Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

You may remember the short blip we put out last week when the Ventnor Town Council (VTC) meeting was brought to a halt.

We had hoped to publish a full report of the meeting the next day, other things got in the way, but here it is now.

As a town meeting has been called on the basis of what happened at this meeting and having seen and heard of a number of inaccuracies in reports doing the rounds, we thought it was best to clarify.

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Coming to you slightly later than usual, for those who have been enjoying our weekly news podcasts, here’s our latest edition.

We are very grateful to Mick Smith, Director of Quay Arts and Lois Prior from the Big Green Project for taking time out to join in our discussion about the weekly news.

Minghella Film Festival
We started by sharing our experiences of the Minghella Film Festival that took place last weekend.

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Wightlink inform us that owing to operational requirements all sailings on the Portsmouth/Fishbourne will be delayed by approximately 30 minutes until further notice.

If you followed the live coverage of the Scrutiny Committee last month when the proposed budget was discussed, you’ll have picked up the news that there are changes afoot for kerbside rubbish collection.

We were oblivious to the fact that some people have their rubbish collected from their ‘back doors’, thinking that everyone did as we’ve been doing for years and putting our bags of rubbish out on the street on the morning of collection.

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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

Next Tuesday morning, if you happen to be taking a walk along Cowes Esplanade you might notice something different about the famous lions that look out onto the Solent.

Apparently, campaigners from LION AID, a charity which aims to highlight the plight of the lions and to fund effective programmes to reverse their drastic decline, will be temporarily shrouding the famous stone lions in Cowes.

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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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This in from Ryde Inshore Rescue – Ed

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If you haven’t already noticed, many parts of the Isle of Wight are covered by some pretty thick fog this morning.

Ventnor is thick with the stuff, as is Ryde we’ve been told.

Those on the ferries have told VB that the Solent is pretty well covered too, but we haven’t heard of this causing any cancellation.

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Isle of Wight Council Leader, David Pugh, has been referred for investigation in connection to incidents at and after the council Chairman’s Valentine’s Ball, where the widely-distributed video of Cllr Pugh shouting profanities at another guest was recorded.

Following the complaint made by Cllrs Jonathan Bacon, Geoff Lumley and Chris Welsford, six potential breaches of the Code of Conduct for Elected Members have been identified by the Assessment Sub-Committee of the Ethical Standards Committee.

“Seeking to bury the story”
The summary of the complaint compiled by the sub-committee has included the “involvement of the Council’s communications department in seeking to bury the story, compromising the impartiality of Council officers and failing to react and respond appropriately to this matter.”

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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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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

A cupcake tea break in aid of Ovarian Cancer hopes to raise funds and much needed awareness later this month.

Taking place at St Wilfred’s Primary School in Ventnor, organisers of the event are appealing to local residents and businesses to donate prizes for the raffle as well as cakes.

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This in from WightLink. Ed

Owing to operational reasons the following sailings have been cancelled

Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde 19.45
Ryde to Portsmouth 20.15

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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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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Forlorn felines are filling up the Cats’ Protection League.

The Adoption Centre in Marlborough Road, Ryde is crawling with 54 cats and kittens in need of owners, including ten that have been in care for more than four months.

Still waiting are Boots the spirited tortoiseshell, and Archie, who is vulnerable after his years as a stray.

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Thanks very much to VB reader Ian who sent through the fab VB logo adaptation after he read the little bit at the start of the John Hurt article about how some IW Conservatives have labeled us ‘The Communists’.

We completely love the logo.

Make the most of it being at the top of the page tonight … we’ve heard there may be a revolution and those darn Commies will get overthrown overnight.

Update: 18.Mar.10 9:45pm – Order has returned and the logo has returned to its original state but for those who missed it ….

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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At least 20 Islanders must have found work last month leaving the statistics for the number of unemployed claimants on the Isle of Wight.

The total number of claimants for February 2010 was 3,813.

This 20 less than January 2010, but 305 higher than the same month last year and represents a rate of 6.5% of the economically active population.

Trying to keep her children together, a Ryde mother of two is among a number of Island parents appealing the council’s placement of siblings at different schools.

Elaine Begg’s six-year-old son Josh has been thriving at Binstead Primary for the past three years.

Her younger son Thomas is currently at Stepping Stones, the Binstead pre-school, but for the coming year he was offered a place at Oakfield.

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For those of you unfortunate enough to remember the 80s track, BMX Boys Have A Lot Of Fun, it’ll bring to mind the heady early days of BMX in the UK.

“Of course, it will just be a fad,” was said widely. Guess that’s another prediction that’ll be chucked in to the bin of history.

To prove it’s very much alive, there’s going to be a display of BMX skills by Joe Sinclair from Bournemouth, doin’ ‘is ting in Ryde this Saturday.

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Here’s another from Ryde councillor Brian Harris. Ed

If you’re over 50, and have concerns about living in Ryde that need resolving, come and air your views to Ryde Older Voices.

They meet for an hour every month in the Methodist Church Hall, Garfield Road; the March meeting is on Wednesday 24th, at 1.45pm.

Ryde Older Voices is one of the IW Older Voices Circles that have been established across the Island specifically to try to improve things for the more mature of our residents; Brian Harris, on 563603, has further details.

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Back at the end of last year (seems so long ago now) you might remember VB reported of four islanders who were named on the Queen’s Honours list.

Last week Chief Executive of the Riverside Centre, Richard Priest, was joined by his wife Jane and their son Adam for a trip to Buckingham Palace.

Their jaunt to London wasn’t to see the sights, but for Richard to collect his OBE, for services to the Island, from none other than HRHHM The Queen.

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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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