PAPER E

1

Welcome and Introductions – All

2

Apologies – Rob Madigan (Chair)

Apologies were received from Fiona Capewell (IWC), Alex Minns (IWC), Amanda Andrews (IWC) Colin Rowland (IWC)

3

Declarations of Interest – Rob Madigan

Cllr Phil Jordan.

4

Minutes of the Last Meeting held on 17 July 2023 – Rob Madigan

None

5

Ryde Place Plan - Cllr Simon Cooke

• Group met on 15 September ‘23

• Discussion around pausing Place Plan activity and concentrating on working to have Ryde’s emerging Position Statement recognised as a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)

• Next meeting due to be held on 12 October ‘23

Action – SC to report back at the next meeting

6

Area Manager Report - Pete Fellows

• Continuing to support RTC with bid to establish Heritage Development Trust

• HK asked about arrangements for governance of the new Trust. PF reported that if successful RTC would be given support in this area from assigned mentors.

• Continuing to support the Department project

• Working with RTC to commission walking trail for the town funded by PCC and focused on improving safety for women and girls.

7

Ryde Interchange – Peter Hayward

• JW raised issued of perch seating in bus shelters.

• PH indicated these were designed to discourage rough sleepers and indicated that more seats in the interchange will follow in 2-3 weeks when contractor hands over the site.

  
  

• RM raised the issue of the junction at the end of the pier and its proximity to a pelican crossing

• PH responded that it was a matter of what could fit within a constrained site but posed no practical difficulties.

• The question was raised about the lack of audio signal on the pelican crossing.

• PH said there was no audio in the crossing due to its proximity to another pelican crossing and that government guidance on the matter was being followed.

  
  

• SC noted that new planting at the site looked unkempt but that it might possibly become an RTC responsibility

• PH indicated that responsibility for the maintenance schedule was currently with Island Roads

• JW asked about the building waste dumped in the bottom of the planters.

• PH replied that most waste had been removed albeit for a few broke pipes left to aid drainage

• PJ expressed his disappointment in the finish of the planted areas and asked what will happen when plants fail / die.

• JW asked whether the rose garden would be replanted with roses.

• PH replied that he wasn’t sure.

  
  

• PJ raised the question of the café / toilets and that there was hope for agreement with Southern Vectis (SV) / South West Railway (SWR) on the coming Friday – 22 September 23 - regards their management / operation.

• PJ was surprised that management of toilets was not linked to operation of café

• JJE asked whether the toilets would be for the café as they will need them too.

• PH indicated he was under the impression that RTC would take responsibility for the toilets.

• PH indicated that SWR would manage the accessible toilet but not the other toilets on site.

• PJ indicated that lease for toilets was with IWC and there was provision in the lease to sub-let.

  
  

• PH stated the café would be built in November ‘23 with the glass expected to be delivered and installed in January ’24. A tenant was expected to be signed up by SWR in Feb ‘24 who would be responsible for fit-out with a target opening in March ’24.

• JJE hoped that the opportunity would first be marketed to local businesses.

• PH confirmed that this was the case.

8

Ryde Esplanade – Rob Madigan

• RM raised question of events on the Esplanade and the poor provision of toilets, trouble in the area during the recent carnival procession and issues around licensing more generally in respect to specific establishments.

• It was agreed that this discussion would continue outside of the meeting.

9

Town Hall – Helen Keogan

• HK indicated the building condition report was expected imminently from the project architect.

• Town Hall Trust trustees are: James Longford, Dominic Minghella, Cllr Simon Cooke and Helen Keogan.

• HK questioned the usefulness of data generated by the survey recently undertaken by FORTH for the purposes of the Town Hall project.

10

HAZ Update – Fiona Capewell

• Fiona was unable to attend but sent the following update:

  
  

  Shopfronts

  • Works to commence on The Crown w/c 25th September 2023

  • Works to commence at The Gambling Man early November. Delays due to new tooling required for the timber profiles.

  • Aladdin’s Cave (former Pete Harris) will commence after Gambling Man complete

  • Two further shopfronts are at planning and tender stages.

    
    

    Pedestrian Zone Improvements

  • Next HAZ Steering Group meeting to take place 27th September.

  • Meeting took place 7th September with IWC highways TRO (traffic regulation order) team, Island Roads, HAZ and RTC, to discuss changes which will improve the pedestrian area – bollard and changes to TROs. Ideas discussed in this meeting will be incorporated into the scheme and costed up for feasibility.

  • Design work to incorporate Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) into the

pedestrian zone is ongoing. Working with Southern Water’s landscape architects,

SuDS engineers and Island Roads design team to tweak design for maximum water attenuation and avoiding utilities as much as possible to minimise disruption from apparatus diversions.

• Once design work complete Island Roads commercial team will provide cost information.

• Materials have been selected and will be discussed at next week’s Ryde HAZ Steering Group meeting. Following popular demand, we have tried to incorporate ‘The Colours of Ryde’ into the scheme, as per the Blueprint Project by Denman and Gould, which identified colours present in natural materials in and around the Ryde area.

• Visualisation of the project will be produced once the design work complete and we are ready for public engagement. It is frustrating that we haven’t reached this stage yet, but we didn’t want to release details that then changed and caused confusion.

• We are hopeful that the works will be completed before Summer 2024, however the availability of contractors will affect the feasibility of this target.

11

Department Project Update - Pete Fellows

• PF reported that the capital works tender pack was issued at the beginning of August and 2 bids were received last week. These will be evaluated in the coming week.

• A bid to NLHF was submitted at the end of July for £250k to help achieve partnership funding targets. A decision is expected at the end of October.

12

RTC Updates - Cllr Simon Cooke

Public Realm Greening Working Group

• SC reported that the new group were talking to Hovertravel about improving the visual appearance of their yard with planting.

• JW asked who would maintain any planting.

• SC indicated Hovertravel would maintain the planting as it was their land.

• SC advised that the group would be first focussing their efforts on the Esplanade.

13

RBA Update - Rob Madigan

• RB reported the RBA would be meeting tomorrow – 19 September ‘23.

• 8/9 December will be late night shopping with Union St expected to be closed to traffic.

• The RBA are working with the New Carnival Company to deliver Merry and Bright as part of the event.

• New website build is ongoing.

• An open event to encourage new members will be held at Yelfs on 25 Sept ‘23.

• RBA support the return of a Dotto Train.

14

Ryde Society - Helen Keogan

• HK reported that they hope to promote plan for the new distillery at the Society’s next meeting in early October ‘23.

• JW reported that PCC Donna Jones hopes to reopen Ryde Police Station in Autumn ‘24 and thanked Cllr Karen Lucioni for her efforts in this matter.

15

Secretariat rotation – Rob Madigan

• RM said RTC were refusing to provide Clerk cover for the RRWG meetings.

• JW explained it was written into the ToR, and had been agreed between the IWC & RTC to provide a 6 monthly rotation cover.

• RM said he was going to write to RTC.

16

AOB

Review meeting format

• SC raised the question of whether this group needed to be revised in light of recent changes within IWC and renewed emphasis on Place Plan working within RTC.

• PF indicated that the model adopted elsewhere which was based on a partnership between business and local authorities might be more effective.

• JJE agreed that the model described by PF worked well in Newport.

• RM suggested that it sounded like a sensible approach, that the RBA would be supportive and should be explored further

• HK advised that the Ryde Society did not support this approach.

  
  

  Vectis Hall

• JW asked what was happening with the roof of Vectis Hall.

• HK suggested it was an example of RTC inaction.

• PJ replied that it was acquired as a long term project and there wasn’t a quick fix.

  Housing Developments

• JW asked what was happening with Pennyfeathers and highlighted that Cllr Drew had not responded to emails.

• JW asked what was happening with the properties at 155 and 158 Marlborough Road which were derelict and would IWC be instructing the developer to renovate?

• JJE replied that IWC unlikely to CPO but asked JW to email her with information.

• JW asked about the Strategic Junctions Board.

• PH indicated that if Pennyfeathers dropped out of the picture a different junction would be required.

• PH indicated that permission to proceed with West Acre had been lodged with judiciary – 15 September ‘23.

Date of Next Meeting

• The next meeting is scheduled to take place on Monday 20th November 2023 at 6pm at RTC offices in Lind Street.