The Isle of Wight Council’s new regeneration team has unveiled its vision of future economic growth. A showcase event at Cowes Yacht Haven, titled “Isle of Opportunities”, highlighted regeneration opportunities available at key sites across the Island, including Newport Harbour, Ryde, and in the Bay area.
More than 150 delegates heard from keynote speakers including Ashima Sukhdev from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and James Luter from Vestas. John Devlin, CEO of recent high profile investors Ascensos contact centre also spoke. Discussions also included the challenges connected with providing sufficient housing, well paid skilled jobs and improving the Island’s tourism offer.
The event also launched a consultation which will run throughout the summer, canvassing opinions on “The Wight We Want”. The results will be analysed and published to help inform the development of the vision for regeneration on the Isle of Wight, with a detailed strategy to be published in spring 2018.The strategy will set out the key Island-wide projects and how they will improve the Island quality of life, as well as a series of area regeneration plans developed in conjunction with town and parish councils tackling locally identified priorities.
Councillor Dave Stewart, leader of the Isle of Wight Council, said: “The Isle of Wight Councils regeneration programme balances the desire and need to undertake improvements to the economic and social conditions of the Island, while being sensitive to protecting our precious environment, unique heritage and way of life.
“The Wight We Want” is an Island-wide conversation about the kind of Isle of Wight people would hope to see in the future, that will also seek feedback about what is important to people now. We want to speak to as many people from a breadth of backgrounds as possible and will be launching a programme of engagement over the coming weeks. An online survey launched today will gather views of the general population on what needs to change to make lives better.”
Councillor Wayne Whittle, Cabinet member for regeneration and business development, said: “We are delighted by the response of the development and investment community to the initial regeneration opportunities we are presenting at the conference. In parallel to selling the benefits of investment in our regeneration plans, we are anxious to begin an important dialogue with the population about what kind of Island we all want to see for future generations. I would encourage as many people as possible to complete the survey launched today and attend community events to be staged in the coming months.
“Being a local businessman as well as a local councillor, I know how important having business-friendly environment can be to ensuring successful regeneration, as well the value of capturing the view of local people about what improvements they would like to see, as well as what residents and businesses want delivered locally”.
