Solar power makes island green

Solar power is helping residents on the Isle of Wight to cut their energy bills in half.

Southern Housing group have installed solar power into over 300 of their island homes in a bid to make bills more affordable for tenants.

The energy-saving scheme has been developed in partnership with green service provider Eaga.

Island residents like Mr and Mrs Clews-Cartwright have noticed an immediate impact on their energy consumption.

Brenda Clews-Cartwright said: “The whole install was really quick and clean and we are delighted with the result. We noticed the difference immediately. Our monthly fuel bills used to be around £92, but straight away they went down to £72 and are now as low as £50.”

The scheme has also won the approval of Southampton MP and green energy specialist Dr Alan Whitehead who visited the island recently to lend his support to the initiative.

Dr Whitehead who sits on the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee, said: “As someone with a special interest in clean energy and micro-generation it is encouraging to see first hand how low carbon technology can be used so effectively. I’m grateful to Mr and Mrs Clews-Cartwright for showing me the system in their home and I applaud Southern Housing Group and Eaga for making solar energy so accessible and affordable.”

Southern Housing group is one of the first housing associations to partner with Eaga, and is taking a lead in the drive to make the Isle of Wight a ‘green island.’

Paul Wenham, Property Services Director at Southern Housing Group Ltd, said: “It became apparent to us that in some cases our residents were paying very high energy bills and this, combined with the ongoing search for new cleaner energy, prompted us to begin this project.

“We think the results speak for themselves, and our residents agree that the changes we’ve made have lowered their energy bills. We are currently reviewing extending this and other initiatives across the Group.”

John Swinney, Eaga Director added: “Our programme is all about making renewable technology easy, affordable and accessible for all. It’s a fit and forget exercise for the householder and with forward-thinking partners like Southern Housing Group we are now rolling the programme out at scale and making a real difference.”

·         Eaga have developed a simple and effective way to provide homes with solar panels free of charge. The system works by fitting photovoltaic (PV) panels to the roofs of south-facing houses which are then connected to the mains to provide energy. Eaga makes money from the scheme by using the the feed-in-tariff (FIT), which provides an income from electricity generated domestically and fed into the national grid. This means that the install and maintenance of the system are completely free to residents and housing providers.

Millennium Walkway won't be completed in my life time

Story as printed in the Portsmouth News

EVERYONE in Portsmouth knows about the Spinnaker Tower. Love it or hate it, it’s impossible to ignore the spidery structure thrusting into the sky over

Portsmouth’s world-famous harbour.

Everyone also knows that the tower has always been, and still remains a huge source of controversy with questions like: ‘Was it worth the money?’  ‘Why wasn’t it completed on time?’ ‘Is it serving any useful purpose?’ being raised almost daily in the cafés and pubs of the city.

What fewer people realise is that another major millennium project still hasn’t been completed and  lies languishing in solicitors’ offices and council meeting rooms.



Proposed route of the Millennium Walkway



The scheme is known as the Millennium Walkway and it has frustrated councillors to such an extent that Portsmouth City Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson ecently commented: “I doubt if the project will be completed in my lifetime.”

According to Councillor Vernon-Jackson, Network Rail are behind the failure to complete the scheme which has already tied up hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers money and has embroiled the council in a series of costly legal negotiations.

“This is a highly complex project involving four sets of lawyers. Negotiations have been going on between them for many years but the real problem is network Rail, they’re an absolute nightmare to work with,” he said.

The much touted Walkway was supposed to be completed, yes, you’ve guessed it, in the year 2000. It was to be a waterside heritage trail linking Clarence pier at Southsea to the dockyard via Gunwharf Quays and The Hard.

Initially the scheme was part of the grandiose Portsmouth Harbour Millennium Project, which aimed  to transform the waterfront area for the year 2000.

Most of the trail is now fact complete: Walkers can obtain a leaflet from the

Tourist Information Centre to guide them along the pleasant heritage trail which links up sites of historic value such as the Square Tower and Spur Redoubt.

However agreement has stalled on the most striking phase of the trail, a covered walkway linking Gunwharf Quays to Portsmouth Harbour Station, which is owned by Network Rail.

Roger Ching, Strategic Director for Portsmouth city Council has worked

tirelessly for the completion of the walkway for the last ten years but says

that ongoing legal disagreements between the five main players have prevented completion. Portsmouth City Council, Whitelink, Continuum -the company behind the Spinnaker Tower, Gunwharf Quays and Network Rail all have a stake in the area covered by the development.

MrChing said: “This would have been completed many years ago if it were not such a complex project. I don’t think people realise just how difficult it is to reach agreement when there is such a large number of stakeholders involved.”

He is however optimistic that the legal disputes will soon be settled and that the council will be able to commission new contractors to complete the work in the near future: “We’re just waiting on the final bits of paperwork from Network Rail,” he said.

However Councillor Vernon-Jackson is much less optimistic: “Roger has been saying this for many years,” he said. “At times I despair and there is no apparent end in site.”

David Hempsey who is overseeing the scheme for Network Rail was unavailable for comment but a  spokesperson for the company said: “We are working with all the parties involved in this project and are hopeful of resolving all outstanding issues shortly so the Millennium Walkway can be completed fully.”

The council has also faced an embarrassing funding crisis over the project. In June 2009 it was forced to re-pay £250,000 to Berkeley Homes after failing to meet a deadline for completion. The construction company had handed over the funds in return for planning permission to develop No. 1 Gunwharf Quays on condition that the project be completed within five years. However by the time the money was due to be repaid, the council had spent £86,000 of it on the Spinnaker Tower and had to make up the shortfall from its own budget.

A 2008 cabinet report estimated that in order to complete the walkway, the

council would have to find £895,000 from ‘available capital resources.’ Put

simply, this means that the city will pay for the much of the project with our council tax and other rents, fees and charges that we hand over to the council on a daily basis.

If the £250,000 that was repaid to Berkeley homes in 2009 is deducted from this sum, the council will now have to find around £1million of capital funding in order to complete the project and this is not taking into account the increase in building costs since 2009.

The report dated November 2008 also recommended that the Council’s Strategic Director be authorized to accept the lowest tender for the completion of the scheme  as soon as possible.

However a survey of the key players in January 2010 suggests this process has not been carried out.




Portsmouth Harbour Station

 A spokesperson for Wightlink said: “At t the last meeting with Portsmouth City Council, I am pleased to confirm that they were happy with the progress with the legal agreements and budget and are finalising the design which will be going to tender shortly for revised prices.”

Clearly this is the same stage that had been reached in November 2008.

Juliana Delaney for Contiunuum, the company behind the Spinnaker Tower development said: “We are hopeful that the scheme will go to tender in the very near future.”

If the plans ever do go forward, this will just be the beginning of the process. The council will then have to vote on whether to proceed with the project and will have to allocate the necessary funding. This is at a time when the council is having its budget slashed by 28 per cent over the course of four years, this seems unlikely to happen. 

So there may be a long path ahead for the Millennium Walkway. It could turn out to be the longest heritage trail ever built and there certainly won’t be a pot of gold at the end of it.

Words 1000

Residents speak out against EastEnder's car lot

PLANS to convert a car wash into an ‘East-enders’ style automobile lot are causing outrage amongst Fratton residents

Home owners on Claremont Road say the Superhands car cleaning business is already wrecking life on their street and that any attempt to expand it would be disastrous.

Matters came to a head yesterday when Mr Yadgar Omar put his plans to convert the business before Portsmouth City Council Planning Committee

The joint founder of the Fratton South Neighbourhood Watch Scheme which lodged a petition against the plans said: “There’s been a lot of swearing recently and residents have been told to f*** off.

 “It’s especially bad for people with child buggies or those in wheelchairs and on crutches. They just can’t get down the street because of the cars parked on the pavements. It’s been even worse recently in the icy conditions.”

Mr Omar defended his plans to the committee: “There has been a misunderstanding with my neighbours,” he said. “I really believe there is plenty of space around to develop the business and we are always careful not to park anywhere we shouldn’t.”

Councillor David Fuller was also vocal in his opposition to further development at the site: “Residents just don’t want an East-enders style car lot in their area,” he said.

The planning application was deferred to allow Mr Omar time to provide more details of how the proposed car lot will affect the parking situation.

Story as it appeared in the Portsmouth News 

Stories in Stone

Stories in Stone: Published in etc.  magazine, March 2011

Martin Elvery discovers  the beautiful Roman mosaics of Sussex which tell a forgotten story of how the other half lived 2,000 years ago.

We all like to show-off to our guests and relatives when we invite them to dinner: We might bring out the best crockery, or set up a decorative table-centre as a talking point. For the Romans -or more accurately the Romano-British- living in Britain almost 2,000 years ago, it was little different;  Instead of making small talk about the NEXT curtains or the latest IKEA furniture however, Roman dinner guests would have talked about the floors!

Mosaic art-the art of creating pictures from small pieces of tile, glass or stone,   was first developed in Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC, originally using terracotta cones and later different coloured pebbles to make intricate designs. But it was the ancient Greeks who perfected the art, developing precise geometric patterns and detailed scenes of people and animals. The Romans brought mosaic art to Britain after the emperor Claudius launched an invasion of the country in AD 43, and it soon became the favoured floor decoration for elite Romano-British families in their chic country villas and  town-houses, as they sought to imitate the fashions of Rome.

As a wealthy Romano-Brit you would have been keen to further your position amongst the Roman high society by holding regular dinner parties for the great and good of the empire.  Once you had welcomed your dinner guests -perhaps they would have bee travelling officials or relatives from a far distant part of the empire-you might have  invited them to  recline with you on cushioned couches in the dining room where a low table would have  been regularly re-filled with an array of exotic dishes which were designed to amaze and delight you;  As you invited your guests to tuck into such delicacies as larks tongue and honeyed doremouse, you might have tried to impress them by telling them stories about your floors.

In the early years of the Roman empire (1^st century AD), the fashion in Italy was for black and white or partially coloured geometric mosaics. These mathematically complex and often symmetrical designs, varied enormously but a basic rule was that the more lavish the design, the more impressed your dinner -guests were likely to be. Diners would have been suitably awestruck at the magnificent house of Fishbourne Roman Palace for example when you revealed to them that one of your  geometric pavements  was in fact a clever  illusion: At first site the pavement appears to be a simple cube-based design, but on closer inspection you r guests  would have noticed stars shifting between the squares, then –if they were still sober enough- it would have dawned on them  that the perspective in the pavement confuses the eye to create a continually alternating  pattern of three-dimensional shapes. At Bignor Roman Villa, near Pulborough in the heart of the south downs, you might have taken an after-dinner stroll with your guests along  a fine geometric pavement in the main corridor of the villa, fronted by an open colonnade, which let you gaze out on magnificent views across the downs.

At  Fishbourne  it's possible that you -as the host- might have been king-Cogidubnus, a British prince who had collaborated with the Romans and had probably received the colossal palace as a gift in return for your loyalty. Over dinner you might have drawn your guests’ attention to the  beautiful boy-on a dolphin mosaic  which graced your dining room. In the centre of this pavement  a boy cupid sits astride a beautifully executed dolphin, with a trident in his hand.  In Roman mythology, cupid was the god of love and erotic desire so you might have laughed  with your guests over stories from mythology of young lovers who were struck by cupids bow- such as Aeneas, the prince from Troy who founded the Roman nation, and Dido queen of Carthage who was thrown into an uncontrollable desire for him by the will of Juno queen of the Gods.

For fun, you might have asked your guests to look closely among the vine tendrils around the edge of the design, to see if they could spot a small black bird which may have been the trademark of the designer -much as a potter might stamp his work today.

If you were lucky enough to be the owners of Bignor Roman Villa, you would have been a wealthy Romano-British couple who had inherited  a fine  country houses amid acres of highly profitable farm estates. In winter, you might have escorted guests to the winter dining room which was heated under floor by an ingenious hypocaust  system which can still be seen today. During dinner you could have asked your guests look down at the head of Venus, Goddess of love, which was the central feature of the mosaic in this room. You could have asked guests to stand up and walk slowly around the dining room to marvel at the brilliant trick of the mosaicists art which caused the doe eyes of the goddess to gaze at you intently  no matter where you were standing  in the room.

If time allowed you might have invited your guests to bathe with you in the small heated bath house in the south western corner of the villa. Bathing in Roman times was both a social event  and an issue of hygiene and  you would have had a good opportunity to enjoy conversation in the changing rooms before passing into the inviting warm and hot rooms. While they changed, guests would have rested their bare feet on a  beautiful floor adorned with the head of medusa. The story of the snake headed gorgon who could turn men to stone with just a look- and who was recently featured in the film Clash of the Titans- might have served as a warning to bathers against vanity and the pleasures of the flesh: Medusa was said to have once been a beautiful maiden who was transformed into a gorgon as a punishment for sleeping with the sea-God Poseidon.

In summertime you would have invited guests to dine in a summer dining room nearer to the front of the villa where a strikingly three dimensional image of mythological figure Ganymede awaited you. Ganymede , a prince who was said to be fro the city of Troy (yes the one with Brad Pitt), is depicted as hanging  in the clutches of a starkly rendered golden eagle complete with beady eyes and a dangerous looking beak. But all was not lost; The story goes that Ganymede was so attractive that Zeus decided to have him abducted and taken up to Mount Olympus to serve as a cup-bearer to the gods. Perhaps dinner guests imagined furtively  that they were having their wine poured by Ganymede himself and that they were in fact dining in the company of immortals!

But the dream of Roman civilization could not last ad after nearly 400 years of occupation, the last Roman troops were recalled in 410 AD and the province was gradually over-run by Jutes, Angles, and Saxons from Northern Europe. Over the course of time the mosaics were buried beneath farmers fields as the buildings collapsed and decayed around them. It was only the dedicated work of teams of archaeologists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that has brought the floors to light once more and has allowed us to re-imagine the stories that would have been told around the dinner-tables 2,000 years ago.

Mobility Scooter damaged by cemetary potholes

Story as it appeared in the Portsmmouth News


PEOPLE with mobility problems are being forced to dodge dangerous potholes on a popular walkway through Kingston cemetery in Fratton.

Tony Bradshaw, 72 who suffers with a neurological condition known as cerebellar ataxia which affects his mobility and balance, says the potholes caused £200 of damage to his motorised scooter.

“I am always having to swerve around the potholes which is very hard for me,” he said. “The front wheels of my scooter were damaged by the uneven surface of the road. The scooter cost me £600 so it’s really lucky that it was covered by insurance.

“I visit the cemetery every fortnight at least. You can’t get down the side roads to visit the graves because they are too uneven. I really have to watch out.”

Mr Bradshaw also said: “The cemetery toilets have been closed since the summer. It means elderly folk have to walk a long way to find a public convenience.”

A sign on the toilet door which has been defaced by a disgruntled member of the public says they are closed due to drainage problems and that visitors must use the public convenience on neighbouring Clarke’s Road.

Mr Bradshaw’s daughter-in-law who didn’t wish to be named said: “We paid a lot of money for our mother’s grave two years ago. It makes you wonder where all the money is going.”

According to the Portsmouth City Council website there are around 400 burials at Kinston cemetery each year. The Council has raised burial prices by 29% over the past two years and in 2010 the cost of a burial went up from £443 to £483.

The cemetery thoroughfare which is a favourite cut-through for dog walkers and pedestrians is also causing problems for  wheelchair users such as Craig Kelly, 25.

Craig’s mother Mrs Kelly, 46 said: “We come through here each fortnight to visit my mother’s grave and we have to dodge round the potholes. Craig has nearly fallen out of his chair on several occasions so something really needs to be done about this. It’s even worse for mothers with pushchairs and the elderly with buggies.”

Ward councillor Eleanor Scott said: “Residents have told me how much of a problem this is and we are trying to get something done about it, but it would cost 25K to re-surface the road. The annual budget we have to spend is just not enough. Everything changes  at a time when the council is having to make cuts of £10.9 m in 2011-2012. Its going to be even harder to find the money for this kind of work.”

History boys brought back to life

THE HISTORY Boys was a massive success when it first opened at the National Theatre. It enjoyed a sell out stint on Broadway and was transformed into an award winning movie which has become a cult classic.

This latest production at Chichester Festival Theatre hosted  by the West Yorkshire Playhouse will surely only add to the play’s appeal.

It’s a joyous nostalgia trip through the boundless optimism and aspirations of youth, tempered by the wisdom of literature and academic reason.

The action is interspersed with blasts of pumping 1980s disco music which sets the sparsely furnished classroom scenes. Boys tumble into classrooms, joshing and fighting with each other, only to be held rapt in the spotlight once lessons begin. The simplicity of the set means that the focus is firmly on Bennett’s wonderful crafted script.

Philip Franks is compellingly eccentric as aging English tutor Hector, allowing the boys free reign in the classroom to explore the power of words. Thisleads to some hilarious scenes including a moment when the boys re-create a French brothel and are suddenly interrupted by earnest headmaster Thomas Wheatley.

Ben Lambert gives the stiff tight-lipped Irwin a polished sense of gravitas. He appears to have the answers to everything until the contradictions in his character are exposed by the swaggeringly cocky Dakin, George Banks . The pair handle the emotionally chargedscenes when Dakin reveals his love for Irwin superbly.

Harry Waller also shines as Scripps, delivering hilarious one-liners about his ‘romance‘ with God and Penelope Beaumont is equally well cast as the straight-laced school mistress Mrs Lintott, who reveals glimpses of her own youth by telling us: ‘Durham was where I had my first pizza you know.’

Classics form the music hall days are banged out by the classmates joyously on an old upright piano  taking us on a trip through the northern grammar school classrooms of the playwrite’s own youth.

Naomi finds faith at Fratton

FORMER healthcare assistant Naomi Hargreaves was so inspired by the work of the Faith and Football charity that she decided to devote her life to it.

Naomi, 29 who works full-time for the charity at the Pompey Study Centre in Fratton, first became aware of Faith and Football in 2004 when she attended a presentation at Fratton park about a mission trip to India.

“I spoke to a lot of people that evening,” she said, “and then a few weeks later I got a call from Linvoy Primus asking me if I wanted help out.”

Naomi’s work was rewarded in 2005 when she took part in a fundraising trip to the Great Wall of China with Linvoy Primus and fellow faith and football founders Darren Moore ad Wayne Jacobs.

Naomi said: “I remember one particular night when we stayed in a village, there was a really poor man who had a back problem and couldn’t afford medical treatment. We did a wip-round to help him and it turned out we’d raised three months of his wages.”

Naomi raised £2,000 from sponsorship herself.

Since then she has gone on to co-ordinate the ‘Extra Time’ literacy scheme which helps to improve the reading skills of year-two school pupils through bible stories. She also helps to run the charity’s Community Football leagues and is involved in ‘Team Talk,’ a project which teaches life skills to groups of disengaged young males.

But it’s Naomi’s personal faith that drives her: “I made a decision to give my life to God,” she said. “I think in this modern world we need faith to help us to solve the problems we are facing.”

For more information about Faith and Football visit:http://www.faithandfootball.org.uk/