The Better Days Cafe was packed to the gunwales on Friday night, when concerned members of the public attended a public meeting to discuss the future of the Ventnor Winter Gardens (VWG).
The meeting had been called by local resident, Steve Witheyman, and was attended by ward councillor for Ventnor and St Lawrence, Ed Blake, as well as the Conservative MP for Isle of Wight East, Joe Robertson.
Tash Dix, the Service Director Waste, Environment and Planning Community Services, and Community Safety officer, Cameron Baxter, both from Isle of Wight council also attended and spoke at the meeting.
Mixed views
The room appeared to be divided between those who were keen find out what could happen going forward to protect the VWG from further deterioration and be brought back into use, and those who wanted answers about why the building was sold by the Conservatives for £1 and be allowed to get into the state that it has.
No new flats and S.215 letter served
As reported over the weekend, Councillor Blake explained that a senior member of the planning department had told him that residential flats would never be allowed to be built on the site.
In addition, Tash Dix advised that the owner of The Hambrough Group, Kevin Sussmilch of Wight House Limited, had been served a letter under Section 215 Town & Country Planning Act 1990, with 19 actions to tidy up and improve the VWG building and grounds within 16 weeks.
Cameron Baxter, the Community Safety officer, explained that although the enforcement to tidy up the site doesn’t answer the question about future use of the building, it does prevent broken window syndrome and helps solve the issue of teenagers breaking into an unsafe building. He added that negligent landowners would be held to account.
Zoom call with Sussmilch
Joe Robertson told the audience that he’d had a zoom call with Mr Sussmilch that morning and relayed some of the information discussed.
He explained that Mr Sussmilch had said that no one had come to him, that it was hard to make it commercially viable, that he wants to bring back soul nights, but that he was not a charity.
Mr Sussmilch went on to say that he needed to get someone in to run the venue. This has been tried before, of course, when a concerned member of the public stepped in to programme events and market the venue between 2015-19.
The mayor, Steve Cooper, explained that he’d also had a zoom call with Mr Sussmilch and relayed pretty much the same information.
Venue needs to be supported
Kaf Tan, a DJ who had played the Sunday Soul Sessions at the Winter Gardens for many years before it closed, explained that many people she knew who used to attend events at the VWG, stopped doing so when it was sold by the council. She felt the venue didn’t get the support from the community that it needed to survive.
Councillor Blake said he’d heard some serious, well-costed plans for the future of the WVG, but had also heard some ideas that he described as ‘pie in the sky’. He added that he could feed back the community feeling to the owner.
“Never made a profit”
Ventnor resident, Debby Robinson, who was the mayor at the time the Ventnor Town Council (VTC) were compelled to hand the venue back to the Isle of Wight council (IWC), explained that the former clerk David Bartlett, had carried out an extensive study of losses since VWG was opened in 1937.
She explained his findings were that it was always subsidised by the precept, and never made a profit.
A different story was told by two residents whose parents both had ten-year leases to run the WVG during the 1970 to 1990s. Both claimed their parents ran the venue and made a profit, adding that it was a well-used community asset and buzzing all the time.
Listed building status
Although the building is listed locally, it has not been listed with Historic England. There were mixed views on whether this was a good or bad thing.
Stephen Izatt, who founded Ventnor Arts Club, explained that one of the three one bids which went to the judging panel back in 2010 was absolutely viable and didn’t require any public funding. He added that at that time (2010) the building was capable of being turned into a community and commercial entity, but feared that might not be the case now due to state the building had been allowed to get into.
He warned against having it listed nationally, as this might prevent efforts to bring the building back into use.
Could funding be sought?
Debby Robinson said that before the VTC handed the venue back to IWC, they had done the rounds of various venues, including De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Sea, and had even had a visit from Theatres Trust, who she said were not interested at the time in providing investment in the venue.
Bonchurch resident Rachel Clare, explained that Arts Council England (ACE) were interested in supporting areas with a lack of with creative amenities and believed that funding could be attracted to save the building. Stephen Izatt agreed and pointed out that ACE are focused on provincial funding for venues rather than cities like London.
Ventnor resident, Ross Honeybourne, claimed to know the person who had offered £3 million to Mr Sussmilch for the VWG, which he said was turned down.
Asset of community value
Councillor Blake also invited residents in the ‘PO38 1’ postcode address to add their signatures calling for the building and grounds to be listed as an Asset of Community Value.
Tash Dix explained that once a property is listed as an Asset of Community Value with the local authority, the community will be notified if it is put up for sale within the five-year listing period.
This triggers the Community Right to Bid, giving the community a six-month moratorium to decide whether they can raise the funds to buy the asset.
“He has to be persuaded to let it go”
Joe Robertson concluded the meeting by saying that there were not a huge amount of easy options. Adding that is Mr Sussmilch believes it is not commercial viable.
Joe said,
“He has to be persuaded to let it go.”
He also said that the council action making the owner spend money on the premises, could make it selling it a more attractive option to Mr Sussmilch. The MP said that he was happy to be the go between.
It was agreed another public meeting would be held in early August to see how far things have progressed.
Article edit
2.33pm 19th May 2025 – TD’s job title updated
