Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

Remember that we gave you the heads up about the Car Free Scheme launching on the Isle of Wight?

Well, this morning it happened at The Mission in Chale and the scheme is something for Island businesses, as well as visitors. Easy to join, with many potential benefits.

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A fancy new inflatable mobile cinema is making its way to Sandown Primary School today.

The iDome cinema will be at the primary school today and tomorrow and screening a new animated film about the importance of recycling.

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A new Car-Free Scheme is about to be launched on the Island hoping to make it a ‘greener’ place to visit.

Spearheading the project is co-founder of the Big Green Island Project Community Interest Company, Lois Prior.

Regular readers will recognise Lois from her many years of work in helping to ‘green up’ the Island’s tourism industry.

Her enthusiasm and motivation has inspired many people to follow suit, which can only be a good thing for the Island and the planet.

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The 18th Annual IW Hedgelaying Competition returns next weekend, this year being hosted Mr and Mrs J Sheldon at Kings Manor Farm, Freshwater.

We’ve been going along to these events for a few years now and are always so impressed with the skill and dedication of those taking part.

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As part of the wider public consultation on the plans to manage coastal flooding and erosion between Eastern Yar and Bembridge Harbour another exhibition is being held at Bembridge Village Hall this coming Friday (12 Feb).

The December exhibition attracted over 200 residents and it’s hoped that this final exhibition before the deadline for comments will be just as successful.

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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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Footprint Trust’s Ray Harrington-Vail is a pretty forward thinking chap – not surprising really given he’s been banging on about the importance of eco-friendly living for donkey’s years.

So, we weren’t in the least bit surprised when we heard that he has embraced the power of the Internet and is using YouTube to help spread the word to a younger audience.

Working with Ventnor-based Utility Films, the two minute short film, The Running Man, tells a romantic tale from the Isle of Wight featuring local comedian and actress Hannah George.

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Loyal VB readers who have been with us for a few years, are fairly likely to be able spot the kind of story that we love here at VB HQ.

So when we heard about a local band who had recorded their track for the Live Wired Competition by using only renewable energy sources, we were keen to find out more.

The Cassette Recorders have been knocking about together since August last year creating what they describe as ‘dance music for drunks’.

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News reaches us that six new eco-friendly cars have just joined the Isle of Wight Council’s fleet of cars.

Opting for the Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion cars enables to the Council to do their bit to help towards reducing the Island’s CO2 emissions.

The cars will be used by those who carry out home visits and will mean they no longer have to use their own vehicles to travel around the Island.

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Hearty congratulations must surely go to residents of the Isle of Eigg who have just received a prestigious award and prize of £300,000 for making their island mostly energy self sufficient.

Back in 1997 the islanders got together and bought the Island with the intention of making it a real Eco Isle.

Thirteen years later and theIsle of Eigg has shown just what can be achieved when the right approach is taken to self sustainability.

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Interested in climate change?

Did you know that there’s a collection of books and DVDs at Ventnor Library for you to borrow during January and February that might help expand your knowledge base.

DVDs are priced at just 98p per night. What a bargain!

Image: Peter Blanchard under CC BY-SA 2.0

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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The Bournemouth Daily Echo are reporting this morning that permission to build a wand wind farm off the coast of the Isle of Wight has today been approved.

There are nine zones that have received approval around the UK.

These include sites in the Irish Sea, the Bristol Channel, the Moray Firth, the Firth of Forth, off the coast of Norfolk and of course off the Isle of Wight.

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An pro-turbine member of the public is urging Islanders to support a new petition urging government support for on-shore and off-shore turbines for the Isle of Wight.

Created via the Prime Minister’s No.10 Website, the petition calls for “Prime Minister to push forward plans for wind turbines on, or offshore from, the Isle of Wight.”

At time of publishing this article there were 568 signatures on the petition which runs until 16th March 2010.

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There were many items of interest discussed at the Ventnor Town Council (VTC) last night, all of which we’ll be writing about over the course of the day.

During councillor question time, Cllr Rob Mew requested that an item be added to the agenda for the February meeting.

He wished for the VTC to discuss the idea of having a wind turbine placed somewhere in Ventnor (possible Rew Down).

He told his fellow councillors that he’d recently seen a Panorama programme which featured a town in Scotland that’d done the same, raising £50-60,000 for the town.

It was agreed that this would be added to the February agenda.

Image: Rural Learning Center under CC BY 2.0

We’ve upgraded our weather page with a couple more gizmos from the Met Office.

To give a spread over the Island, we’ve got the weather in Cowes, as well as St Catherine’s Point.

Both have a five-day forecast including wind-speed (in knots) and below that a rainfall, pressure and temperature map forecasts.

The BBC forecast has now been placed underneath.

If you’re wondering what the weather might be doing over the next few days, pop over and have a look our Isle of Wight Weather page.

Anyone who has been a reader of VB over the years will know that we think that the way the planning department and its enforcement unit at the Isle of Wight Council (IWC) are run is important. They have the responsibility of keeping an eye and hand on large parts of the where we live.

Reading in the CP last week that the Isle of Wight council had accelerated an enforcement issue from a complaint to the actual drafting of an enforcement notice in less than a month, we were compelled to find out more.

It was all over a 35m high art spar in Gate House Lane, Ashey – an attractive and rather interesting artwork which is a prototype being tested prior to manufacture.

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Since the Isle of Wight council refused planning permission for wind turbines at Cheverton Down, there has been a significant rise in membership of a group of Facebook called – Campaign for wind turbines on the Isle of Wight.

As we write this piece, membership stands at over 3,750 – an interesting figure as the anti-turbine group ThWART quoted their membership at around 2,500 (from memory).

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Anyone who followed the Vestas occupation may be interested in this article in from Ryde Trades Union Council. Ed

Ex-Vestas Worker Politician Ian Terry of the Isle of Wight has been speaking at the fringes of the Climate Change Conference in Denmark.

One of the almost 20 speakers at the magnificent 100.000 demonstration in Copenhagen was Ian. He said, amongst other things, that the present established politicians could not be trusted and this was the experience of the Vestas occupation.

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More from VB friend and contributor, Rowan Adams. If you feel inspired to pen some words to share with our readers, do get in touch and let us know. Ed

Are you embarrassed in front of the neighbours when they see those stubborn global warming stains on your Eco-Island image?

Fed up with waiting for the head of your community to do those household chores you’ve been asking them to do, like letting you put up wind turbines?

Need to stop your home getting washed away by more extreme weather?

Forget the old greenwash!

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A new online guide aimed at helping businesses prepare for the effects of climate change has been launched.

This handy resource is the work of Climate South East, South West Climate Change Impacts Partnership, South West Tourism and Tourism South East, who have developed the guide, ‘Preparing for Change: climate-proof your tourism business’.

What’s it got?
The site guides users through the various aspects of changes in climate that may affect businesses, such as floods, heatwaves and drought, with practical advice on how to combat the effects.

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Remember that the protesters at the Magic Roundabout, outside ex-Vestas plant in Newport, were evicted two Fridays ago – less than a week before the planning meeting where the Cheverton Down wind turbines were turned down?

Well it looks like that might have been a bit of good timing for the protesters, as they’ve now been able to take their protest up to the Capital. Pretty much bang in the middle of the Capital – Trafalgar Square.

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A £3.5m funding boost at Vestas Blades has been reported on IW Radio this morning, the money set to feed into research for offshore wind turbines.

Readers will remember that Vestas received £6million funding earlier in the year from SEEDA and the DECC.

Back in July, it was reported that the new facility in Stag Lane would create around 250 jobs, but we hear today that this figure has now increased to 400.

US lacking orders
Meanwhile over in the US, 500 staff have been given a temporary leave of absence due to lack of orders at the Windsor, Colorado plant.

Read more on that.

Image: M.Prinke under CC BY-SA 2.0

A couple of weeks ago, VB friend and contributor, Rowan Adams, armed with her notebook and bundles of enthusiasm made her way to a climate change conference being held at Cowes Yacht Haven. Her father, Mike Adams, who happens to be a civil engineer father helped make her attendance possible. Here’s her report. Ed

Thinking globally and talking locally, the Isle of Wight hosted six world-class speakers on climate change on 20 November.

Local environmental consultant Dr Bruce Denness was one of the people who advised the South-East branch of the Institution of Civil Engineers about the subject and possible speakers for this year’s conference at Cowes Yacht Haven and he suggested Climate Change and Engineering.

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If you’re into surfing then you’ll have already heard of the Isle of Wight Surf Club.

What you might not know though is that next weekend the club is relaunching itself.

Those involved tell us that the emphasis in 2010 is going to be on developing a community within the sport at a grass-roots level.

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