Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

An article on the BBC News Website today claims that a beach in Devon is hoping to replenish its stocks by buying in sand from the Isle of Wight.

Not aware that we had large stocks to sell off, we contacted the council press office, who informed VB that they had not been contacted about the matter.

Be vigilant this summer
Will we need to keep our eyes open for sand smugglers this summer?

Will we see an influx of holiday makers from the Devon town of Dawlish with large buckets and spades?

Read the BBC article in full

Image: Lin Pernille under CC BY 2.0

You probably know that there are some pretty impressive video game developers on the Isle of Wight in the guise of Stainless Games.

Well, the Island now has another game developer that it can be proud of – Team Mango, which yesterday, released its game, Dysnomia.

They’re on a very different scale to Stainless, as there is but one in Team Mango – Gareth Williams.

Written on the Island
In an amazing feat of persistence and programming skills, Gareth has created a very slick looking video game, all coded by himself on the Island, from start to finish, in ten months.

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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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Hats off to Brigadier Alan Ross of Seagrove Bay, Seaview. He’s written a great letter in to the Telegraph about the Isle of Wight, the space within it and what use it could be put to.

Last week the paper ran a story that scientists were speculating that Dinosaurs were killed off by Isle of Wight-sized asteroid (Tweeted).

The Brigadier approaches the Island-as-measurement from a different angle.

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Alex Dyke is making a return to the radio waves of the Island and the South Coast, but this time on BBC.

Having left Isle of Wight radio back in December 2008, Alex took off for Florida in the US, ending up doing a show on a local radio station ESPN Orlando, that broadcasts on AM radio.

Now he’s returning to the UK and has been signed up to do a radio show on BBC Solent on Saturday mornings between 11.00am-2.00pm – directly against IW Radio’s relatively newly-signed syndicated programme by Tony Blackburn, the Soul & Motown Show.

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At 7am this morning IW Radio were reporting that a sub-committee of the Ethical Standards Committee (ESC) at the Isle of Wight Council have concluded that David Pugh did not break the Code of Conduct when he shouted expletives at the partner of local MP, Andrew Turner in the car park outside the Valentine’s Ball of the Council Chairman.

The findings have not been officially be released by the council.

They say that the Assessment Sub-Committee of the ESC found that David Pugh, Leader of the Council and Shanklin County Councillor, was not “acting in an official capacity,” so therefore did not break the Code of Conduct.

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As we reported last week, once again, the Earl Mountbatten Hospice will be auctioning off registration numbers 1 and 2 for Walk the Wight.

The annual walk across the Island raises much needed cash for the Hospice, one of the worthiest causes on the Island.

The auction opened this morning but as of this afternoon, the highest bid so far is just 99p for ‘number 2′.

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Alongside all of the exciting events going on at this year’s Mighella Film Festival, a couple more reasons to go along have just been confirmed – World-famous actor John Hurt and Dexter Fletcher will be coming along.

John Hurt career has covered many different roles spanning Midnight Express; Alien; The Elephant Man; The Hit and many others – and plenty nominations and awards for Academy Awards, BAFTAs and Golden Globes.

Dexter Fletcher also worked on The Elephant Man, but started his film career in 1976 as Baby Face in Bugsy Malone. Beside other films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Layer Cake, he’s done tons of TV.

Official Mingehlla Film Festival site

Image: jesus_leon under CC BY-SA 2.0

If you’re unhappy with the budget cuts agreed by the Isle of Wight council last night, then you might be interested in putting a question or two to Island Chief Executive, Steve Beynon.

News reaches us today that Mr Beynon will be taking calls on Jon Cuthill’s (pictured) radio programme on BBC Radio Solent this coming Monday.

We’re told that the phone-in marks the launch of a BBC-wide project on council finances, called ‘Facing the Cuts’.

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Tom ‘The Hat’ Blackwell and ‘The Demon’ Damian Walshe, the guys from Headfunk (the monthly funk fest at the Black Sheep Bar), tell us that tomorrow evening they’ll be launching their new weekly slot on online radio station, Vectis Radio.

Each week between 5-7pm they’ll aim to play you the best Friday night tunes, mixed in with lots of local Island talent.

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Congrats to The Ellen MacArthur Trust Website who picked up two aeards at today’s HantsWeb Awards by winning ‘best charity’ and best ‘life changing’ site. The site was designed by Wez Maynard and built by @Goffik from the OC Group.

Also making their way to the podium today were the ladies from The Real Island Food Company who picked up ‘Best Business Innovation’ award. The site was designed by Matrix e-Business.

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VentnorBlog was this morning ejected from the Coroner’s court in Newport, Isle of Wight.

We were told by the coroner’s officer, Richard Leedham, that the coroner, John Matthews, didn’t recognise us as a member of the press (despite VB publishing articles for four and a half years and NUJ membership for longer) and he didn’t want us in “his court.”

He cited some communication from Mr Matthews to VentnorBlog in 2008 (detailed below).

Access as member of public refused too
After some discussion explaining that the correspondence wasn’t of relevance, we said we would, as a member of the public, like to enter the court.

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Well, the PughTube video is now out in the open and on YouTube.

The situation around the video are probably well-known by now. That story was the fastest-commented story in VB’s 4.5 year history, with over 150 reader’s comments being added within a single day. It now sits at just under 250 comments.

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The number of reader comments that are on VB has continued to increase – something that we’re really happy about.

We’re really pleased that people feel that they’ve got a place to come and express themselves – nearly exclusively within the realms of decency and legality!

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Ah, it’s that time of the week again, when we can sit down and admire the wonderful shots on the VB Flickr Group Pool.

They say that a photo can tell a thousand words and this shot below by Island photographer Patrick Eden probably speaks ten times that.

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Following Steve Beynon’s presentation to the voluntary sector at the Riverside Centre in Newport just over a week ago, the proposed Island budget cuts were discussed on the Julian Clegg show on BBC Radio Solent last Tuesday.

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If you’re just about to tune into IW Radio to hear us run through our tips of what to see and do over the next week, there’s been a change of plan.

As regular IW Radio listeners will already know, Tom Stroud – who we do our regular Thursday lunchtime slot with – is off on his hols this week, so Stuart McGinley has stepped in to cover his show today.

However, Stu’s got a stinking cold, runny nose, sore throat, you get the picture, so we’re staying well away. Keep taking the ‘lemon and honey’ drinks Stuart.

Image: stevendepolo under CC BY-SA 2.0

It’s been a pretty long time since the Isle of Wight Council have graced the ‘Rotten Boroughs’ page of news and current affairs magazine, Private Eye.

Every two weeks when the esteemed organ drops onto our door mat, we turn to the Rotten Boroughs section to see whether Steve Beynon has managed to attract the same attention that Joe ‘Vera’ Duckworth received whilst he was Chief Executive for the Island (all 18 of the months that he was).

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

We caught up with Tom Stroud to give our pick of what’s coming up over the next week.

There’s lots of live music happening around the Island over the weekend (natch), including the Haiti Appeal Concert which takes place at Cowes Yacht Haven on Saturday night.

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Looks like the turn around at Isle of Wight Radio could have started.

The latest listening figures released this morning by RAJAR are the first full quarter that have been reported since the station became independently owned.

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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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A new scheme which runs until 22 March is hoping to encourage families back into the swimming pool.

The ‘ThrillSeeker’ campaign is being run by the BBC and adults will get a free swim when a a child pays to swim.

Of course, Island children can swim for free during the holidays which are coming up in Mid February and this offer will be valid then as well.

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Footprint Trust’s Ray Harrington-Vail is a pretty forward thinking chap – not surprising really given he’s been banging on about the importance of eco-friendly living for donkey’s years.

So, we weren’t in the least bit surprised when we heard that he has embraced the power of the Internet and is using YouTube to help spread the word to a younger audience.

Working with Ventnor-based Utility Films, the two minute short film, The Running Man, tells a romantic tale from the Isle of Wight featuring local comedian and actress Hannah George.

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A big thank you to everyone who visited VentnorBlog this month, you’ve made January a record month for us.

We had over 160,000 visits – yes, one hundred and sixty thousand – in January.

It’s an amazing buzz and one that we’re truly humbled by. Thank you all so much.

Island businesses can benefit
We’re now looking to help Island businesses turn all of those people looking at VentnorBlog into potential sales.

The advertising rates on VentnorBlog are incredibly reasonable, currently starting at under £1 per day. We know, it’s crazy isn’t it?

With a month like January, Island businesses would have their adverts seen over 345,000 times.

£0.00008 per ad viewing
That works out to an eight-thousandths of a penny (£0.00008) per viewing, any of which could turn into a sale.

That’s got to be the bargain to the year hasn’t it?

Get in touch (898 777) we’re keen to help build your business.

Regular readers will already be aware of the Wight Surf History exhibition that we’ve been plugging for the last couple of weeks.

The exhibition may well finish at Dimbola Lodge this Sunday but the project lives on …. in the virtual world.

An important part of the project, that will chart 50 years of surf history on the Island, is a dedicated Website.

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