At last Tuesday’s Executive meeting (7th October) members voted in favour of a proposal to outsource the Isle of Wight’s countryside management.
The plans could result in the council’s 200 hectares of nature reserves, country parks and open spaces across 26 sites being managed in the future by external partners at nil additional cost to the council and may also see costs reduced over the following years.
Organisations show interest
Organisations who’ve expressed an interest in taking on the maintenance of the Island’s countryside include, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, Natural Enterprise, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Hampshire County Council and the current service staff.
At the beginning of the meeting Ray Harrington Vail from the Footprint Trust questioned the council about the number of staff employed to manage the countryside (it has been drastically reduced over the last few years) and Cllr Luisa Hillard, the executive member for sustainability, later pointed to his question saying it highlighted perfectly the issues facing the council.
Financial pressures
As we’ve heard before in other areas, due to the current financial pressure on the council, they’re unable to do much more than merely maintain the countryside.
Cllr Hillard said the council couldn’t afford to invest or improve the countryside offering to residents or visitors. She added how important it was to look outside to other organisations to develop partnerships for better outcomes.
Cllr Fuller said he felt the countryside was one of the greatest assets of the Island and thanks Matthew Chatfield for all his hard work and efforts over the years. He added it hasn’t been easy and was sad that “we are where we are”.
Support from countryside officers
Senior officer, Alex Minns, said that no-one welcomed the financial situation the council found themselves in. He said that he and Matthew both felt the proposal was a good future for the countryside service and opens up possibilities of working with others to take the service forward.
All members voted in favour of the proposals.
Full details in the paper embedded below. Click on the full screen icon to see larger version.
Image: © With kind permission of Mike Vallender
