Cllr Phil Jordan, IW Council leader:

I grow ever more concerned about the apparent lack of Islanders being, well, Islanders.

Recent issues that our Island face which are difficult, with no easy answers and with a range of wider impacting factors has seen communities become entirely fixed upon their local area and ignoring the complexities and problems we face as an Island community.

There are many examples of this but most recently we have seen two big issues.

One is the issue of school places and the falling numbers coming into our school system, a falling birth rate – also being seen countrywide – and the overall financial predicament schools are facing because of the lower numbers of children coming into the school system.

This is because schools are funded by Government by each pupil attending a school.

There are currently around 1,900 places in our schools which are not filled by pupils.

The demand simply does not match the provision and capacity available. It is an Islandwide problem. It needs an Islandwide solution.

However, what we are starting to see is communities becoming determined to prevent any local area change in schooling provision, preferring the changes to come from other areas of the Island.

Of course, those other areas also want no change in their areas which leaves the problem unsolved.

This is what I am referring to as being an Islander with a concern and empathy for our Island which requires an Islandwide perspective and not just a local community perspective.

Where issues are local there is of course great support for finding answers to the local problem but where the issues impact our entire Island, we must find a way to act in the best interest of our entire Island.

We saw this disparity over recent plans for housing being built on the Island.

The draft Island Plan set out numbers of houses that could be built as a duty to have in place a local planning strategy.

We can argue the numbers. No-one wants our beautiful Island over developed, but working under Government guidelines and regulations and mindful that we need homes on our Island, affordable for the most part, it was disappointing to see local communities argue why houses were not needed in specific areas of the Island.

They also wanted homes built elsewhere on the Island whilst those local communities argued they did not want more homes either.

We do have to live as Islanders, considering all our Island problems, and I do begin to question if these local community wants and wishes really would serve the Isle of Wight.

The Island where we all live, work, and play as a broad Island community.