Cabinet members met last night for their April meeting and Newport Harbour was up for discussion again after it had been removed, at short notice, from the agenda of December’s Cabinet meeting.
Readers may remember that VB revealed last week that the Isle of Wight council admitted they’d acted against the law in awarding leases at Newport Harbour far longer than allowed.
The law dictates that the maximum lease length for this land be three years, some of the leases issued by the IWC were for up to 125 years.
At last night’s meeting, members of the Cabinet agreed (Cllr Cousins abstained) that there was no “compelling public interest in terminating the existing leases granted for longer than three years”.
Harbour Estate assets approved
The Cabinet were also asked to “confirm the assets that currently make up the Newport Harbour Estate are as shown in Appendix 3” (embedded below for your convenience).
The proposed boundary has previously been, and was again last night, disputed by the Newport Harbour Action Group, who claim that the land covered by it has been reduced by 80% to the north, with the area between The Folly and Premier Inn now sitting outside the Harbour Estate boundary.
Council claims no clear plan available
We’ve been unable to confirm or deny this as the previous maps don’t appear to be available on the IWC site.
The council say there is no clear plan that defines the land and buildings of the Harbour Estate, but campaigners claim that boundary maps revealing the full extent of the Harbour Estate have been removed from the Harbour Office.
The Cabinet voted to approve the new boundaries for the Newport Harbour Estate last night and also agreed to review the assets every two years.
Council could face ‘public interest’ Judicial Review
One of the campaigners for Newport Harbour told members of the Cabinet that if they voted through Paper B he would apply for a ‘public interest’ Judicial Review.
Back in December, the Isle of Wight council were accused of endemic law breaking by members of the Newport Harbour Action Group.
Paper B
Appendix 3
