The RX-8

IN THE NEXT
ISSUE..
15th April 2006 - 10am
Top dogs on show
The Isle of Wight Canine Association
is hosting a Pedigree Dog Show for
Kennel Club registered dogs aged 6
months and over.
The show will comprise over 100 classes,
with the chance to see between 200 and
250 pedigree dogs from both the Island
and the Mainland. Entrants will be
assessed by six judges from the
mainland. The show will include classes
for puppies aged between 6-12 months,
veterans aged 7 years and over, gundogs,
terriers, pastoral, working, utility, and toy
dogs. The event is held in the indoor
arena at Brickfields, where food and drink
will be available.
Sat 17 June and Sun 18 June
Austin car
rally gets
underway
Last year saw the 100th
anniversery of the Austin
and for this the IW Austin
Group held a special two
day show at Haven Street,
they had over 80 Austins
turn up, not only from the
Island but from the
mainland also.
Island Life - www.islandlifemagazine.net
special report on the IW
Garlic festival...
All visitors are welcome,
but please note that the
closing date for entries has
now passed.
Telephone: 01983 - 854898
It was a great success. Their plans for this year (2006) is as
follows:
Saturday
Set off from Godshill (The Old Smithy) 10:15 am then head off
towards West Wight stopping off en-route at the Ferguson
Museum, Kings Manor Private Muesum, and then drive onto
Brighstone for lunch/pinic around mid-day. They intend to end
up at Calbourne Water Mill for a static display mid afternoon.
Sunday
Once again on Sunday the cars will set off from Godshill,
10:15am, they will travel from Godshill and have a coffee stop
at Arreton Barns, then over the Brading Downs to make their
way to Sandown Airport for a static display.
For further details please call Nigel offer on 01983 872609.
See feature page: 68/69
Nigel Offers, Austin 7 “Poppy”
The
Andrew
Turner
Column
The Isle of Wight MP...
How much should we plan for the future? I am not thinking of
pensions, although many who have paid in throughout their
lives are beginning to wonder whether those contributions have
been well-handled on their behalf.
No. I am thinking of the Island Plan – which has recently been
the subject of public consultation – and indeed of life in
general. When I look at my diary I sometimes wonder where
the spontaneity has gone. Will I be able to go to the Scurry, or
later in the year a village show, if I have already booked in other
events that day? Or will I have time to visit my sisters on the
mainland without setting a weekend aside three months in
advance?
The Island Plan is part of a process of planning twenty years
ahead. It will take the place of another plan – the UDP – which
was developed from 1996-99, only approved in 2001, and meant
to last till 2011. It already seems outdated as we feel more and
more the threat of global warming, pressure on the countryside,
and demand for trailer parks, superstores and warehouse units
and the other manifestations of the great God of economic
growth. But try as we might there is every possibility that the
plan, once approved, will date just as quickly as its
predecessors. So people can be forgiven for taking a back seat,
saying “I’ve already been consulted to death”, and leaving it to
others.
One thing which has become apparent to me as your MP is the
extent to which ‘consultations’ are influenced by lobby groups
of one kind or another. The big store chains want all-day
trading on Sundays, despite the damage that it will do to the
family lives of their staff. The brewers want 24-hour drinking,
despite the impoverishment of the vulnerable and the misery it
causes to neighbours. Aviation presses for airports, superstores
demand planning permissions, the housebuilders – who are
well-represented in Whitehall – talk about ‘only 1 per cent’ of
green fields being needed to meet the targets they have
persuaded the Government to set. And the drug companies and
food processors persuade us that all ills can be remedied by the
appropriate chemical concoction.
That’s why it is so important that readers of Island Life take
time to look at such plans, to contribute their views, and to
contact their councillors (and me!). Not everyone wants to be a
paper-pusher, but someone has to read the small print to make
sure that we aren’t overwhelmed by the big lobby companies,
turning the Island into a pale adjunct to the M27 corridor.
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