If you’ve been to Ventnor recently you might have noticed that the Winter Gardens is looking pretty shabby.
After years of neglect by Isle of Wight council, it wasn’t looking that good even when in their hands, but since closing to the public in January 2011 it has gone dramatically downhill.
A couple of weeks ago we noticed that all the windows had been covered with timber boarding. As you can see from the photos, it creates an awful impression for visitors.
Protection from vandalism
Knowing that planning permission had been granted and that the sale of the property from the Isle of Wight council to The Hambrough Group was in motion, we got in touch with Robert Thompson.
He told VB that a couple of weekends ago, he had to chase away about fifteen teenagers who had broken in and were vandalising the building.
Robert confirmed that the building hadn’t yet changed hands and that it had been the council who had boarded up the windows in order to keep the building safe.
He went on to say that once the sale was complete, work would start around November-time with an expected opening date of early 2014.
Paint the boarding cream?
It struck us, as we were looking at the building earlier in the week, that if the boarding could be painted cream, it would have less of a negative impact on the street scene over the summer season.
We got in touch with the council to make the suggestion. Our comments have been passed to the property services manager and we’ll let you know when we hear back.
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