From Terry Richardson, Binfield:

What next for the Cowes marine industry?

I suppose we should not be surprised at the result of the planning application to develop the marine industrial land in Cowes but we should be saddened.

That site alone has trained thousands of boatbuilders, joiners, platers, engineers, painters and more.

Now it will be demolished to make way for 500-plus apartments with insufficient parking.

We need more houses, the council says. Well, maybe, but houses for who?

Not the Island’s younger generation looking for their first home.

A cynic may point out the annual additional council tax income is not an insignificant amount, certainly when compared to any commercial rates.

The site is dilapidated, the council says. Not surprising after many years of zero investment in the infrastructure and short-term leases for the resident businesses.

New marine premises are included, the council tells us. And indeed they are. A small part of the site at the shallow end of the frontage.

But wait they say. A new facility is planned for East Cowes. (I believe that was mentioned when the planning was passed for Red Funnel). So all’s well. Sometime in the future there will be a development on a green field site on the shallow banks of the Medina being funded by…