Ventnor Town Council will open the doors of Salisbury Gardens between the hours of 11:00 and 14:00 on Saturday (17th January) for a relaxed and sociable drop in event welcoming local residents and stakeholders to see how the building will now serve the town.
The completely refurbished four storey building is now the home of the new Ventnor Enterprise
Centre’s seven small businesses, Ventnor Town Council, Hampshire Constabulary’s South Wight
Safer Neighbourhoods Team and the NHS’s local Health Visitor team with the lower ground floor an
impressive new community space now known as The Green Room: a place for change with doors opening out onto green space.
This double fronted, iconic building, located on Dudley Road in Ventnor on the cliffs overlooking Ventnor Bay, has been owned by the Island’s various Councils since 1945 and became the Coastal Visitor Centre in 1998, but changes in service delivery had left the building underused.
Ventnor Town Council joined the then Coastal Management Team as the building’s only occupants in
February 2011. A £95,000 grant from the government’s Coastal Communities Fund, supported by other funding from the Island’s My Life a Full Life Programme and Southern Housing Group together with a Public Works Loan Board loan have made possible this exciting and significant refurbishment on the basis of a 26-year lease of the building to the Town Council from the Isle of Wight Council.
The open day will involve members of the public, community groups, partner agencies and service
providers, the tradesmen whose quality work is evident everywhere and people from local public life. The purpose will be to recognise the return of this building to local people and to bring together those who share an interest in the future of Ventnor.
The event will start at 11:00 with networking, face painting, tours and refreshments.
