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This in from the council, in their own words. Ed

It is now even easier to search for a company on the Island that has been approved by the Isle of Wight Council’s Trading Standards service.

For several years, the service has run a website called ‘Buy With Confidence’ where residents can see a list of traders that have given their commitment to trading fairly. Every business listed has undergone a series of detailed checks before being approved as a member of the scheme.

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Tonight sees the Isle of Wight council’s Annual Meeting take place at County Hall.

Usual procedure is for the current vice-chair to elevate to chair of the council, so tonight should see Cllr David Williams passing on the baton onto the Cllr Susan Scoccia (pictured).

As it is the Annual Meeting rather than a standard council meeting, there will be no public question time tonight.

Approval sought for changes to Constitution
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As reported previously on VB; residents of East Cowes attended a meeting last night to contest plans to build an asphalt plant on the banks of the River Medina.

More than 50 people turned up to put forward their concerns about the plant, which is scheduled to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 30 weeks a year. Not one person in East Cowes Town Hall was attending in favour of the plans, meaning there was a unanimous vote against the plant.

Attempting an extension
East Cowes town Council urged every member of the South Cowes ward to write to Cllr Edward Giles stating their concerns about the plant.

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As we covered earlier this week, residents concerned with plans to build an asphalt plant alongside the River Medina are urged to attend public meetings taking place tonight.

The meetings take place at East Cowes town hall from 7pm and at Northwood Primary School from 6.45pm.

For more information you can visit the Facebook page set up by residents or the Council website.

Image: Iwan Gabovitch under CC BY 2.0

Following on from previous reports on VB regarding plans for Thompson House and Clatterford Tuition Centre.

Public meetings for residents to discuss plans to relocate services from Thompson House and Clatterford Tuition Centre will take place tonight and tomorrow.

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As vice-chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel, Cllr Vanessa Churchman was in the unusual position of chairing a meeting last week that was taking place as a result of her own call-in.

Readers will remember that Cllr Churchman, with the backing of four other Independent councillors, had called in the Delegated Decision for the ‘Appointment of Technical Legal & Financial Advisors for Waste Procurement Project’.

Cllr Churchman had argued, “There was only one Elected Member briefing which did not provide sufficient detail to support decision. Mention was made of a 25 year contract with no supporting evidence, either verbal or written.”

Decision voted through
The Scrutiny meeting, which ran for just over an hour and a half, resulted in a majority vote in favour of the Delegated Decision to appoint the advisors.

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Thanks to Tess for sharing details of new titles at Ventnor Library this week. Ed

DVDs
The Iron Lady – Meryl Streep (BAFTA, Oscar, Golden Globe winner) as Margaret Thatcher
War Horse – from the Michael Morpurgo classic
Easy A – Emma stone – a comedy about a good girl, a small favour and a big rumour
The Hangover part 2 – twice as mad, twice as funny

Fiction
Paul DOHERTY, The Midnight Man – a Canterbury Tales medieval mystery
Alice HOFFMAN, the Dovekeepers – historical novel
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This in from the council, in their own words. Ed

The Isle of Wight Council’s Fostering and Adoption Team is travelling the Island and visiting supermarkets in various towns as part of this year’s Fostering Fortnight.

The annual event is held between 14 and 28 May and a road show staffed by fostering and adoption officers alongside carers will be available on different days.

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Isle of Wight residents concerned at proposals for an Asphalt plant on the banks of the River Medina have created a Facebook page.

They say the page will be a place for residents and businesses of East Cowes and Cowes to share their concerns about the impact of the proposed Asphalt plant.

The group are also inviting members of the public to attend a town meeting in East Cowes Town Hall at 7pm on Tuesday 15th May.

Background on Asphalt
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We’ve just had an update through in relation to next week’s full council meeting.

Readers will remember we reported yesterday that one of the agenda items for the full council meeting was to consider whether they would offer vacant seats on two scrutiny panels to Cllr David Whittaker.

VB has received a call this morning confirming that Cllr Whittaker does not wish to be considered for either of the scrutiny panels which have vacant seats. Therefore, the council will no longer need to decide whether to offer them to him.

Neither Chale Parish council or even the family who have operated the ice cream van for the last fourteen years at the Blackgang viewpoint car park have been contacted by the Isle of Wight Council about the potential sale of the land, VentnorBlog has learned.

As VB found out on Wednesday, the council is “in negotiation with (a) special purchaser”, exploring selling the much-loved viewpoint.

No contact with Uncle Sam
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VB has been told that the public consultation, due to commence on the future of the Isle of Wight Music Service, has been postponed.

Readers will remember the outrage of residents when VB broke the news back in March that the Isle of Wight council were proposing to make major changes to the Isle of Wight Music Service, which would result in compulsory redundancies for 22 peripatetic staff.

Continue in its current form until April
News leaked to VB today claims that the service will continue in its current form until at least April 2013, a mere month before the elections.

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We have just today been written to by the council to tell us that the upcoming Waste contract, that they recently decided to spend £500,000 on advisors on, is not a PFI.

They wrote, “Firstly we should point out to VentnorBlog that at no stage has the Isle of Wight Council said that the new waste contract will be sourced under PFI. There are no government PFI grants for this and it will be funded by the council.”

Searching iwight we found the council calling it a PPP (Public Private Partnership) instead.

VB first referred to the upcoming Waste contract as a PFI a month ago, then in two further articles (we’ve amended them).

Didn’t exactly rush
Given how obsessively we hear the council check VentnorBlog, it’s a great shame that they have left it this long to let us know.

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From 1st June 2012, the council intend to abolish the Planning Committee and the Licensing & General Purposes Committee to create a new committee called the Regulatory Committee.

The Regulatory Committee will be made up of 15 members with both licensing and planning sub-committees.

Reason for changes
Bringing the two service areas into one, would result in it sitting under one Cabinet Member’s responsibility.

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Paperwork released from the council this week confirms that the Ethical Standards Committee is due to be abolished.

The paperwork states that, “Under the Localism Act 2011 there is no longer a need for the Council to appoint a Standards Committee (which we call the Ethical Standards Committee).

“Alternative arrangements will need to be adopted with regards to a Code of Conduct and processes for dealing with complaints where it is alleged that this new Code of Conduct has been breached.”

“Ensuring highest standards”
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The public consultation for a two wind turbine planning application at HMP Isle of Wight has been opened today.

The application is for “two wind turbines with a maximum height (to vertical blade tip) of up to 125m, upgrade junction off Parkhurst Road, modifications to existing access track, new access tracks, hardstanding areas, a control building, cabling temporary construction compound and associated works”.

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At next week’s full council meeting, members will be asked to consider whether to appoint Cllr David Whittaker to one of two committees.

A report released this week reveals that councillors will be asked to consider whether Cllr Whittaker should be offered a position on either the Health & Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Panel or the Economy & Environment Scrutiny Panel.

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Earlier in the week we broke the news that the council now has a list of 79 sites around the Island they are actively considering the sale of.

Many Islanders have expressed their concerns, with the accusation that the council is ‘selling off the Family silver’.

As pointed out by VB reader Jackie in the comments on the story, the Guildhall has been added to the list.

The intentions of the council are clear – they want to sell it. In their words, “To be sold, subject to service decision regarding the future of the museum.”

Marked as Low/Medium value
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Here’s a follow up to the VB article on the potential Blackgang viewpoint car park sale that we ran last night.

Two hours ago we received a statement from the council in response to questions we posed yesterday afternoon. It covers the potential sale and we’ve run their words in full.

Underneath that we’ve included the follow up questions that we’ve posed to the council this morning having read their statement.

Statement from the council
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If you fancy a night in watching a DVD, then take a look at the selection available at Island Libraries. At just £1.50 per night, they’re a great bargain. Ed

From the producers of ‘300’ hails a reworking of Greek history, or Theseus and The Minotaur as you may have heard it all before.

To extend the rather short story over 90 minutes may have seemed as a rather illogical development, but considering that the movie ‘300’, was, if anything, a financial success, then the direction of ‘Immortals’ is pretty much more of the same fodder.

Love the sepia but that’s about it
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Further to previous reports on VB in relation to plans to relocate services provided at Thompson House and Clatterford Tuition Centre, this in from the council in their own words. Ed

A consultation on plans to expand and relocate special and additional educational needs services on the Isle of Wight starts on Friday (11 May).

The Isle of Wight Council is seeking feedback on plans to relocate services currently delivered at Clatterford and Thompson House tuition centres to a single site at Berry Hill, Lake (former Broadlea Primary School site).

It is also proposing to create a new centre at Love Lane, Cowes for children and young people of primary and secondary school age with behaviour, social and emotional difficulties.

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The car park that provides the classic view toward the West of Wight from Niton is on a list of council assets that they’re considering selling, VentnorBlog has learnt.

Their stated reasoning? “To protect local tourism”. Quite how this will be achieved is far from clear.

It’s not for sale on the open market, but to be sold though what they call a “Restricted Market”.

Special purchaser
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The Isle of Wight council has nearly eighty council buildings or public spaces that they’re actively considering selling off.

The Property Capital Receipts Disposals Programme, as they call it, was most recently updated on 1st April 2012 and we’ve embedded it below for you.

The list is extensive but includes Libraries; Youth Centres; Community buildings; Car Parks; Cottages; Tourist Information Offices; Dingy Parks; Schools; Grazing land – the list goes on, and on, totalling 79 different ‘assets’.

‘Surplus’ assets
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A Delegated Decision Report has been issued today in relation to the sale of former Greenmount Primary School in Ryde.

The site was “confirmed in July 2011 as surplus to educational requirements in the cabinet member delegated decision 22/11 Disposal of School Sites”.

The report reveals that from August last year, the property was advertised in the County Press seven times over a period of 22 weeks to ensure “a thorough marketing campaign”.

Sale conditional on approved planning permission
An offer for the entire site is currently being recommended for acceptance with the proposed purchase conditional on the granting of planning permission for residential use (with a minimum of three car parking spaces).

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A new charity has been set up to help protect the future of Newport Harbour.

The Newport Harbour Conservation Society is the brainchild of Robert Turner, resident at Newport Quay.

Robert believes that Newport Harbour is at risk of inappropriate redevelopment. He has set up The Newport Harbour Conservation Society with, he says, the aim of fostering a transparent, accountable, sustainable and imaginative Harbour.

He believes it will have the advantage of partial separation from the Isle of Wight council and financial independence, reducing the risk and cost to the Council.

Empowering local users and businesses
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