Havenstreet Cricket Club, circa 1979.
THIS ISLAND LIFE
THAT'S the trouble with council committee meetings. Few members of the public (if any) bother to attend, so there’s always the temptation for members to relax and become a little loose-lipped.
In doing so, they forget such meetings are always recorded and that such recordings can easily find their way into the public domain.
It happened only the other day, when an e-mail found its way on to my terminal.
It contained an audio recording of comments made at a planning committee meeting, and the sender thought I might be particularly interested, since part of the discussion involved Havenstreet Cricket Club.
It’s at this point I must confess an interest. I have been a member of the club for 50 years and was instrumental in trying to obtain planning permission for a new ground adjacent to the IW Steam Railway.
It was intended to be the culmination of a 25-year search for such a facility, and seemed to have the backing of everyone, including the first planning officer to discuss the idea with us, the parish council, the IW Cricket Board and the ward councillors. But the views of a couple of NIMBYs and the Island’s planning unit prevailed.
The committee backed its officers and the application was refused, primarily on the grounds that the proposal was within an area of outstanding natural beauty.
This 'area of outstanding natural beauty’ is immediately opposite a large station car-park and next to an unattractive stable block and some rolling stock in varying stages of dilapidation.
We decided to appeal against the decision, and after months of waiting, it was refused.
That, we thought, was that. But we underestimated the capacity of the planning committee to revel in its "victory".
On the recording sent to me, Cllr George Brown is heard acclaiming it as "a triumph", and for Cllr Susan Scoccia it brought back memories of "an awful evening, which I seem to remember chairing because it also included Gurnard Pines.
"I was quoted by Mr Newbery (she’s referring to a column I wrote last October) as saying I was a very nice lady but not really in control."
She probably is — and she definitely wasn’t.
In the background a gallant member can be heard muttering: "He’s no gentleman." At least one of them got something right.
But pride of place must go to committee chairman, Ivan Bulwer, who also happens to represent the neighbouring ward of Wootton and Fishbourne and might therefore be expected to know what he was talking about.
He is heard saying: "The only interesting thing about the Havenstreet cricket ground is that Havenstreet don’t have a cricket team."
This was greeted with gusts of satisfied laughter, which indicates a worrying degree of ignorance or a willingness to be easily amused.
The facts need to spelled out to Cllr Bulwer, so I’ll type this slowly in the hope they will finally sink in.
Havenstreet CC has been a properly-constituted cricket club since 1955. It is a member of the IW Cricket Board. The only thing it doesn’t have is a ground on which to play.
This means that, over the years, players have had to drift off to other clubs in order to play their sport regularly but we still get a team together several times a season to fulfil particular fixtures.
The reason we don’t have a team turning out regularly is because we HAVEN’T GOT ANYWHERE TO PLAY. That’s why we’ve been trying to acquire a ground since the mid-Eighties.
What a pity Cllr Bulwer managed to scrape home by just four votes at the last election. The man who ran him so close was Independent Ivor Warlow, who has a lifetime’s association with sport on the Island.
It may be that Mr Warlow would not have supported the plan for a cricket ground at Havenstreet — but at least his would have been an informed opinion.
Some people never learn when to quit
YOU will recall Cowes town councillor Paul Birch’s petulant display at a Remembrance Day service three weeks ago, when he stomped out of the church in protest at the pro-war sentiments he thought were being espoused from the pulpit.
It was a self-regarding and ill-considered display intended to convey his disapproval of Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan.
Apparently, he was unable to get his brain around the fact that it is possible to support our service personnel, while objecting to the war in which they have no alternative but to fight.
He then compounded his original foolishness by writing in this newspaper: "I believe these soldiers must still bear a moral responsibility for their own actions, and our support for them must not cross the line into condoning evil."
I would like to draw the precious Mr Birch’s attention to a statement made by the widow of Olaf Schmidt at his funeral service, which packed Truro Cathedral.
He was the bomb disposal officer — described by his commanding officer as "the bravest man I ever met" — who was killed the day before he was due to return to this country.
Christina Schmidt said: "In past conflicts, where there was an immediate threat to our shores and our existence, soldiers were never plagued with self-doubt about the value of their role in society, and people and their soldiers were once close in unity.
"We might disagree with a war. However, I hope Olaf’s death, my public storytelling and appreciation, and our community display of respect here today can serve to bridge that gap and unite us once more with our troops.’’
Read that Mr Birch and feel ashamed — feel deeply ashamed.