The Government has cancelled our Isle of Wight Council elections on 1st May. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said in the House of Commons that this is because, "we are not in the business of holding elections to bodies that will not exist and we do not know what will replace them." The Isle of Wight Council Leader Phil Jordan said on 30th December, "What is now noticeably clear is that the Unitary Authority of the Island, in its present form, will not continue."
The future of an independent Isle of Wight Council is under serious threat. Meanwhile, the current Council Leader is negotiating with a Labour Government to impose a Hampshire-based Mayor on the Isle of Wight without residents having a say at the ballot box. Just 7 % of the Mayor's voters will be on the Island. With 93% on the mainland, that is where the Mayor's focus and power will lie leaving the Island in no better position (and probably worse) than before.
If the Island is being forced by the Government to have a Mayor - and that is by no means clear - we should be arguing for a Isle of Wight Mayor with a special funding deal and powers reflecting our unique position as an Island. The Government's own official consultation is ignores this option.
As you will be denied a say on 1st May, Joe has launched a survey so that he can gather local views and take them to Westminster to negotiate on behalf of residents to Save the Isle of Wight Council and ensure we do not get a Mayor we didn't ask for.
The proposed name for the Mayor’s new Combined Authority with jurisdiction over the Island is “Hampshire and Solent.” The Isle of Wight name does not feature. The Government’s so-called “consultation” document does not even ask whether residents are happy about this or whether another name should be considered.
Your Council Tax will very likely go up because the Mayor can add their own charge (or precept). There is no guarantee of "new" money from Whitehall either. The Mayor will be given devolved responsibility for some public services with accompanying funds but those services will still need to be paid for with those funds.
If we are forced to have a Mayor, Joe would much prefer to negotiate for our own Isle of Wight Mayor with our own special funding deal reflecting our uniqueness as an Island. Joe does not see how we share community ties or regeneration opportunities with Basingstoke, Eastleigh, Aldershot or Winchester.
The Mayor proposals talk extensively about transport and better connecting the combined area. They outline plans for bus, rail and roads but ferries are not mentioned once in over 1,000 words devoted to transport. The Isle of Wight’s own priorities are already being ignored.
This document outlines how Joe Robertson processes and manages personal data and:
The Data Controller is Joe Robertson
If you have any questions about this policy or for more information about how we use your data or would like to exercise any of your rights contact Joe Robertson.
All processing is carried out by consent or either under the legitimate interest of Joe Robertson, or public interest. These cover processing to conduct casework, campaigning and communication. Where processed under the lawful basis of a task carried out in the public interest, it is to support or promote democratic engagement. This includes fundraising activity in order to support democratic engagement.
Data held is that provided by you when you contact us and correspondence with third parties in response to cases taken up on your behalf. We may also hold data that you provide when we contact you – for instance, if we ask you to participate in a survey or petition. If you do not wish for us to contact you by telephone please do not provide this information. We perform a database lookup automatically upon any form submission to include electoral boundary data. The Register of Electors that councils provide to authorised persons under the Representation of the People Act is also used for electoral purposes.
Personal data is stored electronically and securely. We ensure that our service providers comply with the same high standard that we do.
Special category data will be processed under the lawful basis indicated in section 3, as is permitted in clauses 22, 23 and 24 of schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act, covering political parties and elected representatives.
The EU GDPR adequacy decision means that data can continue to flow between the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA). Some service providers are located outside of the EEA and therefore it may be necessary to transfer your personal data outside of the EEA. Where the transfer of your data outside of the EEA takes place we will make sure that it is protected in the same way as if the data was inside the EEA, and it only occurs with your consent.
We will use one of the following safeguards to ensure this:
Legally it is not permitted to transfer certain types of data, such as Electoral Register Data, outside of the EEA, and we honour that obligation.
Personal data will be held for no longer than necessary. Some types of data may be held for longer than others. Typically the maximum retention is two election cycles. Review of the data held will occur in each election cycle to determine whether it should be maintained or put beyond use. We also comply with the ICO's expectation guidelines relating to petitions.
We will request verification of the identity of any individual making a request, ask for further clarification and details if needed and respond within one calendar month once we have confirmed it is a legitimate request. In accordance with ICO guidelines, we keep a log of Subject Access Requests that contains details of the request, including that which can identify you personally, indefinitely.
Data subjects have the right to the following:
If you have contacted us about a personal or policy issue, your data may be passed on to a third-party in the course of dealing with your enquiry, such as local authorities, government agencies, public bodies, health trusts, regulators, and so on. Any third parties that we may share your data with are obliged to keep your details securely, and to use them only for the basis upon which they were originally intended.
We may need to share your data with a third party, such as the police, if required to do so by law.
Unless otherwise specified, data may also be shared with entities of Political Party associations, federations, branches, groups and affiliates in order to assist you or maintain contact with you in support of democratic engagement.
Casework and other submissions from any Contact form are sent directly to their destination.
Your personal data is only used as outlined here and within your reasonable expectations based on the nature of the communication, and recognising the need of politically related engagement in wider support of democratic engagement.
At any point you have the following rights:
If you are unhappy with the way that we have processed or handled your data then you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the supervisory body authorised by the Data Protection Act 2018 to regulate the handling of personal data within the United Kingdom. The contact details for the ICO are:
If you have any questions about the data held please contact Joe Robertson via the contact information on this website.
Please note that proof of identity is required should you choose to exercise any of the above rights in relation to personal data.
This website itself is supported technically by Netlify
We retain the right to update this policy at any time. If there are changes that significantly impact your rights, we will contact you in advance.
From time to time, other website developers copy this Privacy Policy for use on their own websites. This Privacy Policy applies exclusively to the ways in which