Saturday morning saw over 70 Islanders take part in the State of the Island Debate at the Riverside Centre in Newport.
The meeting had been called by the Independent Group of Councillors and presented an opportunity for members of the public to share their views on how life on the Island could be improved.
The councillors listened for more than two hours, as many residents explained what they saw as the problems facing the Island. Some also offered positive suggestions on how to improve Island life in the future.
For those unable to make it along, we hope our notes of the discussions below are helpful.
“I believe the IWC are bankrupt”
After introductions, the first to speak was Newport resident, Christopher Dodd, who told the meeting he had evidence that the Isle of Wight council is bankrupt.
He said he believed they had £45m outstanding maintenance arrears. Going on to claim that the IWC had spent most of their reserves, he believed that the council could would not be able to meet their maintenance needs.
Replace Chief Executive with County Solicitor
Next up was Chale resident, Mike Starke, who quoted the 2009 Audit Commission Report which declared the Isle of Wight council a two star authority, which is run by a 32 strong corporate management board. He called for the Chief Executive role to be scrapped and replaced with a county solicitor, pointing out that it had been done elsewhere in the UK (Wiltshire).
Apparently, the current Chief Executive Steve Beynon once told Mike that it (the CE role) was a five year job, adding strength to the argument that it is seen by those coming into the position as a short term role. He went on to explain that there’ve been eight CEs since 1998.
Mike made the suggestion that the IWC partner with the College to run courses on working in local government in order to nuture home-grown officers rather than relying on ‘council tourists’ (senior officers who work on the Island, but whose families live elsewhere).
He finished by suggesting that the Highways PFI is scrapped, adding that when the scheme commences, the IWC will be paying £500,000 a week on road repairs.
“We do have home-grown planning officers”
On the subject of training local government staff on the Island, Cllr Churchman made the point that the planning department had been responsible for ‘growing their own’ planning officers quite successfully.
“Tackle the housing waiting list”
Bob Burton from the Cowes and Newport section of the Trades Union Council said that when they tried to get a meeting with the council during the Vestas dispute of 2009, it took them eight months. In response to the job losses, he said that the Isle of Wight Economic Partnership told them that, “there were plenty of jobs in the CP.”
He went on to speak of the 6,000 residents on the waiting list for housing and how although Medina Housing Association had built some new housing, South Wight Housing Association weren’t doing the same. He called for action on the housing crises.
“No thanks to bio-mass plant”
Tanja Rebel shared her views on the proposed biomass plant in Stag Lane. Fuel for the plant will need to come from abroad, creating a massive carbon footprint to keep the plant going.
She spoke of the need for a 75m+ high chimney and the plant being bigger than the new Vestas building on the Medina. Her view was that the Medina was being industrialised
“Never seen such a sense of despair”
Mark Chiverton spoke not only as Unison branch rep, acting on behalf of council staff, but also raised concerns as an Island resident.
He said that he’d never seen such a sense of despair from people living on the Island.
He said he’d like to see more energy put into employment on the Island and warned that the level of cuts this year are likely to be higher than previous year.
Robin Sivapalan spoke about democracy and the Occupy movement, his message for councillors was that it is the people who work in public life who know best.
“Meet with Government to tackle unemployment”
Steve Butler from the Ryde TUC was brief and to the point. His concern was with the level of unemployment on the Island.
He urged Cllr Pugh and Isle of Wight MP, Andrew Turner to go to Government to tackle this ever-growing problem.
Update 17:56 – Steve Butler has been in touch to tell VB that the Island branch of the TUC have offered to go to Westminster with Cllr David Pugh, Andrew Turner and the Chamber. They’re awaiting a response.
“Return to market gardening”
Newport Harbour resident, Robert Turner, was next. He spoke of the double-edged sword of living on an Island. Pointing out our utter dependency on ferry and road deliveries, he suggested that radical projects to counter this could become a great example for the rest of the country.
He reminisced about a time when the Island was an exporter of food, pointing to the current lack of abattoir, no decent sized dairy, fields lacking production with few crops and livestock.
He urged the councillors to take back the message that the council should support the permaculture movement, encouraging a return to market gardening. He suggested a by-law to force the supermarkets on the Island to buy Island produce over imports.
No need for subsidies, he said, “just a fair hand.”
“Help those who help the most vulnerable”
Geoff Hughes, volunteer driver for John’s Club spoke next. He explained that at the age of 70, his license had just expired and living on a pension he could not afford to renew it.
Geoff’s grave concerns for the welfare of the 300+ people that he helped get around the Island was felt by the entire audience.
He explained that perhaps there might be a benefit of some kind that would be able to help him renew his license, so he could get back to providing the valuable service to some of the most vulnerable people living on the Island, but he had not idea where to look for it.
“Private sector can’t fill public sector jobs vacuum”
Newport resident, Adrian Nicholas, spoke next saying he believes that we are being disadvantaged at a political and council level.
With 20% of Islanders below 18 years old and 20% pensioners, that leaves 60% of working age and the prospect of high unemployment. Adrian questioned how the island could follow the system of privatisation, on a national scale, of the private sector. Relying on the private sector to fill the vacuum of providing the public with jobs would not happen he said.
He urged the councillors to ensure that the Island has representation as a unique geographic location.
“Steer clear of super fast broadband”
Small businessman, Geoff Mason, spoke next. He provides training services for schools, (Forest Schools). He told Prior to September 2011, 30% of his work came from middle schools and 70% from primaries, referred by the Extended Schools officers. These officers have now been either sacked or employed by the schools and Geoff has seen a 50% drop in work in the last four months.
What worried him more, he said, was the future of the Island for young people. Due to manufacturing disappearing and small businesses suffering due to lack of public services.
Finally he shared his views on the prospect of the council investing £3m in super fast broadband. He said he preferred to do his communications face to face or over the telephone and could not see how his business would benefit from superfast broadband. He couldn’t see how his mate who was a plumber would benefit.
“I don’t think £3m into broadband is wise, I don’t think it’s £3m well spent. Superfast broadband is something we want to steer clear of,” he told the councillors.
“Protect the vulnerable”
Next up was care worker, John Luckett. He told councillors that he believed the ruling council showed so much arrogance by failing the Island and vulnerable people.
He explained that he’d been compelled to stand up and shout for the protection of vulnerable people on the Island as well as for the businesses who employ care workers. He believes that the whole way of life on the Island is under threat and won’t let it go without a fight.
He believed that the only way to instigate change is to get Islanders mobilised and engaged. He spoke to the low turnout for the recent by-election in West Wight saying it was not good for democracy.
John finished by saying that it was good we had listening ears (referring to councillors present at meeting) and that we should all make the most of it.
The coined the acronym FAIR, For All Island Residents.
“Too much bureaucracy, too little human care”
Maureen Phillips spoke next, telling the meeting that she had “looked on in horror” at what was happening on the Island and the decisions that were being made by unelected officials. “They’ve no interest in the Island,” she said.
She spoke of the refurbishment of Island schools and how this was being carried out by a mainland company. Her daughter works for an Island company that refurbs schools on the mainland and was told that they would have loved to have been chosen for that work on the Island along with many other smaller companies who could have all worked together.
She mentioned the sale of the Dotto trains, which initially had the support of David Pugh being sold to the Islander, but was sold to a mainland company by Stuart Love.
She finished by saying, “Too much bureaucracy, too little human care for the Island.”
Island population will be 172,000 by 2033
Former councillor Harry Rees said we needed to get back to basics. Harry told us that he’d been fighting the issues of employment and economy of the Island for 30 years.
He explained the the national funding provided to the Isle of Wight was based on an average wage of £465 per week. He called on Andrew Turner to fight the national rates being applied to this and to the health service.
Harry explained that he’s spent the last few month researching population levels on the Island. Population is going to grow to 172,000 by 2033, he told us, with 40% of which will be 65 and over. There will be a massive drop between 2017-33 in the percentage of working age residents he went on to say.
He finished with, “If you think we’ve got problems now, there are some bigger problems coming.”
Other items raised by those in the meeting included urging the IWC to enable more youth opportunities, for all businesses to pull together, fighting for ferry subsidies, acknowledge that the Island is compromised and relaxing the rules to benefit the Island.
“Island is being driven into the ground”
Andrew Cooper from the FBU said that he believed the Island was being driven into the ground.
He said he was unable to comment on many subjects being raised at the meeting, so would concentrate on the process of the move of fire control to Surrey.
“The process has been abysmal,” he said. Going on to explain that if he spoke out personally about the move, he would be disciplined, so was speaking on Saturday as Acting Regional Control Representative for the Fire Brigades Union.
He spoke passionately about the importance of local knowledge and how it was being dismissed by the former Chief Fire Officer before he retired.
Andrew explained that calls from GPS mobiles would be able to provide exact location of caller, but VOIP and GSM phones would not. The politicians only listen to senior officers who keep giving reassurances that it’ll be OK, rather than look at a phone and seeing how inaccurate GSM or VOIP phones are in providing exact locations. He gave examples of photos being posted to Facebook, the sender was in Northwood but the phone saying they were in Godshill.
He said that Cllr Abraham dismissed the fact that a VOIP (Voice Over IP) phone would not be accurately located through a call to fire control. Emergency ROAM calls could also not be located.
Andrew explained that when he told the former Chief Fire officer that the only thing filling in the gaps was local knowledge and that his face dropped.
A straw poll in the room revealed that not one person raised their hand in support of the move of the fire control centre.
“Lost total faith in politicians”
Andrew finished by saying that he’d lost total faith in politicians, explaining that his 76 year old father had been asked by a Conservative politician to second his nomination in 2010.
When his father then wrote to the politician six months later about the fire control move and his concerns. He received not one reply to his letter or emails and will now never vote again. This is after preaching his entire life of the importance of voting.
He summed up by saying they only understood, “the cost of everything and the value of nothing.”
Help with premises for Alzheimers cafe
Maggie Bennett, a health and social care provider, on the Island shared her passion for the Island. She runs the Alzheimers Cafe which is a charity entirely funded by local people. She explained the problems of securing premises with a car park at a reasonable cost.
Maggie stressed the importance of the service, which is run by unpaid volunteers, being provided for those affected by Alzheimers and the need for help with premises.
“Big picture is not being dealt with”
Newport resident, Steve Goodman, said he felt the big picture is not being dealt with. He suggested it would be sensible to be ahead of the trouble by making the Island as self-sufficient as possible.
He spoke of community agriculture schemes that take place on the mainland such as Incredible Edibles. He urged the use of natural energy sources such as tides, sun and wind to help sustain needs on the island and suggested a ‘not for profit’ transport service.
“They won’t listen to good ideas.” he said, “There are plenty out there but they are falling on deaf ears.”
Culture change needed
Wootton Bridge parish councillor Dick Doran spoke next and urged everyone to get more involved with their town and parish councils.
He explained that he’s a new councillor but said it was clear that there needs to be a culture change in how IWC works with town and parish councils.
“Reintroduce trains”
Tanja Rebel spoke again making further suggestions for sustainability. She urged for an entire cycle network across the Island and also suggested for a longer term view that the return of trains could be solve many problems.
“Kick out those not fulfilling their job”
The final speaker was a former resident who warned of economic ramification of the peak oil situation.
He called for a relocalisation of textiles, woodland, transport infrastructure, encourage low impact building etc. He reminded the meeting of the importance of having bread on the table for communities.
He suggested that the island is tied up with bureaucracy. “Look at the legal frameworks, kick out those not fulfilling their jobs.” he said, “They have a duty of care and are not fulfilling their obligations.”
Cllr Stephens thanked everyone for taking part. The views expressed would be considered and taken to Full Council at Wednesday’s meeting.
Image: Geek Calendar under CC BY 2.0
