolition of the last remaining Georgian Agricultural cottages on the Island, we can report that there has been some developments.

Unfortunately, it’s not for the better. One of the owners, Sabrie has posted her thoughts on the forum in response to the letter of recommendation by the IW AONB Partnership.

The lads from Rapanui got in touch today, to let us know about a beach clean planned for the end of the month.

It’s taking place on the beach near Brighstone and is being organised in collaboration with the Marine Conservation Society.

They organise beach cleans every quarter and normally work the Freshwater and Totland beaches, but this time are moving further around the coast.
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It was with great surprise that we read the story last week in the County Press about a pair of Georgian agricultural cottages whose fate currently lies with the Planning Department.

Back in 2000, the owners of the cottage were informed by the Health and Safety Executive that they needed to make safe the dilapidated buildings which date back nearly 200 years.
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We went along to a meeting last night in Freshwater where the future use of Weston Manor was being discussed.

There’s a fair bit to report from it, which we’ll pick up later in the week, but the biggest surprise of the evening was delivered by a Mrs Robertson.

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Part of an Isle of Wight Council-led scheme to repair and regenerate tired and run-down historic buildings and areas in Ryde has won an award. (more…)

The meeting being held to discuss the future of Weston Manor has been re-scheduled for Tuesday next week.

Same place, Totland Church Hall starting at 7.30pm.

Due to the bad weather conditions the meeting planned for tonight to discuss the future of Weston Manor has been postponed. For those of you interested, we’ll let you know as soon as we hear about the new dates. Thanks to Chris for keeping us up to date.

Back at the end of January we were invited up to Quay Arts to listen to a lecture which had been organised by the Isle of Wight Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership.

It was a fascinating evening, and we were very lucky to hear a lecture by Sue Clifford of Common Ground, which if you haven’t heard of before, is well worth finding out more about, by checking out their website.
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Cancelled due to bad weather conditions.

Those who have been following the saga of Weston Manor and The Real World Trust’s attempt to convert the wonderful Grade II listed building into a drink and drug rehabilitation centre, may be interested in a meeting being held next Monday night.

Now that the Real World Trust have dropped their plans to convert the manor, suggestions for others uses for the site are being canvassed by the Totland Parish Council. (more…)

We all know that there’s a lot of bad talk about the council at the moment over their proposals to alter the school structures - well don’t be down on them too much.

Joe Duckworth, Chief Exec of the council, told VentnorBlog that the council will be putting some money behind the scheme to make Ventnor plastic bag free, VentBag, as part of their Eco-Island campaign to help it to flourish.

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If you hadn’t thought that floods and other weird weather conditions weren’t a big enough indicator that things are changing on the planet, The Daily Mail has some news for you.

It’s reporting that a duck has recently given birth to 14 ducklings on the Island - four months early.
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Back in August, we ran a piece about the possible tidying up and ongoing maintenance of the wonderful Flowersbrook area.

Since then, the Ventnor 2007 team have met with Matthew Chatfield, Parks & Countryside Manager who is keen to support the project, as are the Ventnor Enhancement Fund. (more…)

You might remember the appeal we put out last month for any old pieces of stained glass that people might be able to donate for the top windows of the loos.

Well, the planning application for the demolition of the old loos by the paddling pool and construction of new super ones has now gone into the planning department and can be viewed online.
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We held the first Transition Island public meeting last night (Thursday 11/10/07) at the Riverside Centre and over 65 people attended. It was a resounding success with energetic discussion and volunteers stepping forward to drive the project onwards. The decision was taken near unanimously to adopt the Transition Towns model for the whole Island, which does not stop the model being adopted for individual towns or villages as well.

The Island needs to plan for oil price rises as soon as possible. These rises were predicted many years ago to start between 2006 and 2012.

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