Christmas and the New Year are nearly on us and perhaps it's a time for us all to re-evaluate what is really important. Health is obviously at the top of this list, together with family and home. With ‘home’ comes our immediate environment. Our local environment is especially more important
now and probably will remain so, long after Covid-19 has gone.
Did you notice in ‘lockdown’ how the birds seem to be more visible, less afraid, more vocal? How on our exercise walks, people were more cheerful, the roads less congested, shopping more easily accessed? Sometimes it felt as though the time clock had been turned back 50 years. An unexpected spin off from ‘lockdown’.
What I'm leading on to is that we had very little time to appreciate our immediate environment, prior to it being enforced upon us by the pandemic, never the less, we then did have time to ‘stop and stare’. In order to protect our green pastures we need, as a society, to do more than ‘stop and stare’, we need to act.
Our Island, yours and mine, is being invaded by new housing developments and unprecedented influx of people. I have been involved in local politics for over 30 years. I have fought mass housing developments like the one at Pennyfeathers. We are not an urban development area! I have seen Binstead metaphorically joined to Ryde, with no advantage to local people who need good housing and who have been waiting for years to be housed! We have housed people from off the Island, ahead of local people, who have been on our housing lists for years. Building more houses which are being advertised or ‘sold’ to us, to meet the needs of local families, is just not true. They are for sale, often beyond the reach of local people! The relocation of services like health, education, fire, police to name but a few in the guise of efficiency and money saving, has led to such inconsistencies as identified most admirably, in the very, very, expensive track and trace system which ignored the stretch of water which makes us an Island.
I argued against such services, for example the dementia ward at St.Mary's Hospital, amongst others, being outsourced to the mainland, making it impossible for relatives to keep in daily touch or even visit. I helped my daughter in law to fight the suggestion of relocating the Maternity Department away from the Island, I don't agree with an emergency service telephone system in Hampshire, who tells you to contact your local station in Southampton or that you can drive to Portsmouth without calculating the cost both financially and mentally of using a ferry to get there.
To get back to housing, look around at the new developments being built. Examples in Freshwater, buildings which are too big and too tall to fit into the surrounding area; Ryde where good farming land is being used to build on, such land, once built on cannot ever be reversed. I was told and I quote ‘ there are people on the waiting list for ten years and these new houses are needed for them’. Poppycock, the strongest word I'm allowed to use in print for very, very few of these houses are social housing for local people, the price to buy being out of our grasp.
We need good quality social housing for local people. By local I mean people who have lived in the area for a number of years and who have ties to the area. Yes there is a long waiting list, despite the increase number of houses being built on the Island, because houses, in the main, are being built for profit.
Developers should be made to build on ‘brown field’ sites, which are not being used for building because the cost to build on these sites, for the developer, is higher. We need good quality social housing for our young people to be able to stay locally. Islanders need to raise their voices if we are to stop farms being taken over, prevent string developments joining village to village, area to area.
Look around, Carisbrooke is now part of Newport, Totland cohabits with Freshwater, Havenstreet is edging towards Binstead which is already conjoined with Ryde, Bembridge with Forelands, etc. etc. You need to contact your local councillors, email our MP with copies to all other MPs in Parliament. Contact our local papers, radio stations make a nuisance of ourselves. You'd be surprised how interested other MP’s can be, those with an interest in the environment, about the building on agricultural fields. They need to be informed and get everyone involved in protecting our green fields and prevent them being concreted over; and yes email our Prime Minister and the leaders of all the other Parties. It's up to us all to protect our Island from developers. To do this we must make our voices heard and heard loudly.
Back to my Ward, as you know I walk my Ward regularly and take on-board irritants, repairs, cleanliness which if left unattended, grow and become a real nuisance. Graffiti is a problem, and within budget, we do our best to keep on top of it and clean it up. Planting trees and creating green areas are essential to residents and to the view that Ryde is the garden gateway to the Island.
The ‘Ark’ project has proved to be its worth in gold, providing managed open space, activities and walks for local people and children. By providing such sites by our social housing providers, not only have they provided good housing for local people, but contribute to the mental and physical welfare of all our citizens. Mental welfare is, at last, higher on the priority list and a good local green environment is essential to good mental health and wellbeing. In a small way, where we live, with well maintained roads, pathways and green areas and good housing helps us all. Our Ward is fortunate with Island Roads refurbishing many of the very old roadways and pavement in my Ward the green areas and plantings along the esplanade give us all a sense of wellbeing. I would like to take this opportunity to bring to the notice of the residents and users of Meaders Road that there will be no waiting on Tuesdays 7am to 11am to allow access for the refuse collection truck. This is so important as we need the dustbins emptied. All other restriction will remain the same.
This year as President of the Ryde Branch of the Royal British Legion we were still able to go ahead with both the Sunday Remembrance laying of wreaths and the Remembrance Service on Remembrance Day, November 11th. The Wednesday service was curtailed because of compliance with the Covid-19 but never the less was all the more poignant because of the lockdown and its meaning to the day. I would personally like to thank all those involved in its organisation, especially Deputy Lord Lieutenant, without whom it would not have been possible for such a moving and memorable day.
Mayor Padre and officers of the branch
Wishing all readers a happy and joyful Christmas and a better New Year. Christmas decorations will, we hope, be going up as usual. Lastly for many of us, including my own family, this year has been an incredibly difficult one which hopefully will not be repeated.
Happy to New a year to you all.
