Laura and I have added a complete new section to I Love Ryde, called "I Love Seaview". This pretty village a short drive or 30 minute stroll away from Ryde, is perfect for those who wish to get away from the hustle and bustle of Ryde.

We were commissioned to produce a flyer for the village promoting some of the businesses and show casing the quality of life, this leaflet is available as a download, we hope that you will take the time to visit Seaview when you come to Ryde.

It is great to see all the improvements in Ryde, and this needs to be supported by our Planners and by the Planning Appeals system.

One of the biggest businesses in Ryde is Ryde School. At the moment it is planning a major expansion, the centrepiece of which is to be a large building on Queens Road. This will involve the demolition of two houses adjacent to the school at 11 and 15 Queens Road. As everyone knows, All Saints Church is Grade 2* listed and Westmont, the main building at Ryde School, which will be masked by the planned development, is also a listed building. Many of our visitors to the town come past this point, or wander up from the town to look at the church. The view from the church tower is featured on the I Love Ryde website. It will be greatly altered by this development.

Most of the town is unaware of the proposals which will change the area dramatically and the subsequent increased pupil numbers (in the region of 15%) could potentially bring gridlock to that part of town at certain parts of the day. An increased number of drivers could choose to avoid the route along Queens Road to the town centre, thus reducing passing trade on Union Street, I would suggest.

The Ryde Town Council objected to the proposals, as did the County Council, but the school has now appealed.

There is a very under publicised meeting with the planning appeals inspectorate from Bristol at Ryde School on 24th September 2009 at 10a.m. The meeting is open to members of the public.

The Ryde School appeal was posted on the IOW Planning Portal on 26th June 2009 and is numbered P/00049/09. The relevant section on the traffic implications can be found on 'Supporting Information', Travel Plans Part 3 - appendix L.

Without a Conservation Area design Statement, it has been pointed out by the Isle of Wight Society in a recent County Press article, that towns like Ryde are open to large scale development taking place without proper objective restrictions or consideration of the implications on our Conservation Area.

This development will change the setting of our most important historic building and destroy the treescape in front of it. The period of 18 months needed for the build will disrupt next summer's traffic along Queen's Road. It would seem to be important that as many Ryde Businesses should be represented at the meeting as possible.

What wonderful news Ryde will be having it's own Heritage Audio Trail that will enhance the visitors time spent in this wonderful historic town.

The Heritage Audio trail has been produced by a number of Ryde Social Heritage members who have spent many hours researching and compilingsome fun and interesting pieces of local history.

There are serious concerns about Government’s decision to repeal exemptions set out in the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, which mean charitable groups and other not-for-profit organisations are not required to obtain a music licence from PPL (Phonographic Performance LTD) and  the Performing Rights Society (PRS) if they wish to play recorded music

The Government’s own figures suggest this change will cost voluntary and community organisations up to £20 million more a year. This is an incredible amount of money, which can only be met by funds earmarked for charitable purposes.

This is also likely to affect a broad array of community organisations: village halls, churches, care homes, charity shops, youth clubs, carnival groups and carnival associations, scouts and guides associations and bingo halls.

This is another stelth tax that has crept up, it is really important that as many people sign the petition asking the government to recondsider this as the implications are very serious for community groups right across the board.

The bigest effect these new regulations will have is on the running of the Ryde Arts Festival and its' parade, Ryde Regatta, and the 3 Ryde Carnivals as well as the many church fetes that are held in the Ryde area. The costs of the licences could put a halt to these wonderful free public entertainments, which could have a knock on effect on the economics of our town.

You can sign the petition online here:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/dontstopthemusic/

You can also join the FaceBook group here
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=274770375866

You can read more information about the new regulations here:
http://www.ppluk.com/en/News--Events/Archived-News/PPL-and-PRS-for-Music-announce-joint-licensing-scheme/

http://www.ppluk.com/en/Music-Users/Information-for-Charities/

Signed
A very grumpy carnival artist!

The exciting news that the Ryde International Film Festival Isle of Wight, website went live this week. This is excellent news for Ryde as it helps put our lovely town even more into the international spotlight.

Ryde International Film Festival is accepting film entries from both loacl film makers as well as submissions from around the world. They even have a special mobile telephone video entry that is free, the only cost to the public is the cost of sending the clip to the Festivals two mobile telephone.

If you fancy sending a mobile video clip they are looking for anything funny, it could be based on a favourite sceen from a film, or that all time one liner. The aim is to show as many of these clips on th ebig screen.

So get your video cameras out, or dust down that mobile phone,  write a script, make your film, burn to DVD or text it to us. They will show a short clip of all submissions on the website at Ryde International Film Festival Isle of Wight. Check out the rules and regulations, the submissions page and have a go.

to my reader, and as I am in a slightly up beat mood (I should be back to normal soon) I would like to offer a thanks to someone.
Not having had any post since the snow first fell - no doubt due to the snow and health and safety - I decided to walk up to the sorting office in Oakfield and see if there was any for me, in particular some packages containing “big boys toys”.

Slip sliding along Oakfield High Street I came across two Water Board (contrators) chaps working in a hole repairing someones water meter. One had bare hands and was fitting a new hose that was partly under water. One looked up and I said something like ‘I hope you are on double time with time off in lue for this.
‘Chance would be a fine thing’ he replied.
I said that I thought they were doing a sterling job and thanked them for coming out in all weathers.

They said it was rare that a member of the public would come up to them and thank them when even some of their customers can’t be bothered, no doubt too engrossed in watching Strictly Mundane or Britains Got Tacky or other such electronic Mogadon.
In conversation it seems there is not the uptake in jobs as there use to be with new life coming into the utilities industry.

No doubt this is down to government policies on insisting that 50% of school leavers should go into higher education and obtain a degree along with a large debt. A lot of these degrees don’t mean anything in the real world (I left school with just a certificate that said I could swim 22 yards breast stroke - It had a little triangle of red felt pinned to it for sewing onto my swimming trunks. How cool was that?.

I can imagine in ten years time when one phones a utility company to report say a burst water pipe and the operator saying.
‘We don’t have anybody available just yet, but we can send someone with a degree in Media Studies that can talk about Eastenders or a Hairdresser that can touch up your high lights’

I’ve just had a thought.
Question: How many Investment Bankers does it take to dig a hole.
Answer: Nearly all of them, but the Tax payer will have to fill it in.
I’m stepping out of character, now back to these to guys in the hole.

They were not the only ones out there. I saw another couple in Union street over the weekend doing the same thing. Perhaps it was the same chaps.

So dear reader. Next time you walk past some chaps digging up the road, go over and say thank you for being there. I would not like to do their job and neither would you. Even for double time with time off in leu. A degree is not worth the paper it is written on if it were not for these guys working in a hole in the ground.
Think about it.

Ryde Grumpy

I Love Ryde has been shortlisted for the

Best Pride of Place website - sponsored by The Daily Echo

in the Hantsweb Awards, to have even got this far is a fantastic achievement for both Laura and I.

We could never have dreamed that when we put the website live in late May 2009, that we would have advertised Ryde Nationally in various Colour magazines, local newspapers and publications. introduced over 2 million people worldwide to what Ryde and the surrounding area has to offer.

Laura and I are still striving to push Ryde forward as an excellent tourist and a major shopping destination on the Isle of Wight,

It's been a quiet three months since I last wrote about How To Spend £190,000. Presumably this wedge has been earning interest in a Bank somewhere (less administration costs)  to keep ahead of inflation :)

But I have a nagging little voice in my head that says it has been spent on the new pavements and kerb stones leading from the Westridge roundabout to the Tesco roundabout to "enhance the Ryde shopping experience".
"That comes from a different budget" I hear a council official reply "and your money is still safe with us".
"I am sorry. I stand corrected". I reply. "I can sleep easy".

While we are on the subject.
Why did the Council not employ a company to do this work that had more than three workers available at any one time. I use to get fed up, along with everyone else, waiting at the lights - longest was about twenty minutes - only to find one bloke working in a hole and two watching.
Have the Council not heard of Penalty Clauses.

This aside, I wanted to write about the New Ryde Interchange, or what was the New Ryde Interchange.
It is nice to know we have diligent council employees keeping an eye on costs and control of outgoing. The result being is the whole sorry scheme looks like it has been dropped.
It seems that of the £5,000,000 allocated, about £1,600,000 has been spent on a proposal (no surprise there), alright, the scheme has been passed and given the green light. Unfortunately the remaining £3,400,000 was not enough to complete the job as costs caused by dithering had risen to about £10,000,000.

The trouble with these "Grand Schemes"  is the people in charge of them.
They do not believe there is the talent on our Island to match the 'creative output' from the mainland.

I made two visits to the exhibition in the old General Post Office building in Union Street 5 or 6 years ago and argued with the architects that their scheme was not right for the area, but it fell on deaf ears.
Of the schemes submitted it seems this was the one chosen by the Council.
We have more than enough talent on this Island to design the new Ryde Intersection and I believe it could be done for the remaining monies, and making it more in keeping.

For a start, do away with the fancy idea that the Esplanade needs something like a leaf shaped copper roof or shelter with shops underneath.
There are too many empty shops as it is, what with the sky high rents and business rates. Filling this space, in as propossed is the sign of a company and Council with a lack of imagination.

The Esplanade has always been an open space, apart from when the old Royal Pier Hotel blocked the view down Union Street.  The Western Gardens, bus and railway station have been messed around with for as long as I can remember and the reason the area in front of the Prince Consort looks so boring and brutish is due to a bunch of fatheads in the Council, whom back in the 70's knew best in deciding that we needed a relief road along the foreshore. Only to run out of money, but not before demolishing a fine old cast iron building and a number of houses in the process. This area has since been grassed over and has been partly saved by the planting of a few trees and affords a fine view down through the Esplanade to the Ryde Castle and beyond.

It was also this time that the pier entrance was 'improved' by knocking down the two 90 year old hexagonal buildings on either side and altering the old W H Smith building to the monstrosity one sees now.

Sad person that I am, I recently made a special visit to this building and tapped on the 'improvements'. It was hollow! Plywood.
Could it be that the old building or some of it is still under this modern crap?
The interior still looked the same as when I was a boy. Someone in the Council. Do your job and find out.

With a little bit of aid from Stagecoach and Soutern Vectis - stop laughing at the back - this area could be redeveloped to something of its former glory with hexagonal buildings either side of the pier entrance, one incorporating a cafe and an eco loo (from another budget), the other a Tourist shop (partly from another budget). This I am sure would leave enough money for a bit of fine tuning to the road and bus station area if the design process was to be kept on the Island and the Council kept at arms length.

We have more than enough Talent - and cheaper - on this little Island for such a small project, even if those in charge don't.

Oh. And don't forget the fountain

Ryde Grumpy
 

PS. When I say Council, I do not mean the new Ryde Town Council. They were not around then.

Saturday 5 December will see Ryde transformed with lots of festive activities and events. The Town Council has given financial support to Ryde Business Association and the Friends of the Carnival Learning Centre towards the Ryde Festive Fun Day and the Lantern Parade. Both groups have joined forces along with Ryde Arts Festival and Ryde Carnival Association to make Ryde the place to shop and visit with market stalls, street entertainment and much much more.

The town will again play host to the Lantern Parade, which leaves Dover Park School at 5.30pm, when we will all get the chance to see how hard the local schools have been working to create their lanterns. Ryde Arts will be holding a day of special events as part of the Fun Day at the St Thomas's Heritage Centre between 10am and 4pm; these include the Medina Community Choir, Andrew Pellow and Friends, Rainbow Wight Singers with the Loft Poets and Seasonal Strings. There will be all day wreath- and garland-making workshops, and seasonal warm refreshments will be available throughout the day.

Programmes for the day will be available from the Isle of Wight Tourist Information Centre, and various shops.

Laura and I are are so pleased that our little website has been nominated for the Hantsweb Awards. This is no mean feat for two local women who decided to put their town back on the map. We have achieved so much since the site went live in early June 2009, not only with improving awareness of Ryde locally , but also internationally.

Our I Love Ryde postcards were a stroke of genius, with those businesses who joined the website handing the postcards out to customers and sending them to friends and family around the world. All the local businesses who joined this venture have benefitted from additional footfall.

Our advertising campaign, which included Country Living, Coast and BBC Gardeners World nationally, Solentlife in both the Portsmouth and Southampton areas, Google adwords, Onboard TV advertising in conjunction with the Ryde Town Council and our Banner in a number of very prominent positions at various venues around the island have helped to increase Rydes' popularity.

We hope that with the coming months we can both increase the amount of information on the site and encourage other businesses to discover what the "Bigger Picture" is that we have in store for the future of putting Ryde back on the map!