Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

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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Those were the words of David Pugh, Leader of the Isle of Wight Council, in May 2008.

Regular readers who have been following the wind turbine debate may remember the interview we did with David Pugh at the end of the Big Green Picnic last year.

We chatted about a new application that would be forthcoming for three turbines on Cheverton Down.

He told us, “I’ve made it quite clear, if we’re to be an Eco-Island, we have to have some on-shore Wind turbines.”

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Well, we know that the political leadership of the IW Council has control over the Corporate Plan, but who has a considerable influence over it?

The Corporate Plan was developed in conjunction with a body called Island Strategic Partnership, or ISP as it’s abbreviated.

It has taken us a little digging to find out who makes up the ISP.

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A new Website, aiming to help Islanders recycle their unwanted goods and make some cash has been launched.

The creators of Wightsale.com tell us they hope their Island based Website will promote the concept of Eco Island whilst encouraging people to sell on their unwanted goods rather than sending them to landfill.

It also hopes to encourage it’s users to make changes to the way they live by promoting Green Gifts, Car Sharing, Recycling, Grow your own, Green Business for sale, Eco Books and Training.

Why not check out the site?

Earlier today, Caroline Lucas, MEP and Leader of the Green Party made a visit to the ‘Magic Roundabout’ (as it’s become more fondly known as) outside the Vestas Blade plant in Newport.

She’d spent a couple of hours chatting to and listening to concerns of the ex-workers and campaigners, many of whom have been camped on the roundabout for several months now.

We caught up with her before she left for the mainland to have a chat about the campaign.

We started by asking Caroline what she thought about the closure of the Vestas Wind Turbine Blade plant.

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A scheme to help reduce the carbon footprint of the Isle of Wight by subsidising cavity and loft insulation launches today on the Wight.

As part of the Eco-Island vision, energy company E.ON has joined forces with the Isle of Wight Council to deliver an Islandwide insulation scheme.

Those taking advantage of the scheme could see up to a £420 saving each year on the cost of heating their homes.

Installation company, Mark Group, report that the scheme will result in the creation of many new jobs in the first year of the two year scheme.

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A group of Islanders who want to support renewable energy, including on-shore wind, are asking other Islanders and visitors to write to the Isle of Wight Council to let them know if they support wind turbines.

The Eco Island Supporters Group have been collecting letters in the last couple of weeks, and handed over what they’ve collected so far on Wednesday 23 September. (The Liberal Democrats on the Council – and their prospective parliamentary candidate, Jill Wareham – are in the photo too because they accepted the letters on behalf of the Council, as the ruling group did not want to do so.)

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Remember that the council hadn’t started to work out how much it would cost to transfer children from home to the new locations of schools – after they shut many local schools?

Well, they’ve finally had their calculators out and totted up the costs.

The papers reveal that they think it will cost an additional £400,000 to transfer children from their homes to the new, more remote schools. (item 55 on page B-12)

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Rowan sent VB this article on the night of the full council meeting.

–Ed

On Wednesday evening the Isle of Wight’s elected councillors did a fine thing. They put aside ya-boo politics, moved beyond simplistic ideology on all sides, and unanimously voted for a motion that showed more than just sympathy for the Vestas workers.

Councillor Geoff Lumley had circulated his proposed motion before the meeting started. But by the time he got to the meeting he had already amended it, putting aside his own political commitment to public ownership, because he knew that other councillors would probably not feel able to support such a motion for ideological reasons.

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Simon is sending back updates from the Council chamber. Keep refreshing your page for updates.

Public questions
Q: Mrs Wareham – What has the council done to retain jobs at Vestas, given the big impact?

Cllr Brown – I’ve submitted a report to council, with a full page on Vestas. Will be in debate later.

Q: Mr Wortham – leader has warned of lean times, how does this balance with large outputs.

Doubling the cost of business case to £7.5m.

Cllr Giles – PFI is my case. IWC will get nearly £1Bn, so the £7.5m isn’t much. Papers are two months early. Let’s not get side tracked into negativity. We will get money from the gov we’d never have.

Mr Wortham – £7.6m is a lot of money, that other councils have had to spend.

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Cllr Geoff Lumley is tabling a question at today’s Full Council meeting, forcing the council’s elected member to address the loss of jobs at Vestas.

In the light of the devastating loss of 600+ jobs at the local Vestas plant, the IW Council supports the view of the Island’s MP that “it is important that public money is invested in businesses that are firmly rooted in local economies” and till work pro-actively to make that aspiration a reality in the future.

in the meantime and in the face of the current Vestas situation, the IW Council will exert whatever pressure it can to get the Government to facilitate moving the Vestas plant into alternative ownership as a way of not only saving the 600+ local jobs, but also of promoting its own policies to expand renewable energy sources, including wind power.

Could be an interesting discussion. It’s open to the public and starts at 6pm at County Hall.

On the last day of production of blades at the Vestas Factory in Newport, Island MP, Andrew Turner tells us that Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Ed Milliband MP) yesterday told the House of Commons that Vestas had made it clear that government grants would not have made any difference to their decision to continue manufacturing on the Island.

Many people will have heard the comments on the news from Simon Hughes, Liberal Democrat Spokesman on Climate Change criticising the Government for not stepping in to help save the jobs at Vestas.

Vestas’ reason for closing the plant here and moving to the US is due to there being a larger market across the pond.

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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

Town Clerk, John Farrant gave a report to the Ventnor Town Council on Monday night on the provision of allotments in Ventnor.

Discussions have been ongoing with Matthew Chatfield, Head of Parks, Beaches and Countryside and Mr Farrant made a point of praising Mr Chatfield for his co-operation and assistance in preparing the plan for the allotments.

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When VentnorBlog broke the story of the Cheverton Down Wind Farm re-starting, we didn’t think that the application would be moving that fast, but today we heard from Cornwall Light & Power (CLP).

Today they’ve submitted a scoping request to the Isle of Wight Council for three new wind turbines at Cheverton Down in Shorwell.

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The lads from Rapanui have been back in touch to let us know about another beach clean planned for the end of the month.

It takes place on Saturday 28th June, which if you hadn’t realised is Round the Island Race day.

The clean up is happening on the beach near Brighstone and is being organised in collaboration with the Marine Conservation Society.

They organise beach cleans every quarter and the last clean up at Brihstone was particularly successful – over 100 sacks full of rubbish weighing half a ton (in total – not each) were removed from the beach! (more…)

Fantastic to see Island MP, Andrew Turner, embracing green issues again. He was spotted last week behind a sewing machine making his very own Morsbag.

Last week, the held an exhibition in Westminster promoting their ‘Stitch in Time’ campaign.

Over 21,000 Morsbags have been made since January 2007 – many of which were sewn in Bembridge, Ventnor, Wotton and Newport.

In fact the organisers told Andrew Turner that the groups on the Wight are some fo the most active in the UK.
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Following on from the revelation on VentnorBlog that there’s a chance of some large-scale wind turbines on the Wight, we’ve been in touch with Cornwall Light & Power who own the site on Cheverton Down with the current wind turbine planning permission on it.

Katherine Doerr, Development Manager at Cornwall Light & Power told us the following, “Cornwall Light & Power has planning permission to build a small wind farm comprising three turbines at Cheverton Down.

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Well done to those in Niton who have organised themselves into getting their first batch of plastic-bag replacements delivered.

The design on the bag was the product of a competition held at Niton Primary school where the whole school put forward designs, which were then judged by the school’s Eco team club.

There were two winners of the competition. The writing at the top was designed by Philip Morris in Year R and Justyce Cox for the lower drawing in Year 3.

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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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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…)

THOUSANDS of Isle of Wight residents and tourists alike are being invited along to a green themed extravaganza taking place in Newport at the end of May. (more…)

Last week Simon chatted with American writer and poet, Jack Tupac Pennington who had walked all the way from Ventnor to Cowes for the Eco Island Conference. Read Jack’s thoughts of the conference. As with all content contributed to the blog, the views expressed below, do not necessarily reflect those of VentnorBlog. Ed

First of all, I was even more exhausted when the conference finally ended not because the information available was not taken in, but because the business aspect of much of what was said was just that “words.”
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Vice Chancellor, Professor Bill Wakeham of the Uni of Southampton gave an excellent presentation at the Eco Island Conference last week, Simon caught up with him during the first coffee break.

It was interesting to see that almost 25% of the Island’s carbon footprint relates directly to transportation.

Much of this is made up by ferry crossings, so Simon posed the question “Is there a more efficient way to cross the Solent?” (more…)

First was a presentation by the Ventnor Golf Club:

The Ventnor Golf Club made a major announcement concerning their progress that fits in perfectly with the Eco Island strategy.
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