Welcome to edition 101 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.
SALISBURY GARDENS’ GREEN BANK CUTTING
Last week saw the grass bank cut at Salisbury Gardens. Rats have been nesting within the overgrowth and, due to health and safety risks, it is not acceptable for Ventnor Town Council to leave the overgrowth uncut, allowing the rats to proliferate, as they appear to be spreading in numbers and further afield. It is highly unlikely that there are many different species of wildlife living within the grass bank area whilst the rats are in situ.
ENERGISE YOUTH GRANT
Our Youth Worker’s application for a grant from the Energise Youth Fund has been successful. The £3,370 funding will provide a one-off quad-skating disco, weekly skateboarding and monthly badminton for an estimated 30 young people.
BOB SEELY MEETING WITH T&P COUNCIL REPS
I joined the MP’s latest monthly session for Town and Parish Councils on Wednesday evening. It began as
usual with his brief summary of his recent activity, this time including discussions with the ferry operators and assisting with access to the Island for Ukrainian Refugees. The issues raised by representatives were: does he support the application for the East Cowes Housing development [No]; what about NALC’s request for return to virtual meetings [no government interest] and for a stronger Standard of Conduct [ditto]; road safety [new police unit]; and his position on the Boundary Commission Review [Ventnor to stay in West].
JUBILEE STREET PARTY GUIDANCE
On Wednesday the Isle of Wight Council issued its guidance for residents interested in arranging a street party during the celebrations of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The 13-page guidance is available on the Ilse of Wight Website.
HOUSEHOLD SUPPORT GRANT
Our latest application to this funding that enables us to supply vouchers to residents known to either our Food Bank or Baby Box to be in serious need of Support to buy food or top up their pre-payment metres has been accepted in a total of £7,000. The vouchers can be exchanged for either or both at our town centre Co-op. We have given vouchers from our previous grants to over 150 households in central and Upper Ventnor.
The money comes from the government’s Household Support Grant channelled through local authorities, in our case by the Isle of Wight Council’s Children’s Department. It is the only funding provided by the government for direct support to the poorest and it announced in Wednesday’s Spring Statement that it will provide the same amount in 2022/23 as last year.
A SUPPORT SERVICES WORKSHOP
On Monday evening seven Councillors attended the second of the workshop series on the Council’s community work. This time to hear from our co-ordinator Terri Exposite of the remarkable Wellbeing Café running over three sessions a week in the Green Room for its 51 members and from Tony McCarthy about our long-running Employment and Benefits Advice service based at the Library each Thursday morning.
LITTER PICKING
Eight Councillors joined residents and St Catherine’s school to cover Lutherville and St Lawrence as well as the main Ventnor West area to collect the 25 bags shown here in the care of our Maintenance Manager Brian Roberts. We’ll be back again in six weeks
VIA MY TWITTER FEED LAST WEEK
o The Resolution Foundation’s summary of the impact of yesterday [‘s statement: 1.5 million more people pushed into absolute poverty including 500,000 children.
o The End Fuel Poverty Coalition says: ‘With the increase in energy bills coming into effect on 1 April 2022, over 6.3m households (27% of homes in England) will wake up in fuel poverty that morning. Poverty Coalition states today.’
MORE INFORMATION is available from the Town Council’s website and @ventnor clerk