Ventnor Blog

The Isle of Wight featured pretty heavily on Sunday’s Country File on the BBC.

They covered the Island becoming Eco-Island (start of the prog); the walking festival, in particular the speed dating (at about 54:10) ; interviews with Vesta’s boss about wind farms and our Dear Leader, David Pugh (20:30).

Watch it after the jump (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…)

If you liked what you read in Angie’s permaculture piece yesterday and fancy learning more about Permaculture, the next Island Permaculture meeting takes place tomorrow.

This time the meeting takes place at Pat and Pat’s. The meetings are very friendly, it won’t cost you a penny and you’ll get to meet like minded people with a common aim.
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We were alerted to this environmentally friendly way to grow seeds without having to use plastic pots earlier in the week and thought we’d share it with you.
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Many thanks to Rob Drake-Knight from Rapanui for sending through a report of the beach clean that took place last Saturday. As he mentions, these will be taking place quarterly and we’ve keep you informed of when the next is scheduled. Ed

The quarterly Rapanui beach detox took place on Saturday 26th April. We achieved our goal cleansing Grange Chine of it’s plastic burden!
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Don’t forget that tomorrow sees the Brighstone Beach Clean takes place.

Those willing to go down and help collect litter from the beach, should assemble at the Grange Farm reception at 10am.

The weather forecast is lovely for tomorrow, so why not do something to improve the environment you share and help make a difference. (more…)

This weekend the weather forecast is great where better to spend your time than at the Robin Hill Garden Show.

If you think this is something just for horticulturalists think again. There are an amazing number of activities taking place over the weekend, including the Requestival party planned for Saturday night.

VentnorBlog chum Guido Oakley will be performing a ‘carve off’ with fellow wood carvers, Paul Sivell (whose Green Man sculpture at Robin Hill is pictured), Tom Harvey, Ant Beetlestone and Erik Van Dam. It’s always brilliant to watch these wood carvers at work and TV celebrity Geoff Hughes will be judging their masterpieces at 3pm on Saturday.
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Many thanks to Ray Harrington-Vail form the Footprint Trust for sending through this update to the Adopt-A-Garden scheme which was launched on the Wight recently. It’s a brilliant scheme but we were surprised to hear that the take up in Ventnor is very low. Take a read through following and if you think you;d like to get involved, contact details are at the bottom. Ed

The Adopt-A-Garden scheme is an innovative idea, which seeks to bring together two types of people. The person who has a garden they can no longer look after and the individual who wants a growing space.
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It was really heart warming to hear this lovely story of civic pride which is happening every day in Ventnor. It’s this level of pride in the community and surroundings that restores one’s faith in humanity.

Well done Lesley, you’re doing a fantastic job, let’s hope others follow suit, or better still that the litter bugs start putting their rubbish in the bins provided. Ed

A while ago I discovered Lesley from The Ventnorian made herself useful in picking up rubbish other people had dropped in the central car park, the pavements around it and in Spring Hill Gardens. (more…)

Following the appeal back in September last year for your quality stained glass, the designer, Rob Turner has got back in touch and is asking people to search out any unwanted quality coloured stained glass which hopefully could be melted down and reused in the roof design.
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A HIGH-PROFILE conference with internationally-renowned speakers is being held to help the Isle of Wight become an energy-self-sufficient Eco-Island. (more…)

VentBag are continuing the process of pursuing the non-plastic bags for use in and around Ventnor.

They started pursuing this idea well before the rest of the Island, and latterly, the rest of the UK woke up to the idea.

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It’s not just the Isle of Wight who are taking up the challenge of becoming an Eco Island.

According to the Times of Malta, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi claimed at a press conference that he “could not wait” to launch Gozo as an eco-island, a development which would mean a better quality of life for all Gozitans.
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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”.
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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.

Calm down Ravers, this isn’t the Government’s move to legalise ecstasy, it is of course, a national campaign to monitor just how much electricity we use.

National E-Day takes place on 27th February and we are all being asked to switch off household electrical items (which don’t need to be on) for 24 hours from 6pm.

The National Grid will be monitoring the electricity usage before and after the event.

There’s more detail over on the excellent Transition Island blog.

National E-Day

Transition Island, the local branch of the national Community Action Network, will host a meeting in Cowes on Monday 18th February.

These meetings, held in different Island towns, allow local people to hear about the urgent challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change. Vav Simon, from the Transition Island Steering Group, said “Each town can have its own Steering Group to address local issues. Local people know best what is needed and how things can be developed with support from the neighbourhood”.

Held at Northwood House, Vav will outline the problems and some projects that other towns are starting.

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Don’t forget that the competition for kids from Ventnor to design a logo for the new beach recycling bins has only a few weeks left until the closing date.

The competition is open to kids of primary school age who live in Ventnor, St Lawrence or Bonchurch - they don’t have to go to school in Ventnor, but must live here.

The competition is split into three categories:
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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.

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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!

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Please don’t forget to pop down to Ventnor tomorrow and catch the volunteers busily sewing in the window of the RNLI.

The volunteers have been beavering away over the last month and have a great stock of bags to give away should you buy anything from the charity shop.

It’s all part of the Make a Bag Make a Change project which ties in with make Ventnor Plastic Carrier-Bag Free by September 2008

For more information take a look at their website.

[image courtesy of VentBag]

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…)