Ventnor Blog

Good to hear that the IW council has been taking care of those who have been affected by the potentially dangerous fire in Whippingham, East Cowes.

The residents, who had to leave their homes to ensure their safety, have been looked after by the council at the Riverside centre, Newport.

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There’s a report in The Telegraph today listing some of the most embarrassing questions asked at English Heritage premises.

Osbourne House features three times, but the one we love the most was a response from a young visitor who was told that Queen Victoria had nine children, the question that followed was

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Many of you will be aware that the Isle of Wight Council are in the process of selling off land and properties that they currently own as part of the capital receipts programme.

Three of these are coming up for consideration under delegated powers next week.

We thought you might interested to see the details.
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Andrew Turner has been stand up (literally) for the people of the Island when he spoke about the closure of post offices at a debate about the Royal Mail and Post Office in a Westminster Hall debate recently.

He explained that he’d been writing to the Post Office to them ask why some, seemingly profitable, branches were destined for closure. Sadly he said he I failed to get any sort of sensible reply.
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• East Cowes Primary School amalgamation
• Whippingham Primary School amalgamation
• New Primary School on Osborne Middle site 4 – 11 2FE
• Holy Cross Catholic Primary School 4 – 11 1FE (Rural School)
  possible relocation to Whippingham site
• Wootton Primary School 4 – 11 1FE (Rural School)
• Osborne Middle School Closed

The first public consultation meeting takes places tonight at Osbourne Middle School in East Cowes.

The first in the series of public meetings is expected to be full to capacity, and we are being reminded by the council that places are limited.

We’d suggest you get there early to avoid being turned away.

It is thought that leader of the council, David Pugh will be at the meeting tonight, rather than in Shanklin as rumoured.

Text that follows is taken directly from the Isle of Wight Council Website:

Whilst we want as many people as possible to attend the meetings and to tell us their views, it is important to note that due to strict health and safety laws, numbers of visitors at each venue will be limited. We advise anyone who plans on attending a meeting to arrive in good time. Each meeting starts at 7pm.
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We don’t know about you, but it appears to us that news of ferry passengers going missing, then turning up safely elsewhere seems to be more prevalent these days.

Yesterday a huge rescue operation took place when a ferry foot passenger failed to be counted off a Red Funnel ferry when it docked at East Cowes.foo
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If you’ve been up to East Cowes recently, you might’ve noticed that the blue hoardings in Castle Street have been given a bit of a face lift.

Ventnor artists, Nathan Holt and Aaron Fletcher have been commissioned by Island 2000 to create a huge alphabet along the hoardings and brighten the area up, as part of the Island 2000 No Barriers Project.

There are hopes to encourage pupils from Osbourne Middle to join in and help complete the mural and we’ll keep you up to date of its progress.

[image courtesy of Island 2000]

THE CHAIN Ferry Service between Cowes and East Cowes will undergo essential maintenance on November 24. As a result, it will be out of service on that day.

A free launch service will be provided for foot passengers between Grid Iron pontoon at East Cowes and Thetis pontoon at West Cowes and vehicular traffic will have to divert through Newport. The IW Council apologises for any inconvenience.

Whilst at the unveiling of Mike Forrest’s The Catch back in March, we also grabbed five minutes with Ced Wells, Marketing Manager for A J Wells.

This fabulous piece of public artwork was commissioned by A J Wells and Island 2000, and on the podcast Ced talks us through the process for choosing Mike as the artist.
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What seems like a lifetime ago, back in March this year, we drove up to East Cowes to see Island artist, Mike Forrest, unveil his latest piece of work.

You might recall us in the past, bringing your attention to Mike’s work, this, his latest piece at the time named The Catch, was commissioned by Island 2000 and A.J. Wells.

After the unveiling, we caught up with Mike, who gave us the lowdown on the process and techniques used to create this wonderful piece of public artwork.
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Pardon? I hear you ask. Don’t worry, we’re not talking about the actual New Forest, that would be rather hard to do. We’re referring in fact, to a new painting project in East Cowes.

Cowes based artist Tim Johnson has recently been commissioned by Island 2000 to, as they so beautifully put it, “soften the environmental impact of the long-term installation of blue hoardings around the town’s development areas”.
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