Sandown has a ‘golden opportunity’ to improve its High Street, according to town councillor Ian Ward, as a government task force steps in.
The Bay’s deteriorating town has been labelled an area of specific challenge and has been selected by the Isle of Wight Council as one that would benefit from support from the ‘High Street Task Force’.
The task force was set up in 2019, part of the government’s ‘Plan for the High Street’, and is chaired by entrepreneur Sir John Timpson, of Timpson, the shoe repairers.
Meetings and a potential town tour will see problems highlighted, plus a new strategy to help the ‘underperforming town centre’.
The aim is to help leaders make the best decisions, both about high streets and for their communities.
At the moment, there is no guaranteed funding available to allow town councillors to act on recommendations, but it is hoped there could be in the future.
At its meeting earlier this week, Sandown Town Council (STC) welcomed the move. Sandown mayor, Councillor Paddy Lightfoot, said it was ‘opportunistic’ because the town council had wanted to do more but had struggled with funding.
Councillor Ward said when funding becomes available, at a later date, the town council would have a plan on the shelf it can use. He said:
“This is a golden opportunity we would not want to miss. We have professionals looking at our problem and I am pleased the Isle of Wight Council pushed this in our direction, instead of elsewhere.”
A meeting will take place in the coming weeks between key stakeholders.
A banking hub would help with footfall as the town now lacks banking facilities. This in turn would give people a reason to shop.
who uses banks now its 2022 not 1992 lol
Raze it to the ground and rebuild the lot with affordable housing.
Well, it’s what the council and the public seem to want these days…
NEWS FLASH : EARTHQUAKE HITS SANDOWN.
57 People Injured : 12 pound worth of damage.
Agreed, Sandown needs bulldozing – it’s a dump
Good luck Ian
Just remember there are lots of island other trades struggling
No need to use island roads as they take too long and have 100s of projects on the go
So give work to others not just the big company’s that charge over the top and take forever to do any work
What a load of cobblers
Why are there so many empty shops ? Answer .Greedy landlords wanting too much .local /new businesses cant afford these rents.No bakery ,no greengrocer ,no Butcher, no flower shop. Can our Council encourage these type of businesses with advice and some type of assistance.
Unfortunately you have Morrisons and Aldi just up the road where you can combine most of your general shopping in one place, and park the car for free to go and do it.
One expects more arsonists will be the cheaper, viable option to remove dead wood.
As they imo are likely paid to do so by the owners / developers, to reduce beautiful Victorian buildings damaged beyond repair to then create ugly, cramped modern flats to fill with benefit scroungers all Winter, to be replaced by tax credit payed for holiday visitors all Summer.
Then, as the coming recession deepens, the Summer visitors decline and the benefit claimants many drug dealing become a permanent fixture all year.
That is my predict, let’s see who is more accurate in ‘vision’.
For a start Sandown needs at least 3 Nightclubs,that would be a good start.
Soon no hotels, no tourists, just drunks and druggies. IF the Island had a tunnel linking to mainland, then more companies would come over, new and better shops, more everything really, dentists, doctors, another hospital, lots of jobs. Sandown would thrive again and the rest of the Island. Tourist industry would be blooming again. The ferry companies have stagnated this Island. And it is getting worse. But then the Government and council do not care, they want the ferries as they get £££ from them. Tourists coming to this Island, spend their money for the ferry, then have little to spend whilst here. ferries are robbing the Island.
Why don’t our on council use the money from the profit made on parking fines etc then wouldn’t have try scrounging off the government .
Any money spent on Sandown should be properly overseen by independent bodies and not just locally .
As this has been proven many times to be wasted over and over again .
Then of course there’s people who own buildings that should be made accountable for making Sandown the eyesore it is also should get involved financially it’s not a one way project
A certain very very ‘non local’ person owns many of the eyesore properties, lets hope more of that type don’t arrive, for we think it is grim living here now.
WHEN funding becomes available at a later date or IF?
The task force can’t do anything about all the empty, decaying, derelict hotels and buildings can they?
If all the owners of these buildings got their arses in gear and sorted them out, one way or another, this would go a huge way towards making Sandown look less neglected which I know isn’t the case as there are many people who live and work in Sandown who really do care. Myself included!
Cllr Ward (remember him?) knows perfectly well that there is no government cash forthcoming, but he wants us to think that his beloved Tory party is doing something.
It isn’t.
30 years of public sector ‘support’, bureaucratic meddling and local authority housing policy is what has turned Sandown into the wreck it is today, do we really need more of their ‘assistance’?
They need to attract people to the town. A good start would be to stop persecuting motorists.
And to have working and open public toilets after you have paid to park, profit made from sea front parking would easily build and maintain.,why doesn’t Sandown Town Council take over parking – it’s the towns resource and property yet IWC steal all the income and have cheek to then make residents pay more C/Tax !.
liar liar house on fire
Sandown needs a harbour. You see them across the med. If they can do it, we can. Somewhere that’s a focus, not just the pier. Build shops and restaurants on and around it. There is plenty of frontage in Sandown bay to do it. It needs a vision. Currently, there isn’t one.
Ryde’s harbour is useless, just a dirty puddle with dog doo bags, cider tins and rubbish, but as the tide in Sandown doesn’t vanish for half the day at Sandown, maybe it would fare better.
I think the authorities aided by the buildings owners want it to fail, so it can become ripe for slum clearance type demolishing, and fill the high street with flats, and the pond to the Grand Hotel with modern hi rise sea side apartments.
Holiday makers are no longer content with stupid tea towel, and Chinese made useless trinket shops. They want excitement, not dirty fast food eating places and grim pubs and streets filled with down and outs
Well said, one of the few positive posts I’ve seen on here.
Sandown died as a shopping high street some time ago. They would be better off focusing solely on food and drink with a good selection of restaurants similar to Union Street in Ryde, and street food markets. How these holiday souvenir shops survive is a mystery.
At the end of the day the one thing that locals and holidaymakers both like to do is eat and drink. Not rocket science.
Ryde is not exactly flourishing
Nothing much left in Sandown that a present from Putin would not improve. Once so lovely, now pretty awful with a few exceptions.
So why do we have so many councilors, council staff all so called professional and costing us tax payers a fortune yet not listen to business or public but think bringing in Government , will solve it all. Watch the IWC bring in on street high street parking in Sandown and then final nail and death to the town.
Sunny Sandown, town of homeless, druggies, people on benefits, (some even claim for their kids who have apparent mental problems, “give it a label and it’s ok”)
Spot on, why would anyone want to come back to Sandown on holiday when there are low life’s everywhere, stealing everything they can get their hands on from local shops using free money benefits to buy more drugs.
Area will always be derelict as the owners of the old hotels just want to knock them down and build some money grabbing flats and we all know the process for that, just look at the Ocean hotel
A few tins of paint wouldn’t go amiss. At least that would be a start.
Knock it down and start again, this would be my advice . Many of its problems are due to poor local government. Also it has been used as a dormitory for persons not wanted elsewhere in the south of England. Such a shame as it has some of the better Island beaches.
Trying to protect high streets as they were thirty or fifty years ago is a forlorn hope and ultimately a total waste of time, energy and money. the choices available to the consumer has changed dramtically, online shopping, out of town outlets with free parking have totally won the footfall fight.There can be no doubt the Isle fo Wight suffers from too many town and parish councils all leeching money out an ever smaller pot, all believing because they were elected by a handful of people they must know better than we what we need.
Such a shame the town has been allowed to deteriorate, largely thanks to a totally ineffectual, if not downright negligent, Town Council. This latest ‘initiative’ is just more waffle with which to fob us off. Sadly, Sandown has no leadership, no future, and no hope.
Commonly known as Island Apathy
Every time I come to your amazing Island we go to The Rock Stop in Sandown and Sandown Pier, and we think it’s a wonderful town, up there with Bournemouth. What I love about the Isle of Wight is you’re never far from a seaside town, and those who live away from the sea, all seaside towns are luxuaries.
Well all those comments have cheered me up no end, I’m moving to Sandown in a couple of weeks!!
Oh Mr Ward, how stupid can you get! The same thing applies to other towns on the island including both Ryde and Newport to mention but two
Could have had a theme park I believe where brown’s golf course is, guess what Sandown council said no. Too many councillors there for one thing only… Line their own pockets
When will the government and local authorities wake up and realise that the high street is a dead concept.
Convert all the empty shops and hotels to housing.