Joe Robertson MP has written to the Isle of Wight Council’s Monitoring Officer raising serious concerns about the conduct of the Ryde Neighbourhood Board in relation to a proposed £600,000 deal for Ryde Town Hall – as the Trustees of Ryde Town Hall Trust call for transparency and accountability in all discussions about the building’s future.
The East Wight MP has described the Board’s recent decision – which encouraged Ryde Revival CIC to pay a £25,000 deposit on the Town Hall – as ‘wrong’, saying it was made in conflict with formal advice from the Isle of Wight Council’s Director of Finance.
In a letter dated Monday (16th December), Mr Robertson said that the Board was asked to pass the motion with the understanding that Ryde Revival would act upon it by paying a deposit and signing legal papers. He says this appears to have directly influenced the decision by the building’s Owner to remove it from public auction, stating:
“The Board now knows that it has committed an irregular act (although it was so obvious it should have known at the time it passed the motion)… I have called upon the Chair to correct the Board’s serious error and to do all he can to mitigate against possible harm that may have been caused.”
The motion in question was passed on 8th December 2025 via email, with 9 votes in favour, 3 against, 1 abstention, and 1 Board member not voting.
The motion committed the Board to using its funding from April 2026 to help a local community group acquire the Town Hall, subject to due diligence. That process was to include a valuation, a transparent group selection process, evidence of grant support, and a viable business case.
Mr Robertson is now calling for formal training for all unelected Board members, and has requested enhanced legal and administrative support for the Board to ensure compliance with public spending regulations.
Meanwhile, the Trustees of Ryde Town Hall Trust have issued a public statement, saying their role in the building’s future is being overlooked.
The Trust was originally created by Ryde Town Council with the explicit purpose of securing and restoring the Town Hall for public benefit.
Simon Cooke, Chair of the Trust, has said:
“The current news around Ryde Town Hall fails to mention that Ryde Town Council initiated the creation of a charity – Ryde Town Hall Trust – charged with the specific purpose of securing and restoring the Town Hall for the benefit of the people of Ryde.
“With the advent of potential public funding support via the Neighbourhood Board, it’s time for discussions about the future of the Town Hall to be brought out into the open, and for the Town Hall Trust to be empowered and enabled to perform its constituted role.”
The Trust has also raised concerns about what it describes as ‘abstruse private negotiations’, warning that further delays could jeopardise efforts to save the deteriorating building.
Members of the Trust include Zoe Barker, Anmarie Bowler, Dominic Minghella, Joe Plumb, and Steve Porter.
This situation with Ryde Town Hall is very similar to that of Ventnor Winter Gardens in that it has become a “power struggle” between groups who have NO funding and even less credibility, but believe that they are the “chosen ones”.
Robertson should stay on their case and stop the jiggery pokery that the word “community” actually engenders.
And while he’s at it sort out the cross Solent ferry debacle as he and his mate said they would.
No, they never said any such thing.
Stop saying they did.
It’s nothing like it. One group colluded with Jordan and the owner to try and manipulate the Board to pay way over the odds without doing things properly behind closed doors. It’s also a CIC controlled by 2 people which was created in secret whilst they were Trustees of the Trust. And who are these people?
The other is a charity, which is calling for things to be done properly and in the open and being a charity is democratic and transparent by default. The Trustees are people known in the community.
If you believe these groups are different in any tangible sense then you need to get out and smell the roses, anything decided by a small group of the so called local community who insist and usually contrary to the facts that they know best or people who endeavour to manipulate behind closed doors and in secret,the outcome is usally the same for the majority.
Being a charity is democratic and transparent by default ? Now you know that just isn’t true, is it ? A charity is run by self appointed trustees who are answerable to absolutely no one as long as they adhere to charity law. There are very minimal requirements to publish brief accounts, notify changes in trustees, that’s about it.
Can you trust anyone
Why is an MP interfering in local authority matters? Has he too much time on his hands having solved all the Island’s prolems at Westminster? No, I thought not.