Surgeries:
10:30-11am; Thursday 2nd December, Gurnard
Press, Worsley Road, Gurnard.
5:30-6pm; Tuesday 7th December, Isle of Wight
Community Club, Park Road, Cowes.
Although
surgeries are not held during the Christmas, I remain available and can be
contacted throughout the break to provide support. Please note during the break, it will take
longer to process requests given officers taking leave.
Community Bus.
I have been
contacted by several residents requesting extra services. At the moment unfortunately this is not
possible due to the shortfall of income and availability of drivers. In response to this through Northwood Parish
Council I have asked for consideration to join the Island’s Community Bus
Forum, as I consider that a greater connection and support is needed between
Town/ Parish Councils and the Forum.
In the
meantime, I also have concerns over the reduction in voluntary donations as
this also may impact upon the long term continuity of the service. Please if you can offer a small donation this
will be gratefully received!
Local Planning Matters.
·
Following feedback, the application for a 5G transmitter in Baring Road was refused by Planning Officers.
·
An appeal has been lodged against the refusal
to develop six dwellings in Baring Road.
·
A new application has been made to replace
and raise the Little Gloster (Ref:
21/02081/FUL). Concerns were raised
regarding the impact upon the street scene of the raised roof, the net loss of
parking, the overdevelopment of site and the potential for any development to
adversely impact on the current water/ sewerage infrastructure.
·
Following feedback concerns were raised
regarding a proposed balcony in Tilbury Road.
Other Planning Issues.
·
During his speech at the Conservative Party
conference, Boris Johnson referenced a stop to Green Field development.
Despite this, there is little (at this stage) to substantiate a policy
change or a deviation from the Governments manifesto commitment to build
300,000 new homes every year. However,
given the interest from myself, residents, developers, planning officers and
our MP this is being watched. In the
meantime proposals within the Draft Island Planning Strategy has lowered
housing figures from 668 (using Governments standard methodology) to 486.
·
With respect to the Draft Island Planning Strategy a meeting has taken place to
consider the feedback from the 2800 responses to the consultation. This will be
fed back to a briefing taking place in December.
·
As with similar refused applications on the
mainland, I am anticipating a potential appeal against this from UK Oil and Gas.
·
Information has been requested regarding housing
demand on the Island. Currently there are 2485 residents on the housing
register. Locally there are 178. Broken down, of these 83 require 1 bedroomed
accommodation; 52 require 2 bed
bedroomed accommodation; 33 require 3 bedroomed accommodation; 7 require 4
bedroomed accommodation and 3 require 5
bedroomed accommodation.
·
Proposals to develop on a Green Field site in
Apse Heath was rejected on appeal by
the Planning Inspectorate.
Highways and Transport Matters.
·
I
have taken further action to repair the damaged retaining wall in Crossfield
Avenue, east of the junction with Baring Road. These repairs have now been outstanding for
three years, without the commencement of any works. On this, I have contacted the Cabinet Member
responsible Cllr Phil Jordan.
·
Please
let me know about dog poo. Baring Road continues to be a problem
area with support being sought from Island Roads and our Environment Officers. Once I am aware of locations where a regular
problem exists, the sooner that action can be taken to address the problem
·
A
request and action has been taken to clear drains and gullies in Cockleton Lane from gravel debris from
Hilton Road.
·
In
the next few weeks I am hoping to undertake a Traffic and Parking study in Church Road. Please let me know if you wish to offer
assistance.
·
The
Health and Safety themed Traffic Orders for Gurnard are due to be implemented
in the coming weeks. These include parking
restrictions for Baring Road, Woodvale
Road, Princes Esplanade, Marsh Road and Cockleton Lane. The Traffic
Orders themselves will be implemented ‘as advertised’. The orders for Cowes will follow. Once I have details these will feature on my
website.
Christmas
Free Parking.
The IW Council are operating Free Parking in its
Long Stay Car Parks from Noon to 6pm, Saturday
4th December.
Before parking please ensure the car park is
owned by the IW Council and is ‘Long Stay’, as this service does not apply to
other car parks.
Smoking in Bus Shelters.
I continue
to receive complaints regarding smokers. I am reminded that when there are
three sides to a shelter this is unlawful to smoke in these areas and subsequently
fines can be imposed on people disregarding the law.
I have
requested that the Environment Officer monitors this.
Covid Updates.
·
Covid Booster Vaccines.
Residents
have contacted me regarding non-availability of Covid Booster Vaccines. In
response, I’ve complained to the Clinical Commissioning Group due to the fact
that the NHS are allocating boosters elsewhere in Hampshire and the rest of the
country. In response to this, the NHS
has introduced a Covid Booster bus to support residents.
The bus,
which will be giving boosters to those entitled to vaccinations at:
· 9am-4pm Thursday 2nd December: Sandown
Fire Station, 4-5 Yar Road, Sandown. PO36 9AY
· 9am-4pm Friday 3rd December: Moa
Place Car Park, Freshwater. PO40 9AN
· 9am-4pm, Saturday 4th December:
The Heights Leisure Centre, Broadway, Sandown. PO36 9ET
· 9am-4pm, Sunday 5th December:
Central Car Park, Ventnor. PO38 1LU.
·
Community
Resiliance. Over the 18 month period, the project aims to achieve the following
outcomes:
- Reduction in the negative impact of
psychological trauma brought about by the COVID-19 at the individual,
interpersonal, community, and systems levels;
- Increase in volunteering, particularly
amongst people under the age of 50 years old and young people;
- Enhanced community cohesion in three
priority areas;
- Enhanced capacity and resilience skills
within the voluntary sector and within communities as a whole;
- Enhanced overall community resilience on
the Isle of Wight.
·
Flu Vaccines.
I know a number of residents continue to
struggle to get Flu immunisations. What
I, and many others have found really helpful are the number of pharmacies offering
flu vaccines. Details of Island
pharmacies can be found here:
|
Pharmacy |
Tel. No |
Pharmacy |
Tel.
No. |
|
Boots,
Bembridge |
872328 |
Lloyds,
Ryde |
563333 |
|
Boots,
Cowes |
294467 |
Gibbs
& Gurrnell, Ryde |
562570 |
|
Day Lewis,
Cowes |
293011 |
Tesco (In
Store), Ryde |
327847 |
|
Lloyds
Pharmacy, East Cowes |
293133 |
Boots,
Sandown |
403236 |
|
Regent
Pharmacy, East Cowes |
717002 |
Day Lewis,
Lake, Sandown |
402050 |
|
Boots, Freshwater |
752724 |
Lloyds,
Sandown |
405436 |
|
Kemkay
Pharmacy, Freshwater |
752908 |
Seaview
Pharmacy Ltd, Seaview |
613116 |
|
Boots,
Newport |
522595 |
Boots,
Shanklin |
862058 |
|
Lloyds,
Newport: 22a Carisbrooke Road |
526868 |
Day Lewis,
Shanklin |
862562 |
|
Lloyds,
Newport: 41-42 Pyle Street |
522636 |
Regent
Pharmacy, Shanklin |
863677 |
|
Day Lewis,
Newport: 22 Carisbrooke Road |
525216 |
Boots,
Ventnor |
852147 |
|
Day Lewis,
Newport: 86-88 High Street |
522346 |
Lloyds,
Ventnor |
825135 |
|
Sainsbury’s,
Newport |
539985 |
Day Lewis,
Ventnor |
730240 |
|
Boots,
Ryde: Tower House, Park Road |
562156 |
Day Lewis,
Wootton Bridge |
882473 |
|
Boots,
Ryde: 170-172 High Street |
562280 |
Yarmouth
Pharmacy |
760260 |
|
|
|
|
|
Bucklers View Update.
Proposals
to extend and provide additional accommodation at Bucklers View has been put on
hold, until the second half of next year.
A reapplication will be required should the scheme not be started by
2023.
Prior
to any progress on this application, I am assured that updates will be provided
to Bucklers View residents.
Director of
Regeneration.
A meeting was arranged in early December to
meet with the IW Council’s Director of Regeneration, following calls from local
businesses to provide greater support from the IW Council.
Items discussed at the meeting with the IW
Council’s Director was better signage at Roundhouse and ways to work in
partnership with groups such as local businesses Gurnard Parish Council to give
the village an identity for visitors who would generally bypass the village for
Cowes. It was felt that the Village, the
seafront and the Marsh all had separate identities and aspects that could be
used to attract people.
Father
Christmas. News from Cowes Carnival.
Father Christmas and his team will be
out and about this month collecting letters from children on the following dates:
Friday 10 December
Woodvale Rd/Worsley Rd/Hilton
Rd/Lower Church Rd/The Avenue/Church Rd/Place Rd/Place Side
Monday 13 December
Oxford St/Wyatts Lane/Uplands
Rd/Fieldway Cres/Venner Ave/Pallance Rd/Nodes Rd/Mendham Village.
Wednesday 15 December
York St/West Hill Rd/Beckford
Rd/Gordon Rd/Mill Hill Rd/Seaview Rd/Bellevue Rd/Moor Green Rd
Friday 17 December
Newport Rd/Shamblers Rd/Arnold Rd/Ash
Grove/Love Lane/Elm Grove/Arctic Rd
Monday 20 December
Crosfield Ave/Parkland Ave/Magdalena
Cres/Churchill Rd/Charles Rd/Park Rd/Victoria Rd/Stephenson Rd
The Carnival will be supporting Cowes
Business Association's late night Christmas opening on Thursday 2 December.
Father Christmas will be there with sweets for children.
Saturday 11 December & Sunday 12
December, Father Christmas will be at Aldi's between 10 & 4. Lucky Dips for
the children at only £1. Fantastic presents.
Saturday 18 December, Father
Christmas will be next to Corries Cabin between 10 & 4. Christmas presents
from Father Christmas are £2.
Top Tips from the
Footprint Trust to help you keep Warm & Safe this Winter.
OFGEN has reported that for 15 million Energy
Customers, Bills will increase as from 1st October. This follows an increase to the Fuel Cap
which OFGEN negotiates with energy supplies
At the moment to counter these increases a
number of independent search engines can help customers get the best deal.
These include: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ and http://www.uswitch.com/ Tel: 0800 688 8557
In
addition to the above, The Footprint Trust advises:
·
Talk to your energy company. Are you on the best deal? Can you get the
£140 Warm Home Discount?
·
Keep safe in a power cut or water
failure. Join the free Priority Service
Register call 0800 294 3259 or visit www.ssen.co.uk/psr/southernwater
·
Lag your water pipes
·
Save £200 per year on utility costs! Talk to
the Warm Island team at the Footprint Trust on 01983 822282 or email: info@footprint-trust.co.uk.
·
Phone 0800 027 0800 and ask about the
Watersure tariff if you have a disability or high water use due to illness.
·
Make sure your torch is charged, and you have
spare batteries.
·
Keep a supply of tinned and non-perishable
goods in case extreme weather prevents you going out to the shops
·
Make sure you have enough medicine; don’t
leave re-ordering to the last minute.
·
Keep important phone numbers on your fridge.
Useful Helplines:
°
If
you are worried about your Fuel Bills call The
Footprint Trust on 01983 822282.
°
Islehelp for advice
and information on benefits, money issues, rent concerns. Telephone: 01983
823859/ 823898; Website: www.islehelp.me; Email: enquiries@iwcab.org.uk
°
Isle of Wight Council Covid-19 Support Telephone: 01983 823600
°
Struggling on your pension? You may be
entitled to more money. Pension Credit
helpline 0800 991 234.
Christmas
Break Collections.
Because of the dates when
Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day fall this year there is no change
from when household waste and recycling takes place in 2021.
Waste
and Recycling.
·
Assisted
collections
If
you find that:
You
cannot manage the domestic wheeled bin or gull sacks that have been provided
for you, or you cannot place waste/ recycling on the kerbside for
collection you may be eligible for
assistance with your waste and recycling collections.
·
Collection
Plus
This
service allows to have your domestic wheeled bins or gull-proof sacks collected
from an agreed point on your home. This could be the side of your house,
instead of being required to place them on the kerbside in your collection
day.
This
service is ideal for householders who will benefit from ensuring their
bins are collected on their allocated collection day without having to place
their waste out before 7am on their collection day.
Collection
Plus benefits residents:
·
Who
work away from home during the week,
·
work
irregular shift patterns,
·
second
home owners,
·
the
elderly,
·
or
anyone who owns a holiday let that is available to let for less than 140 days
per year.
This
service costs £65 and runs for a period of one year from the date of purchase.
For
details please visit:
Also this
month.
·
At a recent SCOPAC meeting it was reported locally in Ryde there are flood alleviation
measures underway at Monktonmead; Flood resilience measures cost £50m had been
approved for Cowes and East
Cowes; The seawall at Yaverland was to be refurbished;
improvements were pending to improve the seawall on Shanklin Esplanade whilst £30m had been
found to enable coastal protection works ahead of time at Ventnor.
·
The new Alliance administration Corporate
Plan for the Isle of
Wight Council was approved by Full Council.
·
Help is being given to a resident with
replacement boundaries issues with the IW
Community Club.
·
I attended Licensing Training, which updated Councillors on Taxi/Private Hire,
Street Trading and Gambling matters within the Licensing Act.
·
I will be supporting a motion to make Firework Displays a licensable activity.
·
I attended Planning Training which continues to seek clarity on the attendance
of members at site visits. Although the
law does not make this mandatory, it remains good practice for members to do
so.
·
I am supporting Age UK’s Digital Friendly pledge.
·
Last month, I was honoured to attend Remembrance Day Services in both Cowes
and Gurnard to lay wreaths on behalf of the IW Council.
·
I have asked for a dog poo purge to take place following complaints received.
·
I attended Cowes Primary School’s Christmas Fayre. A very big thank you for the kind invitation
to what was an absolutely brilliant event.
