the gazette isle of wight
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! E E IN THIS FR Please e ISSUE: take on
A year of The Gazette: Page 26
Friday July 24 - Thursday August 6
The royal visit: Pages 3, 24 & 25
Mick Hucknall interview: Page 10
Vestas workers fight on AS The Gazette went to press, sit-in protesters at the Vestas wind turbine factory had been given a new lease of life, with the management bowing to outside pressure to treat those who were occupying the building more humanely. At one stage during the protest, no food was being allowed to reach those inside, and the factory’s electricity supply had also been cut off on the order of Vestas management. However, according to one of the protesters inside the building, who preferred to be known simply as Mark, by yesterday morning (Thursday) the electricity was back on and Vestas management were arranging to have food sent through on an organised basis. “I think the management felt under pressure when people found out about the electricity being cut off,” said Mark. “We got a
By Paul Rainford message from a manager last night who said that they are now going to start preparing some sort of food for us here.” Around 30 workers had taken possession of the management block of the building on Monday evening (July 20) demanding that someone from Government come to hear their case for keeping the factory going. The factory is due to close at the end of the month, with the loss of around 600 jobs as Vestas moves its manufacturing operations to the US and China. The group of protesters, which included a large contingent outside the building comprising both Vestas workers and climate change activists, believe that the Government should step in and save the factory because it represents just the sort of forward-looking, ‘green’
industry that it had claimed to be wanting to invest in for the future. Vestas workers inside the building expressed the hope that Ed Miliband, the Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, would come to Newport to listen to their arguments, but his department confirmed to The Gazette that he would not be making the journey. Initially, food and other supplies were being allowed through to those inside the plant but as the protest continued the police and Vestas’ private security company took a firmer line and put a stop to these deliveries. Several arrests were made. On the third day of the protest a fence was erected to stop anyone reaching the protesters, completely cutting off those inside the factory from any food supplies. • Background to the Vestas protest: page 2
Protesters on the balcony of the Vestas management block make their point
Prince in the Queen’s house
Osborne House was just one of the stops on the whirlwind Island tour made by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. See pages 3, 24 and 25 for more royal pictures.
Madness and Coconuts EIGHTIES hitmakers Kid Creole and the Coconuts have been confirmed as one the support acts for the Madness-led open-air concert at Froglands Farm on August 30. The group reached number two in the charts in 1982 with ‘Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy’. • See the next issue of The Gazette for a chance to win tickets for the Summer Madness! gig.