C. M. Lansley, Shanklin:

The council will be voting on February 28 whether to double the council tax for second home owners.

There are many on the Island who will not be able to stay if this goes ahead.

Not all second home owners have pots of cash.

Many choose second homes in the UK as an alternative to spending cash on overseas holidays.

Many also choose the Island because of centuries old family heritage.

My family descendants in the retail business go back generations including my great uncle Edward Morris Stores in Newport.

My great uncle Adolphus William Stark from East Cowes was a Royal Naval officer lost at sea in 1917 aboard HMS Drake.

My father Peter Stark Lansley from Wootton also served his country as a radio officer in the Merchant Navy surviving a torpedo attack on his ship MV Wandby in 1940.

I feel it would be an affront to their memory to force their descendants off the Island.

I have also contributed to the Island’s community by giving talks to local Island organisations on my father Peter Stark Lansley’s book Pon My Puff – A Childhood in 1920s Isle of Wight which I published in 2021.

I purchased a small mews cottage on the Island to maintain my link with my heritage.

It had been on the market for more than six months when I viewed it so I did not prevent any Island residents from buying it.

Currently there seems to be a considerable amount of low cost properties which have been on the market for six months or more (Rightmove).

I strongly urge councillors to vote against this proposal so that those second home owners who spend time on the Island every month of the year, contributing to Island life and its economy, will not be unfairly penalised or driven off the Island.

I believe they make a significant contribution to the Island economy and employment and they are not all Hooray Henrys just coming over for weekends and holidays.