Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely and members of the ruling Alliance group at the Isle of Wight Council say they will join forces to campaign for a new status for the Isle of Wight which will help the Island achieve a sustainable future.
The Island’s MP has written to the government to ask it to study and explore the idea of an ‘island’ status, which would provide a greater level of landscape protection for the entire Island as well as support for a more prosperous future for Islanders.
The campaign builds on the work led by the Isle of Wight AONB Partnership in securing UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status for the Isle of Wight in 2019.
Since he was elected as the Island’s MP, Bob Seely has been campaigning for better protection for the Island from greenfield development and for an extension of the existing Isle of Wight AONB designation. He has said he is hopeful that the government’s new Landscape Protection Bill could be the enabler to increase landscape protection on the Island.
In putting the Island’s case forward to the government, Seely has written to Defra Minister Lord Benyon outlining reasons for an island designation. First, he said, while the Island’s protected landscape was significant, it was also fragmented with the AONB divided up into 6 separate pieces which didn’t marry with the whole Island being included in the UNESCO Biosphere.
Speaking about the idea, Mr Seely has said:
“A few generations ago, a National Park on the Isle of Wight would have been a great idea. Despite the idea remaining popular, it is sadly probably not feasible.
“However, what is achievable is working with the council and other groups to get a new designation in law that recognises the unique status of islands in the UK. If the Government agrees in principle to this change, I would like the Isle of Wight to serve as the first example.
Article continues below this advertisement “Whilst the purpose is to primarily unite landscape protection and nature recovery under a single, overarching landscape protection designation (whilst recognition additional protections such as SSSIs, etc), an Island designation would also help to serve as a branding for islands to help with tourism.
“By preserving and enhancing the Island’s key tourism assets – the undisturbed countryside, sweeping vistas, history, heritage, and outdoor sports – An ‘Island designation’ would be a significant contributor to the Island’s tourism economy. Likewise, other islands may decide that they would benefit from such a branded status.”
Jonathan Bacon, Isle of Wight Council Cabinet Member for the Environment, said:
“The current Administration is fully supportive of the proposal to seek an Island designation.
“A single protected landscape status would fit with the Island’s single unitary authority, a single National Character Area (Natural England definition) and the entire Island’s status as a UNESCO Biosphere. Nature recovery and other landscape support plans would only be strengthened by being combined under a single body with a single high standard of landscape protection throughout.
“An island designation would allow maritime and landscape protection to exist within the same authority/plan, helping to provide a coherent and integrated response to the protection of the natural world”.
Lora Peacey Wilcox, Leader of the Isle of Wight Council, has said:
“Recognising Island status for islands, especially those with a high degree of natural beauty, makes sense, for those islands, but also for landscape protection. It is a designation which can be applied elsewhere, and can help to create a sustainable future for those islands both for humanity and the land and seascapes.”
Bob Seely concludes:
“I want the Island to make progress in securing increased landscape protection and with the government planning to increase landscape protection nationally, I want us to be proactive and build on the excellent work of the Isle of Wight AONB in developing the UNESCO Biosphere.
“An ‘island’ designation would also be a common-sense next step for the Isle of Wight to ensure a prosperous and sustainable future and would help the government to reach its target of committing to protect 30 per cent of the UK’s land by 2030.”
That’s what we all want !!!!
So best have a word with the planning committee!!!!!!
As has been said so many times before our infrastructure cannot support more mass building!!!!
We need Doctors Dentists Carers etc etc …..
And who wants to come to a massive congested concrete jungle???????
Our island needs trees , green fields and natural habitats for our wildlife….
So where will the required doctors, dentists carers live?
It only works if you introduce new regulations for Island resident status at the same time.
Otherwise we’ll get another Lake District where much of the properties are owned by non-residents, and new building isn’t allowed.
Yes indeed!!!! We’re already heading in that direction, this is a lovely place to come to holiday on, but not in your own property that is then vacant just waiting for it’s loving owners to return! We just don’t have the infrastructure for masses of new builds, so holiday homes should not be privately owned!
Very good words but alas a lot of hot gas. Sausage Bob didn’t do a lot for Ryde did he. Still bandwagon Bob is still around and saying the right words despite not meaning a single one of them.
Too little too late. But a great idea that needs to be in place now or should ideally have been protecting us years ago.
Make island houses for island folk first, we might then have a chance of biosphere and dark sky status actually being valid rather than a sick joke.
But Mr Seely, the government issued a further 900,000 new visas in the last year alone (quite remarkable when it takes them months to respond to someone trying to renew a driving license or get a passport) – where are all these new arrivals supposed to live? You know perfectly well it requires the continued concreting over of large swathes of countryside, so any attempt to stop this is actually being prevented by the very policies being pursued and supported by the whole of Westminster and Whitehall, an establishment that you are an integral part of
So he’s finally given up on Boris’ “promised” Island Deal, and hopes to recover some kudos by making development on the Island impossible.
Well done, Bob!
Let’s hope the Government listen.
we need more council homes on this island with all that land on the south and west of the island
If Seely is serious the first step is to stop a lot of future house building development and no pussy footing around