Your Local Community Magazine
January 2021
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East Cowes & Whippingham Area
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They have consistently given 100% and even when Covid hit they did everything they could in their power to assist whilst still following government guidelines. Owners David and Laura Priddle operate extended hours from 8am – 8pm, 7 days a week and their unique place in the market is centred around their fixed fee with no hidden charges, no percentages, and no VAT. Their honesty and communication skills have brought clients from across the Island to their doors. They have recently updated their website ensuring clients can find everything they need, and they can make appointments to visit you in your own home or in their office at 9 York Avenue, East Cowes. Either way they are fully complying with government guidelines regarding social distancing and safety. What David and Laura promise is that you can rent your home from £350 or sell it from £999, whilst still getting a first-class service. For further information please see their main advert, visit their website www.coasttocastle.com or call David and Laura on 200 007. 2
Welcome to the January issue of Island Magazines. I hope you all had a great Christmas and although you shouldn’t wish your life away, I know I am not alone in saying goodbye 2020 and hello 2021. I know the current Covid problems aren’t going to disappear just because it’s a new year, but I hope that 2021 is kinder to us and we can hopefully see some light at the end of the tunnel, with the possibility that life may just return back to normal...
text or call Island Magazines on 07880 587 931 islandmagazines@gmail.com www.islandmagazines.co.uk facebook.com/islandmagazines twitter.com/islandmagazines
This month’s issue is packed with news and information and we have some great advertisers offering a variety of services, and they will all be pleased to hear from you. Do you like this month’s front cover? When I first saw this photo, I just knew that this was going to be our front cover star. I mean how often can you get up this close to highland cattle. Find out more on page 7. The puzzle section on pages 8 and 9 will keep you busy and keep your brain active. I find January is usually one of the worst months of the years and seems to last for about 60+ days. I hope it stays dry so we can at least get out and about for some fresh air. Have you made any new resolutions this year? I haven’t bothered as I know I won’t stick to them. I think the first couple of months of each year are hard enough as it is. I want to wish you all a Happy New Year and I look forward to catching up with you next month.
Debbie
Island Magazines Mailbox No 4, Unit B1 Whitecross Business Centre Whitecross Lane Shanklin, IOW, PO37 7EJ
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East Cowes Town Council - Clerks Report January will be a busy month for the Town Council with the Facilities Projects and Events Committee on 14th January and the Full Council meeting on 21st. Both meetings will be held remotely by Zoom at 6pm. Please see the Town Council notice boards, the website and Facebook on the Friday before the meeting for the agenda including joining instructions. As we found ourselves in Tier 1 last month some hirers were able to return to the Town Hall. Hopefully, it won’t be too far into 2021 before we see many more able to return to their usual activities. You can access the Library drop off and collection service every Monday 10am-1pm in the Town Hall. For details of other hirers please see the Visiting and Living page of the website or the Town Hall community notice board. It is best to contact the activity organiser as capacity of all groups is limited at present. Let us know if you need to be put in touch. A Town Plan workshop was held by Zoom on 7th December with 22 people taking part. The group looked at some of the 15 proposals that came out of the survey conducted in the autumn. Further meetings are planned to continue to work through the proposals. When the date is set information will be posted on the website and Facebook. It would be good to involve as many residents in this process as possible so please consider joining one of these meetings. Thank you to those of you who have already taken part. Our guests at December’s Full Council meeting were Kay Smith Community Resilience Officer for East Cowes (ActionIW) and Ian Middleton of Island
Roads. Kay spoke about her 6-month lottery funded project, borne out of the pandemic to build better community resilience. She applauded the incredible work being done by the East Cowes and Whippingham Community Support Hub. Other projects are coming on stream such as that run by the Mental Health Alliance which will be supporting mental health in the community, offering training and support and effective signposting. Ian from Island Roads attended to explain how requests for lower speed limits are dealt with. Island Roads has 300 requests to consider from across the island. Old Road, Sylvan Avenue and Yarborough Road have been logged for review in East Cowes. It will be at least August 2021 before any changes take place. At the November meeting the Council agreed to make a donation of £3,000 to the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, who work tirelessly to move patients to and from the mainland, all the more important with the challenges the local hospital is facing, and whose donations have been badly affected during these challenging times. Some good news on the Esplanade Landslip. The Town Council agreed to award funding of £5000 to the Landslip Project to get the process started. There are opportunities for volunteers to be trained and to give their time to fill the gabions with stone to secure the landslip. In addition to this the group is planning a community sponsorship programme of
East Cowes Town Council - Clerks Report continued dedication plaques to raise a further ÂŁ5,000 as well as approaching local businesses for funding. To find out more search for the East Cowes Esplanade & Landslip Community Project on Facebook. The Town Council hopes everyone enjoyed receiving their copy of the East Cowes Town Crier just before Christmas. Copies of this quarterly newsletter are always available to view on the website www. eastcowestowncouncil. co.uk. Happy New Year. Wishing you all stay safe and well in 2021!
The views and opinions expressed by contributors and advertisers are their own and do not reflect the views of the Editor or Island Magazines unless stated otherwise. Island Magazines reserves the right to refuse or alter material where necessary.
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How Could I Resist that Face? Island Magazines is continuing with true tradition and bringing you some great front cover stars and to kick off the start of the New Year I just couldn’t resist this super cute photo which was taken by local Wroxall resident Lianne Vine. Lianne is a full-time mum and when she is not running around after her 4 children, 3 Labradors, a pug, a French bulldog, the cat and finally her 4 guinea pigs she can indulge in her passion of photography. She has lived in Wroxall for 6 years and loves nothing more than being in the countryside, she has previously had her own horses and for the past 2 years she has been training her puppy to become her first ever working dog.
Get in touch today
Email: hello@maggiecurrie.co.uk
www.maggiecurrie.co.uk 01983 754 620
maggie
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Word Ladder Change one letter at a time to make a new word on each rung, move from the top word to the bottom using the exact number of letters and rungs provided.
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Last month’s answer for Wordladder Grass, Crass, Cress, Tress, Trees, Treen, Green
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First of all, the Friends of St Mary’s wish everyone a much better 2021. As 2021 begins, the Friends are getting used to their new retail set up, and they still live-in hope that at some time in the future they might serve drinks somewhere in the hospital and of course get their trolley service running again. In the meantime, they have been very busy serving mainly staff at St Mary’s who have been wonderfully supportive. They were delighted that the shop could remain open during the second lockdown and Lisa, the Manager continues at the helm, supported by her wonderful band of volunteers. The shop continues to provide a much-valued service to hospital staff and to the small number of the visitors to the Trust. They are receiving some lovely Facebook comments stating how much the shop is appreciated and for the service that they provide. Well done and thank you to Lisa and her team for all their work in keeping the shop going so well. Christmas seemed to start very early for the 2020 season and seeing the decorations up and Christmas merchandise about, was a real morale booster for them all. They were able to distribute over 370 gifts to patients who had found themselves in hospital for Christmas Day and for staff who were working hard looking after them. These were delivered just before the big day as they had to be ‘rested’ for 72 hours before being distributed. Moving forward the Friends of St Mary’s hope that in spring 2021 they can again start the process of helping the Trust to buy things which will make life little easier for both patients and staff. If you find yourself at St Mary’s soon please don’t forget to pop into the Friends’ shop - every purchase helps! 10
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‘Then and Now’
Then
Isn’t it great looking at old photographs of places on the Island and then comparing them to how they look now. Thanks to Adam Thompson who has happily shared a ‘Then and Now’ photo with us. Do you recognise this location?
Now
Adam has been sent many photos from local residents and he goes out to match the location, or in some cases when he can’t get to it he uses the help of Google Maps. If you have any old photos feel free to email them to Adam at Tadam388@gmail.com and hopefully we can show you some more locations in future issues.
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News Report from Town & County Cllr Karl Love - East Cowes. Email: karl.love@iow.gov.uk Facebook: Cllr Karl Love Christmas saw some wonderful light decorations in and around Whippingham and East Cowes. There is certainly a lot of community work going on around our town. I want to say a big thank you to all the volunteers who work tirelessly to help and support others in and around our town.
Council have contributed £5000 so we are very much on our way.
Castle Copse behind Sylvan Ave and Black Knight Close is maintained by the Gift to Nature group who focus on maintaining the copse natural woodland. They cut back hedges, preserve local species and support 2021 has a great deal to look forward to while still presenting some town challenges. wildlife. They also placed in the woodland sculpture of two foxes playing in the woods We are stronger as a community together creating some interest in celebrating our and our voice will definitely be heard in towns’ ecology. I have noticed that there 2021. I want to thank you all for your support and wish you all a Happy New Year is some ash dieback in the area which is a concern. The trust is monitoring the situation. May I request that people do A very big thank you and well done to not leave rubbish, bottles and other items all the wonderful volunteers participating in the woodland as this has an impact in the amazing restoration clean-up along on the wildlife. Please stick to the paths the East Cowes Esplanade led by Sharon remembering this is a woodland preserve Lake. Volunteers have been cleaning, cutting back hedges, weeding and removing not somewhere to build camps and fires. all the rubbish along the first section Environment Agency Flood Warning of the Esplanade. Chris Ashman IWC System - If you live in low land areas close Regeneration Officer also joined in the to the coast, rivers and floodplains you can fun and community spirit. Also working sign up to the Environment Agency flood hard in the background are those unseen warning system. It’s a free service which individuals drawing up structural plans, you can go online to register and sign up to. baking cakes to keep us all fuelled up in I strongly recommend if your property is at working hard and those planning to raise risk from flooding that you sign up to the funds for the next stage of restoration. service notifications if you have not done Once the plans have been agreed and been so already; www.gov.uk/sign-up-for-floodsigned off by IWC, which we already have warnings an agreement in principle from Cabinet member Cllr Wayne Whittle, a more rigorous fundraising effort will be required. The Environment agency is investing a significant amount of funding into flood Would you like to sponsor a gabion? It’s defences and have been surveying houses not been agreed yet how much a gabion in and around the identified flood risk areas sponsorship might cost however we do of East Cowes. If you think your home is need about 150 of them and if we could at risk and have not yet received a survey, get people to sponsor them it would be very helpful in progressing the regeneration please contact the Environment Agency to works. More information will follow about arrange an appointment and discuss your concerns. The EA is providing assistance this next month. We need to raise about and devices to help prevent properties £15,000 and East Cowes Town
News Report from Cllr Karl Love continued from flooding and they can actually help reduce your household insurance premium if you inform your insurance provider of the devices being fitted to your property as prevention flooding measures. There is still no news about Crossways however I will put the words used by Cllr Stewart between the cabinet and Isle of Wight town council. “ The Crossways development is in suspension”. There was no news about the Norris Castle Development said to be being presented before Christmas but certainly this winter. Work has halted on the Former Frank James hospital. Only a caretaker remains in situ. Consultation is expected from the start about the parking proposals put forward by the Isle of Wight Council PFI team. I will keep you informed.
they send down it and this causes issues of traffic convergence at the Well Road roundabout and for local traffic exiting Waitrose. Red Funnel officers say that they will be reviewing their plans for the marshalling yard development and its use after the first quarter of 2021 business ends. It was also stated that they intend to remove the temporary fencing and build a more substantial temporary yard fencing. In addition to the East Cowes Town Plan Isle of Wight Council is also developing a Waterfront Plan which they are pressing ahead with quickly. Again, I think it’s imperative that any such Plan be widely circulated and consulted upon by the people who live and work in and around our town because it is such an important part of our community, business and life. Subject to a meeting taking place I will give you more information about the context and scope of this plan in the next publication for your information.
I’ve also requested an update on the highways redesign proposals for East Cowes which comes out of the Red Funnel marshalling yard redesign. I do not agree with Red Funnel using a side exit into Finally, once again I want to wish you all a Castle Street for off-loading its vehicles wonderful Happy New Year which I trust which simply creates another bottleneck will be full of hope and happiness. in the town. Despite “An excellent team my requests and offering an communications with invaluable service” Island Road and Isle of Wight Council there NEW! Book online www.mobilevetsurgery.co.uk appears to be little that Stress-free Islandwide “Friendly & reliable can be done to stop professional yet Home Visits & them. They continue very caring” Central Vet Surgery despite being provided with evidence of the local town disruption that is caused by this temporary exit use. Keyhole CT This temporary exit Surgery Scans is not designed to offload the volumes of Watergate Rd, Newport, PO30 1XP 01983 212999 vehicles 15
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Our ‘Sit-in Service’ which allows carers to have a well deserved break is proving very popular and we now have limited funding available for this essential servive. There has never been a better time to try Community Spirited. Please contact the office for more info.
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Our groups are re-starting on Tuesday 5th January providing we continue to stay in tier 1. Booking essential. Call 296592 to book your space. Tuesday 1.30-3.30 Mental Wellness (1:1 sessions available by appointment)
Wednesday 10.30-12.30 Crafty Knit & Natter Thursday 10.30-12.30 Games (with a bacon sandwich for £1)
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