Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

It’s amazing to hear that the annual Speed Dating Walk, which is part of the Isle of Wight Walking Festival, is now in its fifth year.

The previous walks have been hugely successful in bringing together like minded people and have even resulted in three marriages as well as long lasting friendships.

This year the walk starts from the Fisherman’s Cottage on Shanklin Esplanade at the foot of Shanklin Chine.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

Looks like the Island Line service is going to be affected for the next couple of hours.

Due to electrical supply problems, there will be a reduced service of:

* 15 minutes past the hour from Shanklin
* 45 minutes past the hour from Ryde Pier Head

They say it’ll last until around 3pm.

Did you know that it’s National Nest Box week?

The campaign, which has been running for ten years, is organised by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).

Its purpose is to encourage the wider public to ‘give a bird a home’, by building or providing nest boxes in their gardens.

(more…)

As was reported on VB recently, the YMCA at Winchester House in Shanklin is hosting a ‘Make-over for all Pamper Social’ next week.

The charity ‘make-over’ event encourages women (and possibly men) to go along to get their nails, make-up and hair style recreated in a relaxed social environment. The Isle of Wight College is supporting this event with a number of students going along to do hair and beauty.

(more…)

Sounds like most of the Island is experiencing a visit of the soft white stuff again.

Reports are coming in that there’s snow in Freshwater, St Helens, Newport, Ryde, Shanklin, Sandown, Shorwell, Cowes and even here in Sunny Ventnor.

Update: Wootton and Seaview also seeing snow.

Let’s hope that we don’t get quite as much as last time.

Image: Little Rotten Robin under CC BY-ND 2.0

As part of National Student Volunteering Week, which takes place between 22 to 28 February this year, students from Isle of Wight College will be joining forces with YMCA Isle of Wight to help raise cash and awareness for Help2Grieve.

The hair and beauty students will be putting their new skills to good use at the ‘Make-over for All’ charity fundraiser.

YMCA Isle of Wight Volunteer Project Coordinator Kelly Matthews said “this event will give the college students a chance to show off their creative skills and bring members of society together in a common purpose.”

(more…)

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.

(more…)

Good news for those interested in discussions surrounding the redevelopment of the Brading Experience and unable to attend the Brading Town Council meeting tonight.

VB is reporting live from the meeting which is due to start shortly.

(more…)

There are just two more days to take advantage of the Grand Rotary Sale in Shanklin.

The annual event, which acts as a great fundraiser for the Rotary, takes place at Lower Hyde until 4pm on Friday, there are masses of items that may be useful to many: furniture, vinyl and DVDs, electricals, clothes, lighting, tools, electronics, paintings, mirrors, toys, you name it, they’ve probably got it in one form or another.

As always, the prices are very reasonable.

A big cheer to all involved, including those manning the stalls and those collecting and delivering the items for sale.

It’s all go at Brading this Thursday.

Not only does the town council meeting sound like it’s going to be a bit of a hum-dinger, but the police will be in the car park of the Bugle Inn keen to speak to residents during the afternoon.

(more…)

There’s growing unrest in some quarters of Brading about a number of things residents feel are being foisted on the town.

Following a meeting held last Sunday which was attended by well-over seventy people, a new group, the Brading Residents’ Action Group (BRAG) has been formed to work together to bring a united voice to their concerns.

They got in touch with VentnorBlog to tell us about the depth of their unhappiness, asking if we can help spread the word for them.

(more…)

A new support group on the Island is harnessing the power of Facebook to help spread the word of what they have to offer.

Island Wide Smiles is a new group that has been formed to provide support and advice for parents, grandparents and carers of children under the age of five living on the Isle of Wight with a cleft lip and or palate.

(more…)

You may have read previously about offers to your dog micro-chipped or bicycle security marked at various point on the Island, but found you haven’t been close to where it’s been happening.

Well, this Saturday it’s being made available in Rookley and Arreton.

Two weeks later, on Saturday 6 February, it will also be on the move to Nettlestone, St Helen’s, Bembridge and Brading.

Details
Have a click on the names, the times and locations are detailed OnTheWight – you might find some other things to do while you’re there.

Image: Mark Watson (kalimistuk) under CC BY 2.0

Congratulations go to two Island schools today who we read in the County Press have made it into the latest edition of the Good Schools Guide.

If you haven’t previously heard of the Good Schools Guide, it does what it says in the title.

It’s a prestigious guide to what are considered the best schools across the UK, so for the two Island schools to be named is quite an accolade for not only themselves, but also the Island.

(more…)

Members of the Isle of Wight Cabinet tonight voted to dispose of Ryde and Shanklin Theatres from their property portfolio.

The Cabinet heard from members of the public concerned about the closures and discussed at length the viability of the Council continuing to run the theatres.

It was agreed to dispose of the buildings, with a newly formed community group intending to take over Shanklin Theatre as a multi-use arts centre and Platform One Music College to take over Ryde Theatre.

Read full details of the Cabinet discussion as reported live.

Following our recent report about the fate of Shanklin Theatre, we received an email from Isle of Wight Council Leader, David Pugh.

The Leader was keen for us to see a letter that he’d written in response to residents opposing the closure of the theatre. In his letter he states very clearly that “due to limited financial resources … it is unlikely that funding for theatres can ever again be a financial priority for the Council.”

However, he goes on to say that he has been working very closely with the local community to develop a proposal for the future management of the theatre.

(more…)

Following our article yesterday regarding the future of Ryde and Shanklin Theatres, we received this letter to the editor from Stephen Rolph – Ed

Dear VentnorBlog – I am sad to read about the wishes of IWCC to dispose of their two flagship theatres and the community involvement scheme sounds good with hopefully some commercial realism in there from somewhere.

My wife and go to two theatres, one in Brighton and the Yvonne Arnaud at Guildford.

(more…)

Many of the Island roads have taken a bit of a bashing over the Winter period with more potholes opening up.

Back in October, we heard that Beaper Shute, otherwise known as the Brading Road (A3055), would be getting refurbished this month. Well, today it’s been confirmed that they will be starting on Monday, 25 January, a little behind the originally anticipated 4 January, but understandable given the recent weather.

(more…)

Had you noticed that it snowed last week?

What do you do if you’re a snowboard fan and nature comes along and dumps a load of snow in the place that you live?

You do what Islanders Mike Forrest and Loui Soteriou did – grab your boards and head to the nearest, biggest hill.

Watch it after the jump
(more…)

The future of two of the three theatres that the Isle of Wight council looks after for the Island have once again come up for discussion (original discussions of closure first floated in 2007).

A cabinet meeting on 19 January 2010 will decide the future of both Ryde and Shanklin Theatres.

(more…)

Thanks to VB friend and reader, Eric for this great picture from Sandown

Whilst many of us were tucked up at home in front of the fire (or computer screens) many people braved the freezing conditions to take part in snow jollities.

Once such group of people were band members of Revenge of the Lawn.

Their goal was to become “the first Island band to conquer the treacherous East Face of Mount Ashey and plant a flag at the summit.”

“We knew we could expect hostile conditions at the top, but the team were unprepared for the blistering weather chaos that they found at the summit,” said the band’s Planning Officer. “We were lucky we didn’t need to use the oxygen tanks, but the team were otherwise fully kitted out”.

(more…)

VB reader Janet Shuter has just mailed us a good news story.

Brading High Street has a broken down car at each end of it, but as Janet says, “the local teenagers are doing a wonderful job managing the traffic!”

If you’ve got a snowy story from around the Island, do get in touch via the blog, Facebook or Twitter. Sure everyone would love to hear about it.

Those showing their support for Shanklin Theatre continues to grow with the Friends of Shanklin Theatre telling us that over 500 letters of support have been received so far.

As the gallery shows below, the Isle of Wight Society for the Blind, The IW Steam Railway, Cockernuts Family Fun and the Fire Service all took time out to be photographed with the Save Shanklin Theatre Banner as the theatre counts down to the council decision on whether the historic venue will be kept open.

(more…)