JUST weeks after a senior councillor was suspended for breaching the code of conduct, a dignity at work training course for councillors has been cancelled because not enough signed up.

The workshop was due to take place on Thursday, January 28, and was designed to raise awareness of the council policy covering bullying and harassment and what was appropriate behaviour. But the two-hour course at County Hall was cancelled when only eight councillors signed up.

That was just days after an Adjudication Panel for England announced the suspension in February of Cllr Patrick Joyce after he breached the code of conduct over his handling of former colleague Anne Bishop’s Craven Court planning application.

He was found to have breached sections of the code about compromising the impartiality of officers and attempting to use his position in a way to confer an advantage, bringing the authority into disrepute.

The panel did not find him guilty of breaching anti-bullying rules in the code. He and Cllr Vanessa Churchman, who was found guilty of not declaring an interest in relation to the same matter, were both told to  undertake further code of conduct training.

Cllr Geoff Lumley, who was one of the councillors to sign up for the course, said he was surprised at the lack of interest from colleagues.

“Bullying has been a long-running problem at the Isle of Wight Council. It is something that has been raised in staff survey after staff survey,” said Cllr Lumley.

Reporter: ross.findon@iwcp.co.uk
From Isle of Wight County Press

PATIENTS and visitors at St Mary’s Hospital are paying more than £400,000 in car parking fees, it has been revealed.

The Isle of Wight NHS Primary Care Trust earns £416,000 annually from the controversial charges, which range from £1.20 for two hours to £6 for 24 hours, with concessions for long-term patients and parents who need to stay with their children. But the days of hospital car parking charges could be numbered, following the publication of a consultation document by the Department of Health. It outlines several options for the future, including the possibility of free car parks.NHS Isle of Wight has welcomed the proposals, claiming car parking is an important issue for many people.

But it has also warned the current parking charges are used to pay for valuable healthcare services, which would have be funded by alternative means if the charges were scrapped.

Head of communications Andy Hollebon said around half of the £416,000 was used to pay for car park maintenance and security, while the other half was ploughed back into Island health services.

“£200,000 would cover the cost of inserting 70 pacemakers or 35 hip replacements. If NHS Isle of Wight were to lose this income it would need to be found elsewhere, which may add pressure to what is already a challenging financial position,” he said.

“This proposal also has implications for the requirement placed on the NHS to encourage the use of alternative forms of transport to the hospital, and the number of car parking spaces the hospital is allowed under planning guidance.”

The consultation document can be viewed at www.dh.gov.uk by clicking ‘live consultations’.

Reporter: martinn@iwcpmail.co.uk
From: Isle of Wight County Press

The council said it was too early to put a figure on the overall economic impact of the snow and ice. As the big freeze became the big thaw this week, shops too were assessing the impact of lost trade. The IW Chamber of Commerce, Tourism and Industry said many showed resilience by staying open and working round the clock to fulfil orders.A snap survey of its members showed that there was some dismay at the delay in clearing roads and pavements in town centres and industrial estates. A number of businesses reported that towns and cities on the mainland seemed to have coped much better.
The chamber’s general manager, Dean Pascall, said: “Our members tell us that, generally, things are starting to pick up again now, so we expect the damage to be short term.”

Jill Wareham, the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for the Island, has called for an inquiry on the effectiveness of the council during the cold weather.

She said: “I eventually ventured out to Newport in my car on Friday, three days after the first snow fell, and was amazed to see that the pavements in the main town on the Island had not been cleared and people were walking along very gingerly.

“I understand the emergency services at St Mary’s have been put under enormous pressure due to people falling over and breaking bones.”

Brian Fisher-Lathwell, landlord of the Crown Hotel, said it was an absolute disgrace that parts of Ryde were like ice rinks, days after the snow had fallen.

But council leader, Cllr David Pugh, hit back saying the council had done all it reasonably could to mitigate against the unprecedented weather conditions, making best use of limited resources.

He said: “This has also included having a relentless focus on clearing main roads, which was in line with a national agreement that local government had with Whitehall to preserve salt supplies.”

He said a council-wide review would take place to identify areas for improvement and a report would be submitted to the fire and community safety scrutiny panel for its consideration.

He added: “I appreciate Mrs Wareham is desperately seeking votes ahead of the forthcoming general election but her attempt to gain some easy publicity on this issue is most unfortunate.”

Meanwhile, the snow did bring some positives. With people unable to travel, Nigel Smith, chairman of Ryde Business Association, said many had rediscovered local shops.

Island Waste Services are hoping to resume collecting refuse normally on Monday for household waste and for ‘B’ week recycling, weather permitting.

Island Waste aims to collect as much as possible of its normal Friday collection today. If your waste has not been collected by the end of the day, residents are advised to store waste until the next normal collection day.
There will be no collections on Saturday.

Reporter: martinn@iwcpmail.co.uk
From: Isle of Wight County Press

The County Press understands other alternatives are  being drawn up by highway bosses for councillors’ consideration, and no decision will be taken without consultation with bodies such as the AONB Partnership, Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Natural England, the National Trust and the Environment Agency.

Last summer, the council was warned it must act quickly to save the Military Road, after a new chine appeared in the cliffs.
Residents voiced concerns over the land slippage between Brook beach and Hanover Point and Jill Wareham, LibDem prospective parliamentary candidate, launched a petition calling for the council to secure the road’s future.
She said it was important residents were consulted and called for a public meeting.

“The Military Road between Brook and Compton at its narrowest point is now ten metres away from the cliff edge,” she said.
“The cliff falls and erosion have increased alarmingly over the past few years due to the heavy rainfall, freezing temperatures and drainage.

“The road over Afton Down and the re-alignment by Shippards Chine was completed in October 2003.
“People had been lobbying for 22 years until finally the will and the money was found for works to be done to secure the road for a further 50 years.

“A long-term solution needs to be found to keep the Military Road open.”
She added: “Loss of this strategic road will have a devastating effect on Brook village as well as the whole of the Island for both residents and the tourist trade.”

Reporter: martinn@iwcpmail.co.uk
From www.iwcp.co.uk

The common reaction we had heard was the exact opposite – that when people wanted to know what was going on with school or road closures, the iWight site couldn’t cope, and they were met with blank pages, rather than the information they needed to see.Press Office frantically updating

We know that the information was being frantically updated onto the site by the Communications / Press Office team (Simon Butler and Anna Price should get a special mention) because we saw it flooding into us via email (as we couldn’t get access to the iWight site either).

iWight servers let us down

What let them and the Island down was the public just weren’t able to access the Website – perhaps because the servers couldn’t cope, or there just wasn’t enough bandwidth available to the servers. Either way, it’s clear that the proper planning hadn’t been made for high levels of Web traffic.

As Tim Hunter-Henderson, Cabinet member responsible for customer service and communications said, “The Internet is a very important tool for getting information out to the public, especially in times when residents want important news about their child’s school or information regarding which roads are clear.” Quite.

What would happen in a real emergency?

It does make you wonder quite how the Island would have found out this information if other media sources hadn’t stepped up to the job and delivered it for the council. Or indeed, what would happen in a serious emergency. Let’s hope the council learns from this experience and carries out the necessary upgrades.

Read more at VentnorBlog

It was this action that enabled the fresh-faced Cllr Pugh to take the position as The Leader of Isle of Wight Council. This all links to a number of councillors who were referred to the Standards Board over the passing of a planning application by Cllr Anne Bishop back in September 2007.The CP reports (strangely at the bottom of page four, given the importance of the story) that at this week’s meeting “heard from (the) current deputy leader Cllr George Brown the then leader was told to stand down because a majority of his cabinet refused to serve under him and his deputy, Cllr Patrick Joyce.”

The bit that the CP has missed out is what we’ve been told by a trustworthy source who was at the meeting …

“Cllr George Brown had a ‘go’ at Cllr Patrick Joyce and attacked part of the record of decision which reported that Cllr Joyce had said in evidence to the Standards Boards that a majority of the Cabinet at the time had no confidence in the Planning Department.

“Cllr Brown said it was not true that a majority of the Cabinet had no confidence in the department. He was rather stuck for an answer however when Cllr Reg Barry asked him if that meant it was just a minority of the Cabinet that held such views.”

It’s most unusual for the Conservative party on the Island to have disputes (certainly publicly at least) – heck they even vote as a single block most of the time – so it’s even more unusual for them to make it clear that such a large falling out at a senior level took place.

Read more at VentnorBlog

Figures show 41.6 per cent of Island students achieved five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C, including English and maths, compared to 41.3 per cent last year and 50.7 per cent nationally.

Of local education authority-run schools, Carisbrooke High was top performer, with 51 per cent of students reaching the benchmark standard.Sandown and Medina High were the worst performing, with 38 per cent, according to figures released this week.
They also showed more IW students absent from school, with persistent absence at 8.3 per cent, compared to 5.8 per cent nationally.

Read more at Isle of Wight County Press

The SRA is paid on top of the Basic Allowance of £7,903 that all councillors receive. If the vote goes in favour of the proposal Ventnor’s own fragrant member for the Ventnor West, Cllr Susan Scoccia, will be a few quid better off. Bundles of it in fact. She is currently the chair of the Licensing and General Purposes Committee. It’s proposed that her yearly allowance rocket from £1,977 per year to £6,322. An eye-watering multiple of over 316%!Not only that, but the proposal is that it’s back dated to 17 June 2009, bringing in around another £3,000.

To date we can only recall only one full council vote where _any_ of the Conservative councillors didn’t vote together as a single block. The Conservatives did vote as a single block.

Read more at VentnorBlog

We now hear that from today onwards, rubbish will be collected on its normal day. This means that all households who normally gets their rubbish collected on a Tuesday and have put their rubbish out on the street, will have to try and stuff the several bags of rubbish back into their bins for yet another week. By the time it does get collected, it will be three weeks of rubbish.We really don’t understand why the rubbish couldn’t continue to work on the one day late service, but we’re sure there must be a good reason for it. There’s always the option of taking your stuff to the tip, now Lynnbottom is open again.

Recycling waste will also be collected, with recycling week ‘B’ beginning next week.

Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for the Isle of Wight, Jill Wareham, tells us today that she will be calling for an inquiry at County Hall. “I eventually ventured out to Newport in my car on Friday, three days after the first snow fell, and was amazed to see that the pavements in the main town on the Island had not been cleared and people were walking along very gingerly.“I understand the emergency services at St Mary’s have been put under enormous pressure due to people falling over and breaking bones. Perhaps retailers should question the Council’s inaction to provide safe pedestrian access bearing in mind the amount of business rates they have to pay.

“Considering the Council was showing off their twelve new gritting lorries and assuring us they had enough salt to cope with 20 days of continuous freezing conditions just weeks ago there is a need to review the effectiveness of their actions during this cold spell. These occurrences are becoming regular and the Council should be well prepared to cope and make sure the Island does not grind to a halt.”

Read more at VentnorBlog