A Ventnor Town Councillor has teamed up with the Isle of Wight Council to successfully secure European funding to assess the available options for combatting the seaweed plaguing Ventnor Haven.
Town Councillor, Colm Watling, hopes that the project could assess options for creating a sustainable treatment solution of seaweed, which if realised, would negate the need for the current pumping solution which may end up costing way above its current £87,420 per annum.
Ventnor Town Council applied for similar funding for this project from the Regional Community Energy Fund in April 2020, but the application was turned down. Councillor Watling realised that the best chance of getting something done was to link up with the Haven owners – Isle of Wight Council – and with the help of Gary Peace, Ventnor’s Isle of Wight councillor, and other council members and officers, they were able to secure the project.
Councillor Watling, an engineer, said:
“Clearing seaweed in the Haven is one part of the very complex jigsaw of making Ventnor haven sustainable, both economically and environmentally.
“I’ve been trying to find ways of improving the Haven’s situation since I joined Ventnor Town Council, and I’m confident this study will help us to find the best possible solution.
“In 2021, it can’t be sustainable or serving the environment to be burning diesel fuel to regularly pump seaweed over the harbour wall?
“Around Europe, seaweed is a resource – its collected, processed and used in agriculture, energy generation, cosmetics and other industries. On the island, it is viewed as a nuisance, and it costs taxpayers money to clear it away to landfill or back out to sea.”
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This project funded to the tune of €40,000 by Europe’s Interreg programme will study our coastal conditions – weather, tides and the biosphere of seaweed and try to find a way to extract value from a potential resource. It’s hoped that this could pay for all or part of some of the clean-up operation.
The project will be led by Jean-Baptiste Wallaert – a consultant with a global reputation in seaweed reclamation. Jean-Baptiste will be supported by the team at Portsmouth University’s ‘The Watson Lab’ which also has an impressive international reputation. Work will begin in May with the first report in August.
Dave Stewart leader of Isle of Wight Council said:
“The current methods used to clear the seaweed are a significant burden on the public purse and are not environmentally friendly. This new entirely EU funded project aims to look at ways of sustainably clearing the seaweed from the beach and Haven, and using the seaweed collected in agriculture or industry (as they do in Brittany and Normandy) – turning a nuisance into a benefit.
“This can help in making the Island more sustainable, reducing the burden on taxpayers by offsetting any income generated against the cost of seaweed collection.
“For Ventnor residents the project and it’s expediency is welcome, some would say long overdue, but let’s applaud serious positive action.
“I do realise, and be assured I am on the case, that we have to address the bigger issue of the Haven’s structure, role and contribution to Ventnor, but let’s get the seaweed problem fixed first!”
European funding? What about our government funding.
I said this to the council years ago and they poo pooed it. All it needs is a mechanical shovel and a lorry.
Completely pointless just pumping it out into the sea, it just comes back again.
Oh well when Watling gets involved something always stinks. Lining my back pocket springs to mind !!!!!
EU funding? not sure we qualify, have they got it in writing?
How many boats use this harbour?
Firstly, millions of us voted against European agencies having an interest in our business. Secondly, Councillor Wattling is fighting a fingers in pies battle on many fronts (and has openly suggested that Ventnorians who do not agree with the Town Council should have an animal bolt gun applied to their heads!), and, thirdly, former beach master, local celebrity and the only recipient of the Freedom of Ventnor, Jim Blake always said the haven was built the wrong way round. It was, but clever people disagreed with hundreds of years of local records of tides and weather conditions.