Ventnor Blog

ISLE of Wight Council has voted in a new council chairman.
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THE BISHOP of Portsmouth the Rt Rev Kenneth Stevenson has praised Isle of Wight’s Eco-Island vision during a debate in the House of Lords. (more…)

NOMINATIONS for a next month’s landmark parish council elections are now closed. (more…)

Isle of Wight County Councillor and Ward Councillor for Ventnor East, Mr Jonathan Seaver Basildon-Bond has made a public announcement which we are honoured to carry this morning, the 1st of April.

He hasn’t actually stated what it is that he is sorry for, but if he’s looking for ideas of what not what to do, we’ve got a bulging file he can have a thumb through.

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It seems that her maje’s appointment of celebrity gardener Alan Titchmarsh, as High Sheriff to the Isle of Wight has upset the apple cart somewhat.

It’s been reported across several publications that the fact that his property on the Wight is his second home and that he is not a caulkhead makes his appointment a bad decision.

Talking to the Daily Mail, Cllr Patrick Joyce said:
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The most telling and we think, shameful vote conducted at the schools reform debate last Wednesday was in reaction to when Cllr Deborah Gardiner suggested that the public question time should be increased, as so many people in the public gallery were keen to raise points concerning the future of their children’s education.

After the chairman, Roger Mazillius, asked her to quantify how much longer it should be, Cllr Gardiner made the suggestion of a total 30 minutes - 15 minutes longer than the time normally set aside for public questions.
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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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Just heard on IW Radio News that The Serious and Organised Crime Unit who have been investigating the Undercliff Drive scandal, whereby several senior officers were suspended have confirmed that there is insufficient evidence to take the matter further.
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It’s with utter amazement that we’ve just learnt that Joe Duckworth is to be leaving the Island in the summer, being that he only joined in 2006.

We watched him in the council chamber last night and he couldn’t have looked happier, grinning away during certain parts of the evening.

Given the timing of the announcement we figure that it’s highly likely that he’s been wanting or planning to leave for a while, but held back until after the school reform debate yesterday - leaving before would have caused too many waves.

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We’ve been meaning to post an update on our piece about the position of Ventnor’s two county councillors — Cllr Fitzgerald-Bond and Cllr Scoccia — on the closure of Island schools.

We’d half written it ages back, then ebod has prompted us, though a comment on the original posting into telling you what we found out. We wanted to give them the long amount of time to reply, so given the vote is today, we thought we’d better get the piece out to you.
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Update:
Previous title: David Pugh Recommending Option Three: 31 Schools To Close?

Thanks to the council press office for the quick call, pointing out that David Pugh hasn’t said he’d recommend option three, simply that he’d recommend two tier tonight.
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ON MAY 1st over 38,000 electors on the Island will have the opportunity to vote for members of the four new Parish Councils which the Secretary of State and the Isle of Wight Council have confirmed will be established in the Newport, Northwood, Ryde and Whippingham areas. (more…)

Next Wednesday sees a full council meeting at County Hall. We will be covering this meeting with live reports coming straight from the council chamber.

The biggest issue on the agenda is undoubtedly the schools reforms.
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Hold the press!

The long-awaited statement is in from the council on the question we raised with them. There’s a considerable ‘but’ at the end.

It is as follows … (more…)

During the day on Monday, a decision was made by Cllr Alan Wells that Christ The King College should be established starting 1 Sept 2008. This was carried out BEFORE the public release of the results of the school survey.

The decision was made under delegated powers, that is, there was no public debate about it, or public record of how the decision was made - just that it was made.
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We’ve had the wink on a completely unsubstantiated leak of which of the schools Option the council will be revealing at the ’some time after 6:30′ announcement today.

Our mole tells us that … (more…)

Ask nearly anyone on the Isle of Wight who has been following the proposed mass closures of schools and it’s highly likely that they’ll tell you that they’ve been told that it’s down to the Government withdrawing £7-8 million from the Island, if the apparent surplus of school places isn’t reduced to 10%.
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Not sure if you’d caught up with the changes happening to issuing car parking tickets in the UK, which come into law from 31 March.

You may have heard that one of the changes is that the parking attendants no longer have to put the parking tickets on the windscreen of the car for it to become officially issued.
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Five more Island councils have joined the campaign Ferry Fares Fair? It brings the total to 25.

Andrew Turner MP, who is asking the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to investigate cross-Solent services, said the support could make all the difference. (more…)

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.

Grass roots councils across the Island are adding momentum to the campaign ferry fares fare? Nineteen of the 36 parish and town councils and management committees have now lent their support to the campaign. (more…)

A new petition came to our attention yesterday that may be of interest to some of our readers.

This is not a petition to save any particular school, but rather, to force an inquiry into the way the consultation has been carried out.
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This month’s full council meeting (on Wednesday) looks likely to be one of particular interest to many of our readers.

As you may have previously heard, Cllr Patrick Joyce has put forward a motion for the council to abandon it’s current schools proposals.
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It’s not surprising that it appears that there’s some movement in the council’s position on the proposed schools closures - there’s a meeting next Tuesday at County Hall where those councillors against the school reforms are attempting to stop the changes.

The front page of the CP has an article implying that there’s still time for negotiation in the proposed school closures.
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As you’ll be aware. there’s been some confusion on the Island as to who is asking for the changes to the school system.

Here’s the latest episode. IW Council have written to Lord Adonis, Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Schools and Learners. The letter in full is below.
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