Complacency amongst Islanders to the seriousness and restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic is causing concern for the Island’s most senior councillor.
Cllr Dave Stewart, Leader of the Isle of Wight Council, says he is concerned about ‘COVID complacency’ being experienced across the Island, in particular, the lack of social distancing when people and out and about.
Councillor Stewart says:
“It is good that people can get out and exercise even though we are under Tier 4 restrictions. However, people must understand that this is also a vulnerable time because the temptation to stop and chat also creates opportunity for the virus to be spread.
“The 2 meter rule and a face mask both help to minimise the risk so I encourage everyone to think hard about their behaviours and do the right thing.
“With the Vaccine now being delivered we can at last see the road out of the pandemic. But it will take several months to make a difference so in the meanwhile we must not let our guard down.”
In the coming days and weeks, the Council and its partners including Public Health, NHS and the Police are to redouble their efforts to get these crucial messages over to the community and keep everyone safe.
Standard blaming us you pleb.couldnt put a stop too our borders with strict checks huh?isle of man has and are living normally.were all suffering cos masses came here from higher tiers spreading it here! Hovertravel had a positive which wrongly wasnt made public so anyone using it was at risk too
And end of day the real truthful numbers dont add up to doing all these,do research . unness prision like rules.dontwork and havnt before.sage need bombing for starters.people need too stop watching all the hyped up hysteria via media n gov as its trying too rule us all by fear.this aint black death! It’s a virus.flue kills just same! Cant eradicate..cant keeo taking our freedoms
You can see the scaremongered believers all out side wearing masks in fresh air ! Just protect the ones who’ll die if that’s what they choose and leave rest too live norm.simples
Someone not brainwashed and using their own mind hurrah
The idle of man is self governing .the isle of wight is not.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”C.S.Lewis.
Thats right blame the islanders who many i know have gone out of their way to stay in doors and limit being out cancelled family coming for Xmas and not left the island and yet still the ferries are full with no checks there are roads usually empty containing second homes full we had the means to be able to to keep the island relatively low in cases to ease a hospital the 1 HOSPITAL we have to be able to hopefully cope kiss goodbye to that now even my neighbours who rarely go out are covid positive and we are in a rural area
Scotland now just gone into FULL lockdown for Jan.
Perhaps our council could have stopped the mass influx to our island like they did in the scilly iles ,or would that have been to easy ,to keeping us relatively COVID free ,one of the councillors was on tv the other night saying they could perhaps do number plate checks ,Mate ,the bloody horse has bolted?
The nerve of Dave Stewart is unbelievable. He and his cronies make it up as they go along. Yea, come over to the Isle of Wight its safe here as long as you stick to the rules. The majority are over here for a knees up, they dont stick to the rules.
Dave Stewart must think all of the islanders are dim, no they aint. I wonder what qualifications Stewart has got to be in his post, apart from being slippery. I know this, if he worked for me he would been sacked by now. Is it any wonder a few people have become complacent. The powers that be have made it into a free for all, God help us.
WORDS ESCAPE ME. !!!
Lock the Island and
Pot kettle black. Yes councillor Stewart you are right people have become lax and there is a definite lack of enforcement, I wander who is responsible, lets try the Council, total lack of support of our school teachers and risk caused to family members by mixing in schools, let’s try the council, failure to control travel to the Island, lets try the council. And so it goes on!
I wander who is the leader of the council, oh yes Councillor Stewart.
There is now a growing fear that the mutant strain of CV discovered in SA, not the one here, may not be able to be controlled by current vaccines.
This is due to the mutation of the spikes on the outer shell, which have altered drastically compared to the UK mutant version I have just read on Reuters.
Likely will be on the main news and not allowed to post links here.
Don’t ‘shoot’ the messenger, just saying how it is today.
Its all very well scapegoating people for the spread of COVID but what if the underlying issue is that lockdowns & social distancing etc. are crude and ineffective tools to control the spread of it?
How do you think you catch it?? Cannot blame fleas and lice. I haven’t caught it, I TAKE PRECAUTIONS!!
I’m extremely careful and I’ve caught it
These “crude and ineffective tools” DO work!
Ask anyone in NZ, Western Australia, and Victoria.
Even better…..close the borders.
Can’t educate the covidiots. They are blind and deaf to all reason and choose to believe unfounded conspiracies.
Well Mr Stewart and your colleagues how about showing some real leadership and backbone and stop towing the party line and shut our schools for a minimum of 2 weeks, your silence on this is deafening at a time when parents are scared stiff and worried after yesterday’s dramatic rise in the figures. Time to act to protect everyone both young and old
Seem to remember DS and his chums pictured on a jolly to Gosport with NO masks and NO social distancing, he needs to follow the rules himself then others might follow suit.
Can we just get the boys from China in to sort it out seeing as we are so rubbish at it.
This man is an absolute disgrace, we had to watch second home owners and holiday makers come to the Island because he said they will be welcome, now he’s putting all the blame on us. Why don’t you grow a pair Stewart and admit your part in all this.
Agree he’s a half wit !
If your going to Comment as our council leader make sure you don’t blame the public directly for faults that also occur within your leadership because the public will see the stupidity in other factors like a trip to Gosport with no Covid protection or distancing,a chain ferry that’s haemorrhaging money and reliability,and so on. Lead from the front not from behind,Think before you act.
What a cheek .. this man needs to think what he says before he voices his opinions … he didn’t listen before Christmas when people on here said what we thought was happening. We could have been virtually Covid free like the Isles of Scilly ? We are an Island, whereby it is easy to control borders…
Shame on the island boat owner who was running £50 a go booze cruise before the festivities.
Went down to b&q on Saturday families walking around just for something to do. I see a family of mum dad 3 kids and what looked like nan all walking around. So we only have ourselves to blame. What is so urgent about a bag of compost.
God forbid lonely isolated people stop to chat to another on their walk.They don’t want anyone talking incase we get “ideas”
The school on the island should all be shut .It’s about time council Dave woke up and smelt the coffee…..
Would love to say that this man has some ‘neck’ to say what he has, only he hasn’t. May be more beneficial to vote them out at the next given chance, should that ever occur now with this worsening CV, seems it could be a long while.
First chance we get, vote these incompetent imbeciles out.
Ha what a laugh! Should have stopped the ferry’s
people laughed two weeks ago when we were in tier one just as well build the bridge now at least we could control it unlike the ferry’s and I hope we as tax payers aren’t paying for the silly signs at ryde esplanade asking if our journeys are really necessary!! Perhaps the iw council should have placed these in Portsmouth and kept all the infected people on the mainland .?
Complacency!!! Where was the complacency that allowed us the privilege of being put into TIER ONE. With the drawbridge down, DS and his council cronies along with BS TURNING A BLIND EYE to holiday makers flooding in from TIER FOUR, look no further to find the reasons behind the sudden rise of cases. Islanders Dave Stewart? Take a look in the mirror and tell us you like what you see.
In October I wrote to the IoW Council …
“The correct guidance from government, as detailed on your own website, is: Make space. Stay at least 2 metres apart or 1 metre with a face covering or other precautions. But in the Isle of Wight Council news update – 7 October, you merely state: Keep space from other people; two metres or at least one metre apart. This is misleading and inadequate and is leading to people believing 1 metre is perfectly sufficient. Just look at any queue outside shops and vendors or behavior in public areas. Please make your messaging consistent and correct.”
Did the IoW council reply: No
Did the Iow council correct it’s messaging in its newsletters: No … until now, after it’s all gone wrong.
Yes Mr Stewart, I believe there is complacency.
When we moved into Tier 3 Mr Stewart expressed dissappointment. Does he not understand that we always needed to be in whatever tier supressed the virus, not just the lowest tier possible.We are in this position now partly because the Island was originally and wrongly placed in Tier 1.
IMO the IoW Council’s handling of this pandemic has reflected the Government’s … inadequate and complacent. Mr Stewart is now saying “The 2 meter rule and a face mask both help to minimise the risk so I encourage everyone to think hard about their behaviours and do the right thing.” Yes, Mr Stewart, I asked you to deliver that message in October … and you ignored me.That, I beiieve, was complacent.
DS you can blame the electorate all you like, but just like to remind you that the ” buck stops at the top”. It doesn’t appear that masks and social distancing have done a lot to contain the virus, much like the council that you lead.
Dave its on your head along with bob the ferry companies and the police .Why were they allowing people over to there second homes .They should also allow people to sit in there cars safest place to be no mixing .O sorry they dont want that cos they want to rip people off again the the cost of drinks etc This is a real mess you lot have got us into now
The ferries should have only allowed those people on booad that either work on the mainland or on the island to travel. Not all the people who are still here on holiday or in their second homes. The island is now paying for the selfish!
How dare he blame us after all he and his cronies haven’t done! We have all been saying for months to control the influx of people from the mainland and they’ve done nothing. Why does he think cases have rocketed since Christmas? You only have to look out your window or go for a walk to see second home owners and holidaymakers everywhere even now. Nobody listens to us then they have the nerve to put the blame on us! How can this man sleep at night
I’m not on the island anymore for 2 plus decades. Some of you might have been adhering to the guidelines but some where not and still are not! My Facebook feed can prove that. So just to blame it all on mainlanders bringing it over is a falsehood, for those mainlanders mixed with the locals in a NON COVID SECURE way. Your councillors remarks are correct just like every other county and local authority in the UK. Many people have become very complacent all over the country.