Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

Later this month Today sees the deadline for residents’ views to be heard regarding a development on the site of 26 Bellevue Road, Ryde (VB readers will remember an article published last October regarding a previous application. Ed).

The Ryde North East Heritage Group have contacted VB regarding their fight against the plans for a development of sheltered housing in the road, consisting of 21 flats.

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Private landowners on the Isle of Wight are being offered a chance to reconnect blocks of ancient woodland through the return of a funding scheme made available by the Forestry Commission.

Between 2001 and 2006, new woodlands equivalent to the size of 355 football pitches were planted on the Island thanks to the Jigsaw Scheme.

This year sees the return of that funding initiative, which aims to expand ancient woodland, allowing wildlife to move more freely.

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Mark Young from the Paddle Steamer Ryde Trust is urging readers to sign a petition to help save the Paddle Steamer Ryde. Ed

After many years of unsuccessful negotiations to acquire the Paddle Steamer Ryde (Ryde Queen/The Boat), the Paddle Steamer Ryde Trust finally seemed to get a promising opportunity to do so.

Unfortunately for reasons unknown negotiations have faltered at the last moment, and the administrators of the site have commenced breaking the vessel up.

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Among the changes that the Isle of Wight Council floated last night at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in their list of proposed budget cuts was that low-emission cars would lose the benefit of free parking on the island that was originally introduced with some fanfare.

Instead, owners of these cars would have the option of buying the newly-priced £200 resident permits, or pay the proposed 10% higher parking charges.

Quite a change from when ‘Eco Island’ ruled the roost. In the council’s own in-house One Island magazine in April 2008 the IWC were highlighting their “Green initiative,” in a piece headlined “Free parking scheme encourages low emission cars.”

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The company behind the planning application to put three wind turbines on Cheverton Down intend to take the decision of the Isle of Wight council to appeal off the Island.

The decision to reject was taken back on the 3 December, 2009 (notes from live coverage).

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Annual Hedgelaying Competition and longed to learn this fantastic ancient skill, then a new course being funded by the West Wight Landscape Partnership might be just what you’ve been waiting for.

If you’ve ever attended the At the beginning of February, just a few weeks before the annual competition, free training in the art of hedgelaying will be taking place at Dunsbury Farm in Brook.

The first day of training will be for novices or those with some experience of hedgelaying, whilst the second day will be a masterclass for the more experienced hedgelayer.

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We realise that with it being just a few days before Christmas, most people’s minds will be on whether they’ve remembered to buy enough presents.

If however, you have enough head space to be thinking about your plans for the coming year then this might be one for your 2010 diary.

Each year at the end of February, the RSPB conduct a beached bird survey.

As always, they rely very much on the help given by volunteers and are on the lookout for members of the public to get involved in 2010.

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The decision on the proposal to expand the Brighstone conservation area to include parts of Brook, Freshwater Bay, Hulverstone and Mottistone has been made.

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A stone wall-enclosed shrine overlooking Havenstreet village is one of 18 war memorials being listed or upgraded by English Heritage in their bid to protect war memorials around the UK.

As many readers will already know, the memorial which stands proud at the junction of Havenstreet Road and Firestone Copse Lane commemorates members of the Binstead and Havenstreet communities who lost their lives in action during World War One.

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A while back, the new Chair of the Ventnor Plans Committee, Cllr Brian Lucas, proposed a new award scheme to the Town Council.

To help encourage quality development, he thought it would be a great idea to have a scheme that recognised and acknowledged high quality renovations, refurbishment or new builds.

We reckon it’s a fantastic idea too and and can think of several properties we’d consider nominating immediately.

There have been some beautiful refurbs of Victorian properties as well as 1950s homes recently in the town and surrounding area.

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Readers of the CP letters to the editor page may have had to look twice this week, if they spotted a letter from ‘The Wall’.

‘The Wall’ was calling for residents of to help protect it from being demolished as part of a proposed development on the site it surrounds in Bellevue Road, Ryde.

We were first made aware of its plight when a thread was started on the VB discussion forum.

Much debate has followed and ‘The Wall’ itself has now joined the VB Forum with the intention of raising the profile of the campaign.

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Following on from our article yesterday on the launch of a new Website about the history of Alexandra Gardens, we’re pleased to hear that two of the properties in the road will be open to the public during the Open Heritage weekend.

Number 3 and Number 5 Alexandra Gardens are the only two houses on the road which remain as single unit dwellings.

On 12th and 13th September, as part of the English Heritage Open Heritage Days they join a number of other properties around the Island which will be open to the public free of charge.

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Watching TV is one of the favourite pastimes of this green-couch-potato reviewer, and I’ve even had the cheek once before to recommend it to VentnorBlog readers when inspired by the wonderful Rebecca Hosking’s Natural World programme ‘A Farm for the Future‘.

Well, on Monday night it was time for some serious couch activity again.

George Alagiah is presenting three programmes on the ‘Future of Food‘, and the first episode was broadcast on Monday 17 August.

George Alagiah visits many places around the world, illustrating the impacts of rising population, dwindling oil supplies and rising oil prices, and above all climate change, on the farmers who produce food and the people who eat it – all of us. He also talks with several of the world’s greatest food experts, such as Vandana Shiva and Tim Lang.

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A few years back, ownership of Number 3 Alexandra Gardens changed hands and in the following year or so a great deal work went into renovating and restoring the property. The result is the return of a very grand looking building which is now rented out as holiday accommodation to enthusiastic visitors to Ventnor.

The man behind the renovation was John Allen. We first met John back in 2007 at the unveiling of a Blue Plaque at his property highlighting the fact that famous composer, Edward Elgar, had honeymooned there in 1889 (listen to the podcast).

John’s passion for the history of not only his property, but also the surrounding area, was clear and has been reinforced with the creation of a fascinating new historical Website about Alexandra Gardens. Ann and Paul Hutchins at the Windsor Carlton have worked tirelessly with John to create this fantastic new Website.

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We realise it’s a long time back now, but it’s just possible that some of you might remember the planning application for a six storey building on Ventnor Esplanade being passed by the Isle of Wight Council five years ago.

This was before the days of Conservation Area protection (which now aims protect large parts of Ventnor) and it was also at a time when former planning officer Andrew Pegram (who left IWC last year to work in Nottingham) declared that a six storey building on the fragile Ventnor seafront of one, two and three story buildings was “… a minor application…”

A minor application? A six storey seafront building, blocking views of the terraces could be considered a minor application? Thank goodness Andrew Pegram doesn’t work for IWC anymore.

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Don’t forget the Brighstone Beach Clean takes place tomorrow.

Mart and Rob from Rapanui have organised the beach clean in association with the marine Conservation Society and hope to clear the beach of debris that pollutes the beach and waters in that area.

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This coming Saturday sees the return of the Beach Clean with the green-minded lads from Rapanui.

It’s not just about picking up rubbish either, as the Marine Conservation Society will record the data of what and how much is removed from the beach.

If you want to take part in the beach clean, bring some gloves and meet in the reception area of Grange Farm at 10am.

For more info about the beach cleans organised by Rapanui check out their Website.

Image courtesy of David Harrigan at Able Images

We’ve been following the progress of the volunteers involved with the Green Gym for sometime now and notice that this week they’ll be getting to work on Rew Down.

The group meets every Wednesday at different locations around the Island, helping to clear overgrown areas, tidy up and conserve our Island’s natural beauty.

If you can’t make it along this week, cvheck the links ta the bottom for details of the forthcoming events, next week is Brading Down and the following, Cowes County Primary School.

Here’s what they say about this weeks outing to Ventnor.
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Fantastic to hear that PS Monarch managed today to raise £600 at auction, kick starting their campaign to raise £15,000 for a new boiler for the wonderfully cute Paddle Steamer that any of you visiting the Medina may have seen.

The owners of PS Ryde, aka Ryde Queen (pictured), which is soon to be cut up and disposed of, gave permission for PS Monarch Skipper Matt O’Crowley to go aboard and salvage any decorative items that might be left.

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The Isle of Wight Festival opens it’s gates to thousands of music fans today, but it’s not just music that’s on offer.

Around the huge site there are all manner of activities and things to see if you fancy a break from the main stage, big top, acoustic (formerly bandstand) stage, or other music tents such as the Hipshaker and Kashmir tents.

We hear that a new chill out are has been created in the Arboretum, called The Hive.

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Last week, as part of the Great British Butterfly Hunt, the long-standing Environment Editor of The Independent, Michael McCarthy, made his first ever visit to the Isle of Wight.

We reckon from reading his latest opinion piece, that he’s probably wondering why it took him so long to discover our beautiful Isle.

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Island based ethical clothing label Rapanui have been in touch details of a very important initiative being promoted by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS).

As regular readers will know, the lads from Rapanui are passionate about green issues and particularly about keeping the beaches and water around the Island clean.

The MCS has been pushing to include more Marine reserves (very much like land based nature reserves) around the UK in order to protect not only fish on the endangered species list, but also whole ecosystems which sadly at the present are being irreversibly damaged.

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World Environment Day might not be until tomorrow, but Festival HQ are releasing news today of their contribution to green issues.

Having 50,000 adoring fans in the palm of your hands is a powerful position to be in, so hats off to John Giddings for teaming up with Ed Miliband (he of Department of Energy and Climate Change [DECC] fame) to encourage Isle of Wight Festival goers to sign up to the campaign to reach a global deal on greenhouse gas emissions.

Ed Miliband won’t be there in person, but will be screened on the main stage throughout the three days of the festival, sending a message to festival goers to sign up to the campaign to reduce global greenhouse gases.

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Getting up at silly o’clock this morning, I was messaged by Julian Winslow who was also up early for an assignment.

He suggested having a listen to the birds and with Ian Boyd’s words about bird song still ringing in my ears, I opened the window.

As is our bent, it also seemed like a good idea to record it to share with you just in case you weren’t up at 05:15 this morning.

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News reaches us this evening that Ventnor beach has once again been awarded Blue Flag status as well as the Quality Coast Award. We have not been able to clarify this with Encams yet, but have it on good authority that the Blue Flag can continue to fly high over Ventnor for another year.

Readers will remember that Ventnor was awarded the Blue Flag last year after a break of five years.

A number of criteria need to be met before a Blue Flag is awarded including stringent tests on water quality, the presence of paid life guards, sufficient recycling as well as education initiatives – something which is fulfilled by the Coastal Centre Rockpool Surveys.

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