Welcome to edition 97 of our Clerk’s Column circulated as usual to the 490 residents on our Residents’ Forum email list and through the Chronicle’s page 4.
HIGH STREET CLOSURE
The High Street will be closed to traffic from tomorrow morning until 6.30pm on Monday 21 March for Wightfibre works. Arrangements are being made with traders to receive and make deliveries but no parking will be allowed and no through traffic possible at any time. Wightfibre have explained to us that the reason for this hard closure is that they not only have to install their cables but alto take great care in lifting and replacing the blocks that form the pavement.
OTHER ROAD CLOSURES
Island Roads’ list of road closures affecting the town include:
- Grove Road: until Wednesday 9 March
- Shore Road: until Thursday 17 March
- Leeson Road: the two-week closure for tree works is being extended for another week
- Madeira Road (western part): from today until Wednesday 9 March
- Trinity Road: from 7 to 14 March.
MENTAL HEALTH WELLBEING FUND
Monday’s Town Council meeting opened with the Island’s High Sheriff James Attrill presenting his Awards to Marzena Turner and Joyce Milford for their work We were pleased to learn last week that our application to the Fund for £3,600 to run a new afternoon session of our Wellbeing Café from 1 April.
S. WIGHT PARISHES HEALTH & WELLBEING FORUM
The latest meeting of the Forum we organise for the 13 South Wight Town & Parish Councils to meet with senior health services staff was held in our Green Room on Wednesday evening when the guest speaker was the new Chief Executive of the Island’s NHS Trust Darren Cattell, previously the Trust’s Director of Finance, Estates & IM&T and Deputy Chief Executive.
NEXT LITTER PICK
The next Litter Pick was planned to take place on Sunday 6 March but has been moved to 27 March due to the extensive road works.
WORKSHOP: FOOD BANK + BABY BOX
Is
Councillors and relevant staff attended the first of a monthly series of workshops on the Town Council’s Community support work. The first was on Monday evening.
Joyce Milford outlined the remarkable growth of Baby Box through volunteer support and successful funding applications to provide its now wide ranging availability of the nappies and baby milk requirements of the youngest members of our poorest families through the regularly changing needs for equipment of the growing young to clothing up to and including school uniforms. Her stories of its users faced with daily choices between eating and heating were very challenging indeed.
Roy George followed with a summary of the growth of Ventnor’s own Foodbank following the decision of the Trussell Trust to close its own in the town. Here, too, it was the remarkable commitment of local volunteers that made possible the provision of essential food to over 1,000 people from 140 households last year.
NEW WEB SITE
The Working Group met again, virtually, on Monday morning continuing to make good progress towards its planned launch by the end of March.
NEW WEB SITE IMAGES
We are building a collection of good high-quality photos for our new web site. Anyone willing to share good quality photos of the town that might be usable is invited to contribute them (photographers will be credited). Any photo including recognisable individuals does need their written consent. Please email to nigel@ventnortowncouncil.org.uk.
VIA MY TWITTER FEED LAST WEEK
- The Trussell Trust today says ‘new research shows people who cannot afford the essentials are being pushed deeper into poverty by a rising tide of government debt.’
- An interactive map of fuel poverty based on latest data (2019) shows the Island with the 33rd highest level of 533 English constituencies at 17.6% of households
MORE INFORMATION: is available from the Town Council’s website and @ventnor clerk