Ventnor Blog

John Giddings is putting a positive spin on Lily Allen cancelling her appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival - and getting a mention of the Eco-Island initiative in there too.
(more…)

WHILE thousands of people have used IW Council leisure centres to get healthy, the buildings themselves have also been shedding tonnes off their carbon footprints. (more…)

The Urgent Challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change
Transition Island, the local branch of the national community action network, will host a meeting in the Winter Gardens on Monday 3rd March.

These meetings, held in different Island towns, allow local people to hear about the Transition Towns project. Vav Simon, from the Transition Island Steering Group, said “Each town can address its own issues. Local people know best what is needed and how things can be developed with support from the neighbourhood. There is a great deal townsfolk can do”.
(more…)

THE ISLE of Wight Council is set to trailblaze a number of key Eco-Island initiatives to make the county a beacon of excellence for green issues. (more…)

At last night’s full council meeting at County Hall, Newport, council leader, David Pugh announced the council will be further embracing Green issues.

Thirteen council vehicles will be adapted to run on bio fuels (we wonder if they will be supplied by Wight Made Bio Diesel?).

They have also stated that they plan to reduce the councils CO2 emissions by 4%, with various schemes.

A Zero plastic bag scheme - pioneered in Ventnor - will be extended over the Island.

It’s great news to see that the IW council appears to be serious about the embracing the Green issue.

Great to see in the CP that the IW Council Cabinet meeting gave full backing to the Eco Island plan.

As Ross Findon reports, not only is it hoped that the Island will benefit from becoming cleaner, but there’s a serious chance for the Island to become a ‘Green playground’ for those researching Green issues and products, leading to the Island to be a Green centre for the UK.

Two relevant up coming events are the Eco Island conference — an mini-Kyoto type event — to be held on 26 March at Cowes Yacht Haven and the Big Green Picnic, which VentnorBlog is a proud supporter of.

News reaches us this afternoon that AONB Lead Officer within the IOW AONB Partnership, John Brownscombe, has handed in his notice and will heading off to distant shores (well, the mainland).

John has held a pivotal role at the AONB over the last six years and his departure will be met with great sadness amongst his colleagues. (more…)

Thanks to Mark for sending through this photo of the blackboard outside Noah’s Ark.

In case you can’t read Steve’s writing on the blackboard, it states that as of 1st Feb his shops (the pet store and the greengrocer) will no longer be supplying plastic bags, but instead, will be offering cornstarch bags at a cost of 5p each.

Steve commented on the forum over the weekend that he’s been amazed by how Ventnor residents had embraced the drive to go plastic bag free.

(more…)

The next monthly meeting of Island Permaculture Group takes place at Limerstone this coming Saturday.

The meeting is open to all with an interest, call 01983 614797 for directions.

Permaculture is an ecological design process for gardens, allotments, farms, etc to increase productivity of food (and other things) as naturally and efficiently as possible.

Meetings are usually hands-on practical projects, with time to chat, share info and discuss hopes and progress.

We distributed 116 recycled fabric morsbags, they were very popular.

The RNLI received just over £48 in donations on top of their takings for all the goods sold today which we are delighted about.

It was lovely to talk to so many residents about Ventnor going Plastic Carrier bag free, I think everyone that we spoke to was 100% behind the idea.

It was great fun to do, we certainly surprised some people who were not expecting to see a couple of people sewing bags in a shop window!

(more…)

As promised, we dropped over to the RNLI in Ventnor on Saturday to see how Sheila and Angie were getting on with their Make A Bag, Make A Change bag making session in the front windows of the RNLI in Ventnor.

Not only did it attract considerable attention from those passing in the street, but lots of them came in to buy things from the RNLI, so they could qualify for their own free bag. Others also donated further money by-way of appreciation.

The volunteers had already built up a stock of 60 bags at the start of the day, lucky really as they ended up distributing over 110 bags during just one day!

(more…)

Whilst we were gathering vox pops at the Big Green Picnic launch last week, we also caught up with Lynn Clarke, Community Liaison Officer from Island Waste Services.

Lynn is very passionate about recycling and sustainability on the Island, and as her answer to the question “What does Eco Island mean to you?” was so comprehensive, we felt it was worthy of it’s own podcast. (more…)

As mentioned earlier, we were at the launch of the Big Green Picnic last week. All the Island’s movers and shakers as far as green issues and sustainability go, were there to hear what the council is planning for the One Big Picnic, their high profile environmental event in May.

After David Pugh and Joe Duckworth had given their speeches, we worked our way through the audience or pounced on people queuing to make their ‘green pledge’ (everyone was invited to strip their plates of meat and have their souls soles painted green before slapping them down on sheets of paper), to grab some vox-pops.

We asked one simple question …. (more…)

As part of the Council’s vision to turn the Isle of Wight into the first Eco-Island, there will be tons of initiatives coming out from County Hall over the next few months.

One which caught our attention last week was the launch of the Big Green Picnic (we’ll be publishing some podcasts later today from the event).

The Big Green What, you ask? The Big Green Picnic (BGP) is set to become the Island’s premier, high-profile, environmental event this year.

Taking place over the weekend of 24/25 May, the BGP aims to inspire the Island’s population to embrace the idea of sustainable living in order to reduce our carbon emissions and help save the planet, man.

So what can you expect to see at the BGP? (more…)