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Island Update: July 2025
- Adele Trathan
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Your community news, achievements and feel-good stories. Please do continue to send them in to editorial@iwbeacon.com and remember, more local news and information is available on our website www.iwbeacon.com
New Community Cafe
Citizens Advice Isle of Wight (IWCAB) has opened a new community café in Newport. The café, offering breakfast, brunch, and lunch menus, is an extension of the Eleven coffee house, which opened when the IWCAB moved to its new home in South Street, formerly Thompson’s restaurant.
“We’re delighted to be opening the new café, and for it to operate alongside the coffee house, which has been a great success since we opened,” said Richard Geal, IWCAB Chair. “It’s a lovely place for anyone to come into and enjoy a nice welcome, good coffee, and now good food from Chef Stuart.”
Citizens Advice Isle of Wight has been supporting Island residents since 1964. Last year, IWCAB helped people on the Island with over 17,000 issues, covering welfare, housing, benefits, employment, immigration, debt and the present cost of living crisis.
Fight NHS Cash Cuts
Over 3,500 people have already signed a petition asking health bosses to urgently reconsider a decision to cut £1.4 million from the Mountbatten Isle of Wight hospice charity’s budget in 2026/7.
The Change.org petition has quickly gathered pace and you are invited to add your signature to the document here:
Hampshire-based financial decision-makers will also cut £600,000 from Mountbatten Isle of Wight’s finances this autumn, without prior warning or meaningful consultation. Combined, the cuts by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board (ICB) represent a disinvestment in Mountbatten Isle of Wight of around 40 per cent.
Mountbatten Isle of Wight is asking people on the Isle of Wight to take action to save our hospice as we know it, by writing to NHS commissioners, Healthwatch and our MPS. Here’s how:
Tell your Mountbatten Isle of Wight story to:
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board
Write to: Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB Board, Omega House, 112 Southampton Road, Eastleigh, SO50 5PBEmail: hiowicb-hsi.communications@nhs.net
Write to: Healthwatch Isle of Wight,Freepost RTGR-BKRU-KUEL, The Riverside Centre, The Quay, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 2QR
MP for Isle of Wight West – Richard Quigley Email: richard.quigley.mp@parliament.uk
MP for Isle of Wight East – Joe Robertson Email: joe.robertson.mp@parliament.uk
Successful Scout Campsite Open Day
Around five hundred adults and young people attended the annual free activity day provided by Isle of Wight Scouts at Corf Scout Campsite recently and the day was declared a success! There were many activities to try including:
• Archery• Climbing• Tomahawks
• Shooting• Canoeing
Dave Simpson, County Lead Volunteer, said, “It was great to see so many people discover what Scouting and our Corf Campsite have to offer. Providing adventurous and exciting programmes of activity, especially outdoors, is such an important antidote to the stresses of life for both young people and our adult volunteers who gain so much through their volunteering.”
Beerhouses, Bars and Boozers of Cowes
Cowes history is steeped in beer – so it might seem when you uncover tales of the pubs and bars that once did a thriving trade.
With 20 pubs at one time on the High Street alone and many more nowconverted to houses or flats around the town, see whether there was a pub in your road or discover the names and stories of the families that ran them in The Pubs of Cowes, Gurnard and Northwood by David Jones.
Recently updated y the Cowes Heritage and Community Group (CHCG) with pictures and anecdotes, the book can now be ordered on Amazon as well as bought locally.
History of pubs in the Cowes area is also the theme of the CHCG’s summer exhibition, Beerhouses, Bars and Boozers at the Beckford
Centre in Beckford Road, Cowes, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, August 15, 16 and 17 (free admission). Some of the pubs, landlords and ladies will be familiar and anecdotes will be welcomed at the exhibition – see who you can spot in the old photos.
For more information contact Mary Phillips, CHCG trustee. 07807 566221 maryphillipsuk@yahoo.co.ukWebsite www.chcg.org.uk
Free Netball Sessions
Isle of Wight residents can apply to join a new, free of charge 12-week netball programme beginning on July 3rd thanks to funding from Isle of Wight Council.
The offer is part of the gloji Exercise Support programme, a digital platform that works around busy schedules, and is available to eligible local residents. In addition to the netball, the programme also offers free access to digital weight loss support.
All abilities welcome. Each session starts with a weigh-in and guidance, then it’s onto the court to play some games. The programme aims to help participants gradually build up their fitness, skills and confidence.
Limited free spaces are available now. See if you’re eligible to sign up by visiting: www.iow.gloji.org.uk/exercise-support-register-your-interest/
Sessions will take place on Thursdays, 6pm- 7:30pm at Ryde School, Queen’s Road, Ryde.
Charity Cook Off
Staff and residents at Vecta House care home in Newport are celebrating because their wonderful Regional Directors, Jayne Holloway and Maria Stefea, from Barchester’s South Division, have stepped completely out of their comfort zones to compete in the Barchester Charitable Foundation Cook Off 2025.
Maria and Jayne went head-to- head with the Regional Directors from Barchester’s four other divisions and cooked up a storm to raise a phenomenal £31,000 for Barchester’s Charitable Foundation which helps connect vulnerable people and those living with a disability to community groups in their local area by providing grants to improve mobility and quality of life.
Jayne and Maria made a delicious three course meal for their CookOff Challenge, plus afternoon tea items. General Manager of Vecta House care home, Nichola Shepherd, said, “We are all so proud of Maria and Jayne for taking part in this challenge, they really areboth amazing. Their dishes looked absolutely fantastic and they raised so much for the Foundation, we think they are absolute super stars!”
Charity Volunteers Win Award
Local volunteers Kaylee Hargreaves, Sammy Bridges, and Paris Kelynack from the Isle of Wight have been named as the winners of a Bel Mooney Award for Raising Awareness by the pregnancy and baby loss charity Sands.
Kaylee, Sammy and Paris are volunteers with Isle of Wight Sands. They have been recognised for working tirelessly to bring the Isle of Wight Sands support group back to the Island so that bereaved families can access the support they need. As part of their work Kaylee, Sammy, and Paris organised their first Starlight Walk, an opportunity for bereaved families to come together under the night sky and walk in memory of all their babies.
Sammy said: “Volunteering with Sands has shown me just how powerful it can be to just listen. I feel that one of the greatest impacts we can have is to sit with someone in their grief, say their baby’s name, and honour their story. In those moments, we offer love, validation, and the reminder that they are not alone.”
Dragon Boat Race
Gather your crew and make some waves for Wessex Cancer Support this summer by entering a team into the charity’s first Dragon Boat Race. The new fundraising event will take place at Island Harbour on Saturday 30th August, with teams competing in heats for a spot in the grand finale.
“We’re really excited to bring dragon boat racing to the Island for an unforgettable day on and off the water,” said Laura Haytack, Wessex Cancer Support’s Isle of Wight Fundraising Manager.
Teams of 11 – ten rowers and one drummer – are needed in each boat, with team entry costing £330 (£30 per crew member) and a fundraising target of £1,100 (£100 each). Money raised will help Wessex Cancer Support continue its work in providing well-being and emotional support to people living with cancer.
To enter your team, head to https://www.wessexcancer.org.uk/event/ dragon-boat-racing/
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