For all you Goths, Vampires and Transvestites and anyone who is in to what has to be the most classic of all Horror Musicals. The Ryde Isle of Wight International Film Festival and Commodore Cinema are proud to present a classic... fun evening for adults only.

Rocky Horror Picture Show Night
Give Yourself Absolute Pleasure

Saturday 25th September 2010
@ Commodore Cinema, Star Street, Ryde

Entry by Ticket 
Over 21's only
Tickets £10

Phone 07854-103-561 for more details

It may go some way to make up for the queuing that non-season ticket holders have to endure today.

Bestival-goers returning to the mainland by Hovertravel on Monday will be treated to a ‘come down session’ by IW Radio DJs at the Ryde terminal.

Not only that but over the entire Bestival period, Hovertravel Season Card holders will be treated to their own VIP waiting area.

Neil Chapman, Hovertravel’s Director said “Our staff will be working hard to run extra services throughout the days of the 9th and 13th of September to help everyone travel as quickly as possible.”

Wight Studio's photographer Mandy meadows is going to be holding the chance for alll Scooterists to have a phofessional photograph of them and their scooters taken Free of Charge.

Turn up by the Ice Rink Quay Road and you can choose to take home a photograph or gift . Prices start from £5.00

The Island and Ryde especially has welcomed this annual visit of Scooterists to the town for the 26th year in a row.

Today I went out with Jeff and we took some fabulous photographs and had a chat with many of the visiting scooterists who were displaying their scooters on the Western Gardens. The scooters varied from pre 1960s to more modern versions of Lambretta's and Vespa's. There were some really interesting customisations ranging from Roy Lichtenstein style images which we photographed last year to some beautiful depictions of the Memphis Belle and the Vietnam War.

There was a beautiful lambretta that had a leopard skin customisation, Bob who owns the scooter said that he had spent at least £8,000 on restoring his scooter, I recon it was worth every penny.

Another chap we spoke to had photographs of himself, his dad and grandfather who had all been members of the Stafordshire Regiment. I also noticed a number of the scooters were sporting "Help for Hero's" badges on their bikes, all ex-members of the British military.

Some of this years visitors had been coming to the island for as many years as they could remember, and said how nice the locals were to them and what a lovely place to end their holidays on. Older and younger generations mixed with some scooterists bringing their children with them as passengers. The nice thing is that they have brought the fine weather with them.

You will be able to find a range of photographs that we take over the weekend on the I Love Ryde Flickr Page These images are all at 50% of the original so if you want a copy of your scooter you can e-mail claire at claire@iloveryde.com and she will be more than happy to sell you a copy.

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