Following last night’s public meeting to discuss the closure of the Winter Gardens, The Ventnor Town Council has published the following item on their Website. The VB report to follow later. Ed
400 people packed the Winter Gardens Main Hall last night to hear Ventnor Town Council set out the reasons for its withdrawal from management of the facility and the consequent closure of it at the end of this month.
After Mayor Debby Robinson had outlined the programme for the evening, the Town Clerk gave a 30-minute presentation exploring the challenges the Town Council had faced since it took on the management of the Winter Gardens in 1994.
The presentation can be viewed or downloaded from the VTC Website.
The Mayor then invited questions about both past and future that took up the remaining 2 hours of the meeting. The questions reflected the passion many have developed for the Winter Gardens and its controbution to Ventnor’s life, its community organisations and its visitors.
Town Councillors responded openly and honestly, sharing the regret at even the temporary closure they hoped this would prove to be before opening again with new owners and a better resourced basis to work from.
The building’s owners, the Isle of Wight Council, are committed to working with the Town Council and will launch local and national adverts later this month inviting Expressions of Interest in the purchase of the building.
Both Councils are keen to see the future, more commercial, development of the Winter Gardens retain its 75-year inclusion of and service to Ventnor’s communities.
