We found ourselves in the national news recently, as the elements conspired to turn parts of the Isle of Wight festival site into an inglorious morass of mud and wellies. Most newspapers carried images of young people wading through the stuff with the unnatural glee that only festival-goers can summon when confronted with sludge in such prodigious quantity.
It was further evidence, if evidence were needed, of the combined might of mother nature and the forces she has at her disposal. But these same forces are at the forefront of a project we are pursuing in the waters off the island's south coast, just out of earshot of the festival site. Although, this time, they are working for us.
The project, the Solent Offshore Energy Centre (SOEC), seeks to establish both a tidal power research and development facility and a commercial site on to which turbines can be deployed. As a council, we are committing £1m to lay the foundations for this work by obtaining the necessary consents and licences. This effort from the local authority has already been met with commitments from the private sector worth many times the value of our own pump-priming input.
It is hoped that SOEC will create more than 600 jobs over the lifetime of the project. We expect that a bid for government support through the regional growth fund will also be successful.
SOEC is part of the Isle of Wight's Eco Island scheme, that uses the green agenda as a catalyst for economic regeneration. It is a concept particularly pertinent given the natural resources available here, and our undisputed need to stimulate an economy that relies too heavily on seasonal work and pays low wages.
At a time when the council's own finances are under severe pressure, we nevertheless believe we have a role to play in creating the conditions in which business can flourish.
The council is already achieving tangible success in this aspiration. It has created new work by drawing in funds to create two large-scale sustainable building projects, the contracts for which are weighted in favour of local companies. Similarly the island's highways PFI scheme, which will use £260m of government grant to completely overhaul the road network, and the operating company will take its water use and carbon footprint into account. It is the first PFI to include this green clause, which also encourages the project to use local material, labour and supplies: once again regeneration activity working in harmony with the environment.
It was the same positive attitude that prompted the council to resurrect the Isle of Wight festival back in 2002. Then, only several thousand attended the event on approximately the same site. The festival has grown steadily and now has a licence for up to 90,000 people.
While we are proud of the festival, sludge and all, there is more to the Isle of Wight than the photographs of this weekend's gathering might suggest. It is timely to repeat the hackneyed, but not untrue, axiom to investors: where there's muck there's brass.
Councillor David Pugh is the leader of Isle of Wight council
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