Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

If you haven’t already heard, later this year a new event aimed as a tribute to Britain’s serving armed forces makes its way to Yarmouth.

The event, titled Sailing for Heroes, has been organised by the Yarmouth Harbour Commissioners with support from the Royal Solent Yacht Club.

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A new Youth Gym session starts at West Wight Sports Centre this coming Monday (8th March).

This will be a special session for young people aged from 14 upwards and will run every weekday afternoon from 4.30 – 6.30 pm.

Anyone wishing to take part will require an induction (even if they’ve used other gyms).

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Many thanks to David Champion for his review of Trevor Moss and Hannah Lou’s trip to the Island a couple of weeks ago. Ed

Freshwater Memorial Hall played host to London’s Lantern Society folk music group on Sunday 21st of February. The evening was the final date of the ‘can’t wait for the spring’ tour, and featured a superb mix of Lantern Society regulars and local talent.

The evening kicked off with a mesmerising performance from Swedish born, London based Benjamin Folke Thomas.

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As we mentioned earlier on Twitter, the Military Road in Atherfield by Chine Lane was flooded earlier today.

An Isle of Wight Fire Brigade appliance was luckily able to attend and pump away the excess water.

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It’s that time of year again, prior to the holiday season when maintenance of Yarmouth Bridge takes place.

The council inform us that next week there’ll be a three day road closure at Yarmouth Bridge.

The road will be closed on 2, 3 and 4 March as the bridge’s landing pads are replaced.

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Users of the Military Road and readers of VB will be aware of the landslide near Brook that took place the weekend before last.

Sadly it appears today that another landslide has occured, resulting in part of the Miltary Road being sectioned off for single lane traffic and the edge of the cliff moving ever closer to the road.

Temporary traffic lights are in place and safety barriers being installed.

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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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According to the BBC, over 200 people made their way to the recruitment fair at Norton Grange Coastal Village in Yarmouth yesterday in the hope of finding work.

The holiday park has undergone a massive refurbishment and have around 100 new jobs on offer.

Best of luck to everyone who applied.

via BBC

The Footprint Trust, who support the Isle of Wight Pond Wardens, have been in touch with good news for anyone who is considering becoming a pond warden.

Ray from the Trust tells us that the independent group has just been awarded a grant from the Hampshire & IW Wildlife Trust to train potential pond wardens.

They go on to say that there is a shortage of pond wardens in the West Wight area and are inviting anyone interested in becoming a pond warden to get in touch.

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Staying in the West, we hear that the Wight Surf Photographic Exhibition that was recently held at Dimbola Lodge has now found a permanent home.

If you weren’t lucky enough to see the collection of superb surfing photos back in January you can now see them at the Sandpipers Hotel in Freshwater Bay.

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Residents of Totland who do not have their own computers can now benefit from a free service being trialled by their local Parish Council.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Isle of Wight Rural Community Council (IWRCC) of £2,000, the Totland Parish Council have installed three computer workstations for residents to use at the Parish Office.

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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

A new exhibition at Dimbola Lodge got off to a great start last month with a very special guest attending the launch party.

Families, artists and supporters of the No Man Is An Island project were welcomed to the exhibition along with Cat Lorigggio from London2012, who travelled down from London especially for the occasion.

‘The Camera & Beyond’ the latest exhibition from the No Man is an Island group.

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If you missed our regular Thursday lunchtime slot on IW Radio yesterday, worry not, as you can listen again below.

It was that time of the week again when we head up to the IW Radio studios to have a chinwag with mid-morning show DJ, Tom Stroud.

With a bumper number of events on the Isle of Wight over the weekend, there was lots to get through but we started with details about arty events.

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Andy Newnham, the 22-year-old motorcyclist from Freshwater Fairlee Road, Newport, that was involved in the crash on the Military Road on Sunday, has sadly died yesterday.

The long stream of memorial messages from his friends left on his Facebook page pay testament to how many friends he had and how popular he was.

Our sincere thoughts are with his family.

How about this for a fundraiser and a half!

Next month, the Isle of Wight Schools Under 15’s football team will be taking part in a ten hour football challenge to help raise much needed cash for a trip to Spain.

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If you’re into surfing or if you’re into photography you’re going to find this new exhibition at Dimbola Lodge of great interest.

Pulled together at very short notice, Islander photographers, Jason Swain and Paul Blackley will be exhibiting the very best of their amazing Island surfing prints.

Regular readers will recognise Jason (aka S0ulsurfing) from many of our Picture of the Week awards.

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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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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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Remember that we reported a raid by Island police on Monday, where members of the Priority Crime Unit (PCU) entered a flat in Silcombe Lane, Freshwater with a drugs warrant?

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We heard a while back that residents of Pixley Hill, Freshwater and the surrounding area weren’t too happy about Southern Vectis after they started running the Number 7 route up and down the hill.

Indeed, 15 individual letters of complaint and a petition with ‘multiple signatures’ (not sure how many were on it) were sent to the Isle of Wight Council and the local member, Cllr Sutton, officially asked that the IWC look into it.

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A VB reader got in touch with us this morning after having just seen a number of baseball cap-wearing police leaving flats in Silcombe Lane, Freshwater with equipment like large hammers.

The Island police confirmed to us that their Priority Crime Unit (PCU) executed a drugs warrant at a property in Freshwater today.

image: katielips under CC BY 2.0

We’re hearing reports of what sounds like a police raid on flats in Silcombe Lane, Freshwater a short while ago.

(Now updated from information from police)

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There’s a proposal to expand the Brighstone conservation area – originally designated in December 1969 – to include parts of Brook, Freshwater Bay, Hulverstone and Mottistone.

The decision will be made by Cllr George Brown under a deligated decision following a public consultation was held by IW council between 31 July – 25 September.

The new areas each have their own designated zones, which are detailed below …

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