Town Council To Support Bid To Make Dilapidated Landmark Asset Of Community Value

An Isle of Wight town council will support a bid to make Ventnor’s dilapidated Winter Gardens an Asset of Community Value (ACV).

The iconic clifftop building is owned by the Hambrough Group but is in poor condition. The owners also operate a hotel in the town.

At Monday’s Ventnor Town Council meeting, councillors voted to write to the relevant committee chair at County Hall, backing an application to nominate Winter Gardens Pavilion as an ACV.

The Winter Gardens was nominated by Conservative Ventnor and St Lawrence county councillor Ed Blake, according to the Isle of Wight Council.

Once an asset is listed as having community value, its owner cannot dispose of it until interested community groups have had the opportunity to register an interest in purchasing, County Hall’s Community Right to Bid Policy says.

The right to nominate an asset as an ACV was introduced by the Localism Act 2011.

Ventnor town councillor Ian Bond said:

“The process of community right to bid…in principle is a valuable one.

“The process is quite restrictive in the sense that the Isle of Wight Council appoints a panel of officers who decide solely on the basis of the evidence presented by the bidding organisation.

“So, one hopes that the community right to bid that’s been submitted is fully researched and evidenced because the process excludes any other people from making representations, with one exception.

“If the building is considered to be of strategic importance, then the chair of the relevant committee has to be consulted. That gives us the opportunity to write to that person.

“That gives us a chance to make representations essentially supporting the bid – even if the chair isn’t consulted it gives us the chance to put it on the radar screen and express our support.”

Cllr Linda Jefferies said it was “heartbreaking” to see the current state of the Winter Gardens.

In May, County Hall’s service director for waste, environment and planning, Natasha Dix, announced the authority’s planning enforcement team had served the Winter Gardens’ owner, The Hambrough Group, a Section 215 notice.

Issued under the Town and Country Planning Act, the notice to tidy up the building and its surrounding grounds consists of 19 strict requirements, including re-rendering, filling in cracks and painting and repairing the roof.

Some work has been undertaken in recent weeks.