Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

News reaches us that a group of local residents who campaigned to stop development along Petticoat Lane in Newport by supermarket giant Sainsbury’s, will be holding a vigil at the site this weekend.

From noon on Sunday, residents who fought to stop the development will be saying farewell to the grand old Chestnut trees that line the path.

The campaign to stop the route along the quiet and scenic path, taken by many, being moved to a busy main road, had the support of the Open Spaces Society.

However, objectors lost their battle at a public inquiry to protect the historic route, which dates back 1793.

Image: nikoretro under CC BY 2.0

The campaign to introduce changing places toilets on the Island hits a high note today, as the first is officially opened in Newport.

Thanks to a grant of £10,000 from the Isle o Wight council, the new facility for severely disabled children and adults opens at the Riverside Centre today.

The facility features a powered hoist, centrally located toilet pan, height adjustable changing table, grab rails and alarm system.

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Back in September 2008 VB broke the story of the tragic death of an Isle of Wight resident who had picked and eaten some mushrooms growing wild at the Botanic Gardens in Ventnor.

It’s a story that once reported, swept around the world.

Today, at the Island’s Coroner’s court the circumstances were discussed in detail.

The inquest had originally opened and adjourned back in Sept 2008 (Video report).

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As well as our Alex’s article regarding the stakeholders meeting at the Riverside Centre on Saturday, we also have a report from a stakeholder who attended the meeting. Ed

More than 80 people attended the Stakeholders meeting at the Riverside Centre on Saturday.

Several councillors were there, Geoff Lumley, Ian Stevens, Reg Barry, Vanessa Churchman, John Howe among them. Andrew Turner gave his support as well as Jill Wareham and Mark Chiverton.

But most of all, it was a chance for the users of the Riverside to voice their opinions and ask questions.

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Ha ha. Do you know what VentnorBlog is called by the inner circle of the ruling Conservative council? Not VentnorBlog, the blog, or even that bloody blog as you might expect, but we hear on good authority, VB is simply referred to as ‘The Communists’.

Makes you laugh doesn’t it? Anything slightly to the left of Attila the Hun = Communists.

Oh well, what can you do?

Well if some of the lovely Tories weren’t already concerned about our lack of enthusiasm for Capitalism, they’ll be chocking on their dry sherries when they hear what John Hurt has to say when we chatted to him at the recent Minghella Film Festival.

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Leader of the Council David Pugh and his cabinet colleagues were conspicuously absent from the Riverside Centre’s meeting for stakeholders on Saturday.

Senior officers and councillors were invited to the meeting, called in acknowledgment of ‘the need for direct dialogue, that is not conversation through the media’ on the impact of cuts to adult social care.

“They made their apologies and went elsewhere,” said Cllr Ian Stevens (Independent). “I don’t know if all of them were invited, but I know the Leader of the Council was.”

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Thanks to Newport Parish Council for send this in to VB. We’d be happy to receive articles and press releases from other Island parish councils as well – Ed

Newport Parish Council has been approached by a number of residents concerned about the seemingly unnecessary use of sirens, particularly at weekends.

Although the parish council did not wish to make any criticism of the excellent work carried out by the emergency services, it was felt this needed further investigation. Cllr Craven, as lead Member, arranged a meeting with Chris Smith Head of Ambulance and Dean Haward, Station Manager, Fire and Rescue. Kevin Fripp Head of the Police Driving Standards was unable to attend but supplied his guidelines.

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At the end of the Minghella Film Festival we caught up with Gioia Minghella, the founder of the Minghella Film festival.

Gioia told VB how thrilled she was that the festival was once again, a huge success.

Gioia played tribute to her daughter Sophie, who was prolific in programming the festival and working all hours for weeks running up to the festival. She also thanked the businesses who have supported the festival, particular the Quay Arts Centre for playing host to the weekend.

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A Jim Henson family fantasy for television seems an unlikely contender at a film festival, but at its screening in the Anthony Minghella theatre, The Storyteller drew heartfelt appreciation.

The series starred John Hurt, prematurely aged, rushing from one Grimm’s fairytale to the next in a pair of prosthetic ears and a false nose. He insists this was ‘nothing, really’, given his previous transformations.

Do children like ‘Art’?
According to Hurt, people are surprised when they find out who the series’ writer was. “When you say Anthony Minghella, they say, what?”

Initially, even Henson had his doubts about bringing Minghella into the project.

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Great to receive this review from Lois, who was so moved by this events at the Minghella Film Festival, that she felt compelled to put pen to paper / finger to keyboard and submitted this so soon after the event. There’s a chance to witness another radio play today, ‘Eyes Down Looking‘ at 3pm today as well as other Minghella activities.

Watching the actors perform live Anthony Minghella’s radio play, ‘Cigarettes and Chocolate’ this afternoon at Quay Arts, I now fully realise why only very few among us can claim to be ‘professional actors’. With just two hours rehearsal, the cast of seven, many from the original performance back in 1988, gave the play the justification it deserved with their outstanding performances.

Being a lover of radio drama and the mental images it conjures, being able to watch the performance live added an extra colour to the experience, and I was soon lost in Anthony’s world of frustration, sadness and humour, a rich tapestry that was created from his own life experiences.

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The Minghella Film festival comes to an end tomorrow, but there is a great lineup of events throughout the day to enjoy.

The morning kicks off with screenings of The Storyteller in Quay Arts and Cineworld. John Hurt and Duncan Kenworthy will be attending the screening at Quay and taking part in a discussion following the film.

Lunchtime sees the Big Italian Brunch at Quay Arts hosted by Gloria and Eddie Minghella.

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Tickets are still available for tonight’s concert at Quay Arts.

Barrington Pheloung wrote and performed the original music for much of Anthony’s early work, from the BAFTA-nominated soundtrack to Inspector Morse to Truly, Madly, Deeply.

Since then, he has gone on to become one of the most prolific composers for television and film in the UK.

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We caught up with the actor Alan Rickman, who had worked with Anthony on this first major film, Truly, Madly, Deeply where he acted opposite Juliet Stevenson.

Have a listen …

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Very flattering and kind words about Anthony Minghella from Patsy Puttnam and her husband, Baron Puttnam, or David Puttnam as he introduced himself.

Have a listen …

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Up next is another in the series of Vox Pops from the launch of last year’s Minghella Movie Marathon.

It was a great evening, with hundreds of people gathered to celebrate Anthony Minghella’s life.

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At the launch of the Minghella Movie Marathon last year, we made our way through the crowds of Minghella fans and asked for their memories of Anthony.

Anthony’s great sensitivity seemed to strike a chord with many of the festival goers that night.

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Tonight sees the launch of the 2010 Minghella Film Festival.

The event kicks off with the UK premiere of ‘The Be All and End All’.

The feature length film written by Steve Lewis and Tony Owen tells the story of fifteen year old Robbie who has only one thing on his mind – losing his virginity. The problem is that he’s in hospital with a fatal heart condition.

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Last Friday, we gave you the heads up that a key decision was going to be made by the Isle of Wight Council about the future of the Pan Development, which has been dubbed Super Pan, including the selection of the developer.

We’ve just heard that the go-ahead has been given by the IWC and ‘bidder A’ has been selected to build 846 housing units including 254 affordable housing units.

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If you were at the Minghella Movie Marathon last year, you might have spotted this avid Minghella fan (in the middle) who attended all the screenings throughout the weekend.

Robbi Holman could quite easily be defined as a Minghella Super Fan (in fact she was by the CP).

Why you might ask? Well, because Robbi flew all the way from Texas to attend the festival and flew straight back home again afterwards. That’s some devotion!

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Regular readers will remember the news that Islander Robin Ford has just launched a new collection of poems.

If you’d like to meet the poet and have your copy of his new collection, On The Brink, signed, then make sure you put this in your diary.

Robin will be attending a book signing at Waterstones in Newport next Tuesday evening from 6.30pm.

If you do go along, please don’t forget to say where you heard about it.

During our quest of capturing vox pops at the Minghella Film Festival last year (more to come tomorrow), we caught up with actor Michael Maloney.

He came across as a really lovely guy, oozing warmth and charisma as he chatted about his friendship with Anthony.

He told us how as they worked together on a number of projects, he became closer to Anthony’s family and fondly remembers watching two world cups with them, going on to say that those who knew Anthony will remember his love of football, always willing to give his tactical opinions.

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The Minghella Film Festival returns to Newport this weekend, but the Festival is not just about screening Anthony Minghella’s TV programmes and films. There’s a great range of film/writing related workshops taking place too.

Make a Film in A Day
Kicking off on Saturday morning, the first workshop is a full day course being run in association with the Young Film Academy.

The hands-on Make a Film in A Day workshop will be led by award-winning trainers helping young people aged 13 – 19 to make a ten shot digital film, from planning through to post-production in seven hours.

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This coming weekend, as part of the Minghella Film Festival, the BFI will be back at Quay Arts with their Family Fun Days.

Last year, the workshops proved hugely popular with the Island’s young creatives.

A whole host of activities were on offer, all set around the theme of the No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (the last film Anthony worked on), from painting and drawing on a large mural, to creating plasticine models, animating and filming them, or face painting and making masks.

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Continuing our series of videos and podcasts from the 2009 Minghella Movie Marathon, up next is a chat we had with Reg Poerscout-Edgerton.

Reg was born and educated on the Island before heading off to develop his career in the film business.

His most recent work has included a role as casting director for Sherlock Holmes and RocknRolla.

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Before Friday 12th March, the next stage in the development of ‘Super Pan Development,’ will take place.

Cllr Peter Bingham and Cllr Dawn Cousins will either select the development partner between a choice of two organisations, or halt the scheme.

Clearly getting a huge project like this moving is not a simple task and many stages have been gone through already, which we’ve abridged below.

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