Welcome to edition 100 of our Clerk’s Column circulated as usual to the 490 residents on our Residents’ Forum email list and through the Chronicle’s page 4.
NEW VENTNOR YOUTH CENTRE
Last Monday’s Town Council welcomed and agreed a staff team proposal for the double-decker Portacabins on Boniface Fields to become the town’s new Youth Centre. Although the Town Council has employed its own Youth Workers since the Isle of Wight Council closed its Island=wide Youth Service in 2014 the work has not had a proper base. Using our Green Room, St Margaret’s and other rented spaces has enabled our Youth Workers to develop activities involving over 50 of the town’s young people.
Now from 1 April they will have a base of their own with two sizeable linked spaces that were classrooms for the Island Free School before it moved to its new site.
FOOD FOR LIFE GRANT
Our Youth Worker’s application for a small grant from the Food for Life Get Togethers Fund has been successful for the Club’s weekly Plant & Share sessions at Boniface Fields where they ‘will learn how to construct a planter from recycled pallet wood & be supervised & trained in basic safe-handling of the tools – saws, spades, nails and hammers.’
BIKE MAINTENANCE FOR BEGINNERS
There will be a free workshop on bike maintenance for beginners at the Community Shed in the upper area of Boniface Fields on Wednesday this week running from 10am to 12 noon and from 1.30pm to 3pm.
HIGH STREET CLOSURE
Wightfibre’s works in the High Street are on schedule and so it is planned to re-open today the currently closed area as the work moves further east and the area between Spring Hill and Victoria Street will be closed to accommodate it.
MARCH TOWN COUNCIL MEETING
The decisions made at the Town Council’s meeting last Monday were: approval for the use of the double-decker Portacabins at Boniface Fields as the new Ventnor Youth Club, confirmation of the appointment of two new Beach Safety workers, to rejoin the Isle of Wight Association of Local Councils (IWALC), to ask the Isle of Wight Council to ban the use of the Glyphosate weedkiller, the appointment of Councillor Mark Jefferies to the Town Council’s `Planning Committee, to launch the new web site at the end of the month and to make a submission to the Boundary Commission for England’s second consultation: supporting its current proposal to include Ventnor in the West Constituency. The meeting was livestreamed as usual and can be viewed here.
ASSETS & SERVICES WORKING GROUP
The Group held its latest fortnightly meeting on Tuesday with an Agenda that included:
Salisbury Gardens repairs to its roof, loft clearance and insurance claim; Ventnor Park request for an event and the clearance of ivy from some of the trees; New Public Toilet noting progress on schedule and cost of cash and card payment system; High Street Closure continuing contact with Wightfibre; The Haven progress with new agreement for seaweed clearance; Paddling Pool area cost of potential children’s games and purchase of more tables.
LITTER PICKING = SPRING CLEANING…
9 am Sunday 27th March is the date and the main gathering will start from the Green Room at the Council offices in Dudley Road Please bring children and dogs too. Stephen Cockett is organising a pick in St Lawrence. and we have plans to cover Lowtherville and Bonchurch.
VIA MY TWITTER FEED LAST WEEK
- New Economics research published today finds ‘Nearly half of all children will be living below a socially acceptable standard of living.’
- A Report today from Citizens Advice ‘Crunch Point’ says: ‘5 million people will be unable to afford their energy bill when prices rise in April. 14.5 million will be unable to afford their energy bills from October.’
MORE INFORMATION: is available from the Town Council’s website and @ventnor clerk