We have now been in office for nearly five months and in that time a massive amount of work has been done to ensure those in the administration have got to grips with the many issues that face the Island and the Isle of Wight Council.

Not in any order, but the FB6, schools issues, transport hub, coming out of a pandemic, concern over large-scale planning, road race, lack of key workers, festival and now the fuel shortage!

A key reason for this, other than being able to deal with the day-to-day work of the council, is because we have now began the process of planning the next council budget.

Although the actual budget will not be debated and voted on until next February, it will be the product of six months' intensive work.

Over the last 12 years we have seen budgets that, with little exception, have done no more than managed declining resources by a process of cuts and withdrawn services.

We are not in a state that will allow us to simply reverse that process but, we are taking an approach whereby such cuts are a last resort and we will work through possible alternatives to taking those steps.

Indeed we will be looking, to take a constructive and positive approach to those assets we still have, to protect what we need to maintain and support and to ensure that, wherever possible, our approach concentrates on supporting our community.

In the meantime, having got to grips with current and ongoing issues, alongside planning the budget, we can now start moving to make important decisions.

We have already implemented the new Climate Change Strategy and other decisions will be coming forward soon dealing with Ryde Interchange, Dark Skies, the floating bridge, supporting our biosphere, Chillerton and Rookley Primary School and many more.

Lastly, at the time of writing, there are still concerns about the availability of fuel. I know that everyone involved is doing everything possible to deal with the situation.

The only danger we face will be the consequences of unnecessary panic buying.

While the government is being slow to act, the best way to deal with the situation is simply for the public to only buy the petrol they need when they need it.

The Island is good as working as a supportive community and if we do so then it will cease to be a problem far sooner — oh, and let's not get started on the turkey and Christmas debate eh!