THE CASH STRAPPED Isle of Wight Council has agreed to splash out a massive £220k to replace a lift at the Ventnor Botanic Gardens.

The decision comes at a time when the council have already announced swingeing cuts to their budgets with the Island’s vulnerable particularly hard hit.

There was uproar at a meeting at the Winter Gardens, that was attended by over 300 people, concerned at the massive outlay, brought on by the Council’s move to put the Gardens into private hands.

One notable absentee at the meeting was Councillor George Brown, the deputy leader of the IW Council, who was one of the key figures in the decision to rubber stamp the massive outlay.

Cllr Brown sent a long statement to be read at the meeting, saying that he had a prior engagement and that he would attend any further meetings if he were given more notice.

One of the specific concerns was that the Council were saying that the Botanic Gardens were losing them £250,000 per year and yet they were proposing to spend £220,000 replacing the incline lift from the car park level to the café below.

Apparently the Royal Hotel, who now run the catering concession at the Visitor’s Centre, asked the council to repair or replace the lift before agreeing to sign a ten year lease for the café.

Claims had been made in a report that there had been an income loss of £7,000 per week because the lift wasn’t working.

It stated, “the facilities have not achieved their full commercial potential is largely due to the unreliable inclined lift.

“…each coach which turns around without [visitors] disembarking loses the Garden over £200 in potential expenditure, which equates to approximately £7,000 of lost income per week in summer, plus additional secondary retail spend on the site.”

Because of the difficulties with the inclined lift since it was installed in 2000, it has been mooted that a vertical lift might be installed instead. The sum of £220k had been ring fenced as the ceiling of a figure that might be required to fit such a lift.

An independent lift engineer informed the Gazette that £30,000 ought to be enough money to supply and install a decent vertical lift, so the Gazette are wondering if the one the Council have in mind is to be gold plated.

At the meeting of those concerned about the future of the control of the Botanic Gardens there were several helpful and useful suggestions made as to how revenue might be raised in the future, to prevent the necessity of putting the facility into private control.

Mary Thomas, who had been deputy clerk to Ventnor Town Council when the land was purchased for ‘enjoyment and education’ explained that the stature under which it was purchased did not allow a charge to be made for entrance to the gardens. The car park had been purchased under a separate statute.

Although it was suggested that a small (£1.50) entrance fee might be charged, another idea was to ask for a suggested donation – thereby avoiding the statute decreeing that the Gardens must be free.

Michael Freeman, trustee of Ventnor Heritage Museum and Friend, suggested that a guide could be produced for sale in the shop. “If 50,000 people bought it and we made £2 per book we could make £100k,” said Michael.

Marina Morey pointed out that the Council was doing the same to the Gardens as they were to other social enterprises. “You Friends could make something truly wonderful happen,” she said.

Janet Fishleigh wondered if people might be interested in adopting a plant at the Gardens just like people do with animals at the zoo. Peter offered to give dry stone walling classes to repair those in the garden, Yvonne suggested that the garden could become a healing centre and Peter Marsden (Friend) from Niton asked if anyone had thought of contacting the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society).

Phil Le May, Chairman of Ventnor Botanic Gardens Friends Society who was chairing the meeting said that links had been forged with the Friends of the Royal Parks and that it was strange to note that they were a Friends group that had grown out of a protest group, whilst contrastingly the Botanic Friends now appeared to be turning into a protest group.

Brian Charlton, a Friend, who lives in nearby Inglewood Park, asked about the £7.5k figure lost per week. “Who’s making up these figures and why are we making expenditure on a lift to help a private enterprise being run in the building,” he asked.

Mrs Christine Benson said: “We must get Mr. Brown back when we have something new to report and we should all come back too.”

“Time is getting quite short,” said Councillor and Unison rep Mark Chiverton. “The final decision will be made in full council in February.”

Ventnor Town Council Mayor, Debbie Robinson, said, “We will put ourselves fully behind you.”

Petitions against taking control of the Gardens out of the IW Council’s hands were available to be signed on the way out of the meeting.