Television cook Gregg Wallace has presented a video about Manx food and drink.

It features local businesses including Tanroagan Seafood Restaurant, Noa Bakehouse, Betty Pie Co, 14 North, Apple Orphanage Co Ltd, Isle of Man Creamery, Laxey Glen Flour Mill and more.

Do you think it’ll encourage people to come to the island?

Email opinions@newsiom.co.im

If you’d like us to use your views in our letters pages, include your name, home address and a daytime phone number.

We need these for verification purposes. We don’t print the full address or the phone number in the paper and respect people’s requests for anonymity in print if they ask for it.

{http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/video-to-encourage-visitors-to-the-island-1-7625409#ixzz3uOxWKJFG|Another video designed to promote the Isle of Man}

The island’s eClub held its Thanksgiving themed event, sponsored by Sure, at Bar George, Douglas.

Guests joined Sure key personnel including Sarah Jarvis, marketing manager, and Paul Marriott, head of corporate sales, for drinks and Thanksgiving themed canapés.

In a relaxed and convivial atmosphere, the evening was attended by around 60 guests who work in or around the eGaming sector, from licensed entities to ancillary service providers ranging from software developers, advisors and accountants, to infrastructure and finance specialists.

A highlight of the night included a business card draw, with the prize of a Bang and Olufsen BEOPlay S3 Speaker. The prize was provided by hosts, Sure and the winner was Phil Tompsett from Aon.

Sarah Jarvis said: ‘The eClub is a friendly and relaxed way to engage with the eGaming community. I would like to offer my thanks to Bar George for the delicious drinks and nibbles – a great venue, as always!’

The eClub is a social meeting place for anyone involved in eGaming in the Isle of Man or those with an interest in the sector. The initiative was started by KPMG and Continent 8 Technologies to bring the growing number of people working in the sector together in one place and start building lasting relationships.

The eClub also gives colleagues and friends the opportunity to chat informally about ideas and issues.

Shoprite in Port Erin is clamping down on motorists who are not customers using their car parks.

Carol Glover, from Isle of Man Enterprises Ltd, which owns Shoprite, wrote to the local authority that in the build up to Christmas, the store in Port Erin ‘is falling behind our other stores because of a lack of car parking at peak times’.

They assessed that the car parking spaces owned by the store (some areas of the car park are owned by the local authority and others by Fistard Properties) are 70 per cent full for most of the day ‘with cars belonging to people who work in the town, or even car share to elsewhere’.

On a trial basis, Ms Glover said the store will enforce parking restrictions on spaces they own – which are two hours’ disc parking (proof of purchase at Shoprite, Shoprite Living or Iceland may be requested) and a £25 penalty charge for overstay – and monitor usage.

In the area of parking where it can be applied, signage will state: ‘This car park is locked overnight (opening hours 8am – 10pm). Any vehicles left overnight are subject to a penalty charge – £25.’

Ms Glover warned that, as a result, there may be greater pressure on parking spaces owned by the local authority.

Last week, commissioner Steve George asked: ‘Can they charge £25 just like that? I thought there’s a covenant so they cannot charge for parking.’

Commissioners’ clerk Jason Roberts was unsure about any such covenant and said: ‘It’s private land. The commissioners cannot enforce a covenant on land owned by someone else. I can monitor any negative influences this has on our car parking spaces.’

Commissioners’ chairman Nick Watterson said enforcing this in a car park where there is a patchwork of ownership will be a ‘conundrum’.

Shop boss Chris Beards has returned to the island after a special event atThe Treasury in London.

Mr Beards is owner of Mantons Cards in Port Erin.

Mantons was one of 100 businesses invited to the capital to mark the UK’s third Small Business Saturday initiative.

The shop was the only business from the Isle of Man picked to take part.

Mr Beards joined other small business owners at a special small business Christmas Fair at The Treasury’s Internal Drum attended by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne.

Small Business Saturday, a grassroots, not-for-profit campaign, places small, independent businesses in communities across the country in the national spotlight.

Its aim is to prompt people not only to spend money with small independent businesses in the run-up to Christmas but also to create a mind-set to support them all year round.

Small businesses around the UK planned events, promotions and other activities to attract clients and customers to them not only on December 5 but also beyond.

During this year’s campaign, tens of thousands of small businesses around the UK have engaged with the campaign across various social media platforms; 30,000 have ordered marketing packs by post with posters to display on their premises, many more have downloaded them online. The campaign team has also completed a four-week nationwide bus tour to all regions in the UK to promote Small Business Saturday locally.

Mr Beards said: ‘I was delighted to be invited by the chancellor to such a prestigious event and represent the Mantons team at the Treasury.

‘I was also especially proud that we were representing the Isle of Man as we were the only Manx business to be invited.

‘After such a successful year, winning multiple awards the invitation really was the perfect early Christmas present for the Mantons team.’

Earlier this yearMantons wonBritish Retailer of the Year before being named as one of the 100 most influential small businesses.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, said: ‘Small Business Saturday is a great opportunity to champion some of the brilliant entrepreneurs and firms we have in this country and make sure everyone is aware of the powerful role they play.’

Campaign director Michelle Ovens OBE said: ‘Small Business Saturday has become an exceptional example of collaboration and co-operation with small businesses teaming up in communities around the UK.

‘We aim to showcase the level of diversity, innovation and talent that is active within our small business sector and persuading people to get out and support their friends, neighbours and family members and reinforce local communities and economies.’

American Express was the founder of the campaign in the US and is the principal supporter of Small Business Saturday UK, as part of its on-going commitment to encourage consumers to shop small.

The campaign also benefits from the backing of leading business organisations including the Federation of Small Businesses, which has a programme of supportive events planned across the country, as well as other corporate supporters.

Island residents will be able to get a better view of the nation’s history and historical collections with Manx National Heritage’s new upgraded online iMuseum.

Online audiences will be able to see more detail on historical images with a new zoom-in feature and share their findings on social media.

Another new feature coming soon to the online museum will give users the opportunity to post comments and have conversations with others about anything they find in the iMuseum.

The facility contains a wide selection of content that is on display at the 11 Manx National Heritage sites across the island as well as thousands of items currently not on gallery display and available to view on request or in the Manx Museum Reading Room, including objects, documents, letters, paintings and images.

There are more than 58,000 objects and items, with over 25,000 photographs of the island’s people, places and events to search from the Isle of Man’s National Photographic Archive.

In addition, there are more than 2,000 artworks from the National Art Collection including the Manx Museum and National Trust’s entire oil painting collection and all of the Archibald Knox works and more than 32,000 items from the National Library.

Manx National Heritage director Edmund Southworth said: ‘iMuseum version 2 is an excellent opportunity for us to manage and make our extensive collections more accessible to the Manx public as well as an off island audience.

‘It extends the reach and potential audience for our collections and offers us a greater ability to effectively promote ourselves worldwide and create a platform for a greater understanding of the Island’s heritage and culture.’

However as part of the upgrade the iMuseum in the Manx Museum in Douglas is now no longer open daily to the public although visitors can still use the service in the Manx Museum Reading Room.

Mr Southworth said: ‘With the growth and development of technology to access content, it makes sense to focus our resources and budgets on developing our online service rather than operating a physical building for people to carry out online research.’

As well as the collections, the iMuseum is also the Isle of Man’s definitive online family history resource with free access to fully-searchable names transcribed from original archives.

There are almost 370,000 named individuals from census’ between 1841 and 1911, approximately 200,000 baptisms, over 110,000 marriage entries and almost 180,000 burials recorded in the Parish Registers as well as files detailing over 73,000 named parties on Registered Deeds.

For individuals and organisations looking to research the island’s war history, the records include details of more than 12,000 First World War internees and 11,615 named individuals recorded on the Isle of Man’s war memorials.

Manx National Heritage has also started a year-long project to publish Manx archives to the online Archives Hub which showcases over 220 archives from across the UK making the island’s history more accessible to a worldwide audience.

To start exploring the iMuseum visit www.imuseum.im

There’s been too much capacity on flights between the island and London.

That’s the view of BA’s commercial general manager Luke Hayhoe as seats on additional flights on the London City route went on sale.

BA is taking advantage of Flybe’s planned withdrawal from Stansted, and easyJet’s reduction in services to Gatwick next summer, to increase frequency to London City during the summer.

This will see up to five flights a day on some weekdays and up to three flights on Saturdays and Sundays - a 50 per cent increase over the summer months. There will be four or five jet services as well as the turbo props that usually fly the route.

Cuts by other carriers resulted in ‘quite a big chunk of capacity coming out of the market’, said Luke.

He said it had come as a ‘surprise’ when Flybe launched its Stansted service and he had expected some changes as having three airlines flying into London airports would not be sustainable. ‘There was too much capacity between London and the Isle of Man,’ he said,

Now Flybe has announced it is withdrawing its Stansted service from the end of March and easyJet has reduced its frequency to Gatwick over the summer months.

Luke said that had freed up enough capacity for BA to increase frequency on its London City route and keep fares at the same levels - from £49 each way.

He said passengers numbers were a little lower than he would like to see but he was confident that with more flights, they would ‘return to levels we need for next year’.

Frequency on the London City route will increase from the end of March, rising to five flights on some week days from May.

BA CityFlyer launched its London City service in May 2012 using a 50-seat Saab 2000 aircraft leased from Eastern Airways. There were fears for the future of the vital business link when BA cut the number of return flights to one a day in 2013. But following the intervention of Manx Business Connection, e-gaming company Microgaming stepped in to underwrite the service.

The amount of money drawn from government reserves peaked at £140.3m in 2013-14 - and for this year is estimated to be £91.1m.

Figures supplied in a written House of Keys answer by Treasury Minister Eddie Teare show the amount withdrawn from all reserves to support government spending was £57.5m in 2010-2011, £50.1m in 2011-2012, in £79.6m in 2012-2013 and £140.3m in 2013-14.

The estimate for 2015-2016 is £91.1m, he added in his reply to the question from Alfred Cannan (Michael).

Mr Teare said these amounts include expenses incurred from the reserve funds, transfers to departments, transfers to the capital account and transfers to the general revenue account but are net of any contributions that departments have made back into the reserve funds from their revenue budgets

In a written reply to a question from John Houghton (Douglas North), the Treasury Minister said it was estimated government would raise £6m by raising top rate tax by 1 per cent, £7.8m by increasing employees’ NI by the 1 per cent and £15.6m by increasing both employees’ and employers’ NI by that amount.

The police custody suite this morning received a call from a fraudster who claimed to be from ‘technical support’ of a software vendor advising that a personal computer was infected and that remote support is being offered. He hung up when he was told where he’d rung.

Police warn that in typical calls, the caller will eventually ask for bank details to pay for the service.

A police spokesman said a lot of people were being targeted in the Isle of Man.

‘These calls appear very plausible so please be very guarded as to what personal information you give out to cold callers.’

A taxi driver whose car was damaged by the disintegrating road surface along Douglas seafront has been told he will not be compensated by the government or the council.

Les McMurdo’s Ford C-Max sustained £714-worth of damage when it was hit by a loose chunk of concrete which was thrown up from the road surface, leaving a pot hole behind.

Now Mr McMurdo, who lives at Harcroft Meadow in Douglas, faces a crippling bill to repair an ugly dent in his car’s sill.

‘All I have asked for from either the Department of Infrastructure or the corporation is the cost of the repair to my car,’ he said.

‘I’m not even asking for loss of earnings while my car is off the road when it gets fixed.’

Mr McMurdo said the damage occurrred in August, during the Festival of Motorcycling, and the hole left behind by the loose concrete was so large, he turned his car round and replaced the concrete in the hole, fearing it would cause an accident if a bike hit it.

‘I was driving along the promenade near to the Queen’s Hotel and had to move out into the middle of the road to pass a stationary vehicle and that’s when it happened,’ he said.

He said he reported the damage to the police and to the DoI who told him the area in question, between the tram tracks, was the responsibility of Douglas Council, not the government.

While the damaged road was quickly repaired, the damage to his car, which he had bought only six weeks earlier, remains.

A spokesman for the government said: ‘This matter was investigated by the Department of Infrastructure after being reported earlier in the year.

‘It was determined that the issue was in relation to a section of the highway that is maintained by the Douglas Borough Council. The driver was advised to take the matter up with the council.’

Mr McMurdo said he had got nowhere with the council either – they told him the promenades were checked in March and April, before the start of the year’s horse tram service, and the surface was judged to be fault free at the time.

‘But this damage happened four months later in August,’ said Mr McMurdo. ‘Surely they should be checking more frequently than that.’

‘To turn round and say they don’t have responsibility because it was checked four months earlier is ridiculous.

‘The hole was repaired within 24 hours of being reported but that doesn’t take away the fact that if it was checked more frequently in the first place they would have seen that it needed repairing.’

Council insurers Zurich have told Mr McMurdo the council carried out adequate checks on the road and are therefore not liable for the damage.

Cains Fiduciaries, part of Douglas-based law and professional services group Cains, has welcomed Jackie Fergusson on board its growing team as corporate administration manager.

Jackie has more than 25 years of experience in fiduciary services, specialising in structures for clients worldwide.

Jackie was previously a senior manager for a local firm of chartered accountants.

She said: ‘I look forward to refocusing on client relationships, expanding and developing connections to ensure clients receive the very best possible service I can provide.

‘The team at Cains Fiduciaries are a dedicated and friendly group of professionals and I hope to provide a complementary dynamic in support of my colleagues.’

Oliver Webster, director of Cains Fiduciaries, said: ‘We are delighted to have added Jackie to our team of relationship managers.

‘She brings extensive experience and professional knowledge in a range of disciplines which will indeed complement those of our existing senior management team.’

Jackie gained qualifications from the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in 1999, along with STEP in 2003 and has been a Fellow Member of the Association of Accounting Technicians since 1990.

Peel businessmen Jonathan and Jamie Irving have been refused permission to appeal to the Privy Council in their long-running legal battle over the winding up of their property development company Street Heritage.

But Mr Irving insisted: ‘This matter is not concluded’.

The Irvings had claimed £3.5m in damages from the government for financial loss and ‘distress, anxiety, uncertainty and trauma’.

Their petition of doleance claim, against the then Attorney General John Corlett, government advocate and now Attorney General Stephen Harding, assessor of income tax Malcolm Couch, deputy assessor Colin Goodwin and former chief secretary Mary Williams, was dismissed in 2011 by High Bailiff John Needham.

He ruled the case was ‘unmeritorious’ and had no real prospect of success. The Irvings appealed but that appeal was dismissed in 2012. Later that same year the appeal court also refused permission to appeal to the Privy Council and ordered the Irvings to pay costs.

In November last year, the appeal court refused an application by the Irvings to revisit previous judgments.

Now the judicial committee of the Privy Council has ruled that permission to appeal should be refused because there are ‘no arguable grounds’ for challenge.

The move will pave the way for the various government parties that the Irvings unsuccessfully sued to recover their costs.

But Mr Irving told the Examiner: ‘This further travesty can only be described as a consequence of ‘postcode justice’.

‘I proved in 2010 to an independent tribunal it was the government’s wrongdoing that caused the downfall of my companies and yet nearly six years later we are still yet to obtain a remedy. The Privy Council has in effect let the government off the hook.’

Street Heritage was wound up in February 2010 over unpaid taxes totalling more than £182,000.

Deemster David Doyle told the High Court he had no hesitation in granting a winding up order after hearing the company was unable to pay its debts. The Irvings insist they had funds available to clear the tax in full but their advocate did not attend the hearing, which lasted just 15 minutes.

They are currently suing Street Heritage’s former lawyer Jerry Carter for several millions of pounds for alleged negligence, breach of contract and personal losses. Those claims are denied. The Irvings are also vigorously defending directors’ disqualification proceedings.

Suspended Attorney General Stephen Harding faces 14 allegations of misconduct in relation to his role as government advocate at the 2010 winding up hearing.

In this special joint report ROBERT KINRADE, director, Expol and PETER CANNELL,

associate advocate and chartered secretary of QuinnLegal spotlight a ‘new era’ for island folk

A new era in how we ‘do’ government is about to dawn in the Isle of Man. On February 1, 2016, the people of the Isle of Man, will be able to start making requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

Like our nearest neighbours, Ireland and the UK, we now have a Freedom of Information Act and an Information Commissioner.

Neither of our neighbours’ acts, however, set out the principles upon which their acts are based.

Ours does.

This principal is that island residents will be able to access information held by public authorities and with the aim of promoting public interest in the governance of the Isle of Man.

As with all these things there has to be a balance. Access must be balanced with the need to maintain the right to privacy, to ensure effective government and that the value for the taxpayer in complying with the requests.

In practice, public authorities are being encouraged to be more open and transparent in what they do.

They will need to be in a position to respond to any freedom of information requests efficiently so as not to interfere in delivery of services. They also need to ensure that the costs of obtaining the information requested is balanced against the public benefit of the request.

The government will be setting limits on the costs that can be incurred in responding to freedom of information requests.

One of the key parts of the new Act will be the publication scheme that each public authority can choose to adopt. This scheme will be individual to each public authority and will set out what they the intend to publish, how often they will publish it, in what form and what type of access the public will have to it.

A good scheme, well implemented, should increase public awareness of what the authority is doing for the public and, hopefully, reduce the number of requests received. All public authorities, in preparing a publication scheme and responding to a freedom of information request, will also be guided by a code of practice issued by the council of ministers.

A request made for information of a personal nature is treated as a request under the Data Protection Act as such requests are not freedom of information requests.

Any public authority receiving a freedom of information request will have to check that the application is from a Manx resident, it is clear on the face of it what is being requested, it is in the correct form and the appropriate fees for collating the information has been received. There will then be a check to make sure it does not fall under one of the exemptions set out in the Act.

There can be many reasons a freedom of information request will be rejected such as where the information requested is already in the public domain or has already been provided to the enquirer as a result of an earlier request.

Also, the public authority does not have to analyse the information for you. If the information sought requires the data held to be analysed, you will be given the data and left to analyse it yourself. Where a freedom of information request is, to quote the Act, “vexatious, malicious, frivolous, misconceived or lacking in substance”, it will be rejected.

Information relating to matters such as commercial sensitive negotiations, legal proceedings, national security and the like will need to be exempt and the Act divides what needs to be exempt in two classes of information; absolutely exempt information and qualified exempt information. An example of absolutely exempt information would be records of a personal nature, such as health records. An example of qualified exempt information would be ongoing investigations and legal proceedings.

Once a request has been considered, the public authority will either point the enquirer to the already published information, provide the information, or reject the request, giving their reasons as to why it has been rejected. If the person making the request does not like the answer, then a complaint may be lodged with the Information Commissioner, who will decide what action is necessary either to get the public authority to provide the information or to check whether the rejections was valid. Any decision can be appealed to the High Court.

By developing a culture of openness, it is hoped the public will engage more as partners in the governance of this our Island. The publication and sharing of information has never been easier. The Act provides an opportunity for public authorities to review what information they actually need to do their job and, more importantly, need to publish to show how they have been performing.

QuinnLegal will be joining up with Expol Ltd, a local company of specialist training providers, to deliver presentations on this subject.

The latter have already been contacted by an existing client to provide the training in early 2016 and sessions are booked in.

Rob Kinrade, director of Expol said: ‘We are delighted that such a high profile client has come to us again to provide these workshops. We always try and bring experts into our training pool and its excellent that we can call on QuinnLegal to deliver these presentations on the new legislation.

‘It’s not the first time we have worked with QuinnLegal in the delivery of law based training.

‘It’s a partnership which suits all.

‘We feel that the new Freedom of Information Act will generate much interest.

‘While commencing with quite limited restrictions as to who it applies, it will gradually gather pace and become relevant across the board of Government departments and public authorities. Undoubtedly it will generate much interest with researchers, journalists, investigators and the general public seeking to establish hitherto seemingly unobtainable information.

‘Our 2016 training diary is steadily filling up with Freedom of Information presentations in the early New Year months’.

Should anybody have any queries concerning workshops Mr Kinrade can be contacted on 611190 or by email rkinrade@expol.co.uk

Scores of people dressed as Santa and dashed through the streets of Douglas today in a charity fundraiser.

The sprint through the streets of Douglas started from the Isle of Man Bank’s Athol Street premises.

The bank organises, the event, which has now happened for 15 years in a row.

A total of 189 Santas dashed down Prospect Hill, Victoria Street, along Loch Promenade, up Church Road and along Finch Road to a finish at the South Douglas Old Friends’ Association.

First men: Jamie Newton, Stuart Christian, Gordon Crowe. First women: Sara Ismail-Sutton, Gail Griffiths, Dee McLoughlin.

Best dressed man Luke Eastaff.

Best dressed woman Addriannah Cameron.

Best dressed team Santa in sleigh with his reindeer.

See photographs and coverage in tomorrow’s Manx Independent.

The Burma Star Association has held its final meeting and lunch.

The association will disband in January but it is hoped informal gatherings will be held in the future.

The dinner, which took place at Douglas Golf Club in Pulrose, was attended by association president Dr Gourashyam Singh Khuraijam and the association’s patron, Sir Laurence New. Pictured, back, from left, are Sir Laurence New, George Hillesley, Norman Moore, Gordon Allen, Dr Gourashyam Singh Khuraijam and association treasurer and secretary Sheila Healey. Front, from left, Michael Linck, Edwin Cubbon, John Cooper and James Fenton.

Manx Telecom has won a prestigious award for its staff share scheme.

The communications company won the ‘Best New Share Plan’ category at the ifs ProShare Annual Awards which were announced at a gala dinner in London.

Manx Telecom became a plc in February 2014 following a successful flotation on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.

The directors were keen for everyone in the business to have a stake in its future development and growth, so shortly after the flotation all of its employees were given 500 free shares, and a Sharesave Scheme was established through YBS Share Plans.

Manx Telecom was alongside some major corporations who also won ifs ProShare Awards this year, including Aviva, BT Group plc, Asda, Royal Dutch Shell, Prudential plc, Barratt Developments and UBS.

Now in their 23rd year, the awards recognise and reward innovation and achievement in the field of employee share plans. It also highlights best practice and innovation in the design, communication and delivery of employee share plans and other share ownership arrangements across a variety of companies, large and small, new and established.

John McChesney, Manx Telecom human resources director, said: ‘We’re very proud to win this award which represents an independent endorsement of the success of our share scheme.

‘We have approximately 300 employees with an average length of service of 13 years, and as a growing business with ambitions to develop and progress further it is essential that we continue to attract and retain the highest possible calibre of employees.

‘The share scheme is part of a much wider initiative to develop and enhance our reputation as an employer of choice. It has proved to be extremely popular and just over 80 per cent of eligible colleagues have joined.’

The awards dinner in Central London and hosted by comedian, presenter and writer, Mark Dolan. All award winners were chosen by a judging panel chaired by Robin Kerner, assistant secretary-Share Schemes at National Grid.

Earlier this year Manx Telecom won the Best Telecommunications plc in the UK prize at the Stock Market Awards, and the company’s launch of the island’s first 4G network earned it the ‘Riva Financial Systems Award for Excellence in the Use of Technology’ at the Isle of Man Newspapers Awards for Excellence.

Businesses in Castletown are urging the public to support them at what is a uniquely challenging time.

Town retailers were already suffering because of the disruption associated with the Callow’s Yard development and the impact of the recession. But the regeneration of the square – which involved its closure and began in the summer – has brought the town ‘to its knees’, they said.

Tim Brogan opened Shake Lounge in August. He said business was ‘all right initially, then it went really quiet.’ He added: ‘There is no where to par. There is no [signage] in the square to help local businesses.

‘All local businesses think the same. They think Castletown needs regeneration, but if people do not support what’s here, every where will be gone.’

‘A lot of people live in Castletown – if they are not going to support it, there’s going to be nothing left by the time the regeneration work is finished.’

Nic Crouchman, from sweet shop Memory Lane, said the timing of the work has dealt an extra severe blow.

He said: ‘You would cry if you saw my figures – I’m 52 per cent down in November compared to last year, 35 to 42 per cent down in the summer months. It’s absolutely disastrous. The place is on its knees, there’s nothing to attract people.

‘There is no compensation. The commissioners tell us we will more than benefit from tens of thousands of people being brought in to town after the work is done. I cannot see us making our money back. Digging up the town in the summer was a massive, massive mistake.’

He added the local authority could help more, for example, the Christmas lights switch-on event was cancelled rather than postponed.

Laura Small, manager of Courtyard Cafe in Arbory Street, said: ‘We opened [as Taylor’s] in the summer, and we noticed a massive drop as soon as they started work. We are not taking enough to support the cafe.’

She is concerned about the impact after the scheme is finished. ‘It will cut down parking in the square by half. When they open Costa near the harbour, that will take away people from the square.’

Mr Ronan said it will be worth it, and that there would be a net gain in parking.

He said: ‘Costa will attract people to town and its location makes the most of a key asset - the harbour.

What do you think? Email opinions@newsiom.co.im

Staff and pupils at a Douglas secondary school joined together to remember a popular member of staff who died tragically almost a year ago.

PE teacher Rob Campbell had worked at St Ninian’s High School since 2007 and had wanted to improve the school’s health and fitness facilities during his time working there.

Unfortunately he died at the age of 31 without realising the goal, after being struck by a coach early on December 20 last year on Richmond Hill.

Since his death, Mr Campbell, who has been described as a ‘popular teacher and a bloved friend and family member’ has been the inspiration behind a fundraising drive to help fulfil his wish.

Over the past year Mr Campbell’s friends and family have raised £9,335 to pay for upgraded gymnasium facilities at the school.

On Friday, as the one year anniversary of his death approaches, the newly refurbished facility was officially named the Rob Campbell Fitness and Education Centre in his memory.

Head of PE Sue Richardson said: ‘I am so proud that the Rob Campbell Fitness and Education Centre will forever be a part of the school.

‘The impact he had during his time at St Ninian’s will never be forgotten.’

A staff and pupil Rob Campbell memorial Santa Dash is to become an annual school event and there will be a memorial football/rugby match.

An education champion has stars in his eyes – with ambitious plans to tackle the issue of student debt by staging a TV talent show.

But the idea may not even get through to the first round as education chiefs have refused to endorse it.

The Bright Stars Talent Series is the idea of Dr Sosthène Boussougou, of Kirk Michael, who claims he has set up a new participative student funding scheme in collaboration with Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and the Department of Economic Development’s small business start-up scheme.

But the DED says he has not received any funding and the John Moores University has expressed concerns at its viability.

In his draft business plan, Mr Boussougou explains the scheme aims to help students pay their tuition fees and other education-related costs ‘without subjecting themselves to immense debts’.

‘We provide support in response to their financial needs, lending them a helping hand to achieve their goals and dreams,’ he states.

The Bright Stars Talent Series is designed to give students a platform to ‘showcase their skills and genius’ and offer prize money to contribute towards their tuition fees – and ‘help them realise their potential, despite their financial constraints, social background or the soaring cost of education’.

Under Mr Boussougou’s plan, a curriculum-based competition will be held in an educational institution during one half term. Prize money of £100 will be given to the winner. Parents will be asked to contribute £1 or more for the next event. Sponsorship will also be invited.

The aim then is to produce a TV show that would ‘engage the nation during five weeks’.

But LJMU ‘enterprise champion’ Debbie Elliott-Brown has told him that he has ‘significantly underestimated the cost of producing this as a TV show’.

And Ronald Barr, chief executive of the Department of Education and Children, said: ‘My initial observation is that we would not support any direct selling into our schools and I note with interest the comments by LJMU which indicate a number of issues with this proposal such as underestimation of cost, audience, sequence and timescales.

‘With such questions unanswered this is not something DEC would endorse at this time. Such a programme in my view would have to be much more closely scrutinised if some version of this were ever to be considered viable to be promoted here on the island.’

When the Examiner told Mr Boussougou we would be contacting the DEC about his project, he emailed back to say he didn’t think that was necessary as they ‘will not understand the concept’ behind this new scheme, as this was the first time such a project has ‘ever been conceived, anywhere in the world’.

A DED spokesman said: ‘Mr Boussougou had been through the small business start up scheme twice. The first time was around five years ago to teach English and he received a grant and living allowance.

‘More recently in March and April 2015 he attended SBSUS training for his talent show/creative business idea and had three action planning meetings. However, this didn’t progress to contract signing and mentoring, grant or allowance as he decided to pursue a teacher training course at LJMU instead. Therefore he is not a current client nor has he had funding for this idea from the DED.’

Mr Boussougou said: ‘I will have to write a letter of complaint to the authorities concerned for preventing us from working on the island.’

The latest job figures for the Isle of Man show that region by region, the north of the island has the highest rate of umemployment.

Those people out of work and actively seeking employment in the north stood at 2.6 per cent, or 171 people in November.

Chief Minster Allan Bell, a Ramsey MHK, said as yet the figures had not been fully analysed so no definitive answers could be provided but he added the Charterhouse Group now employed fewer people than at its peak.

‘At one time they employed 340 people,’ he said.

‘Those jobs have gone and have not really been replaced as yet.

‘They also offered flexible working hours which was a great bonus to people with child care commitments. Driving into Douglas for work may not be a viable option for some of those people.’

At less than one per cent, the west of the island has the lowest rate of unemployment, while Douglas and other towns in the east from Laxey to Santon have the second highest at 1.8 per cent.

But Mr Bell said the statistical samples were small and prone to being swayed one way or the other by relatively minor fluctuations.

Overall the jobless figure for November shows an increase of 12 compared with last month but Mr Bell said it is still the lowest November figure for four years, showing 78 fewer people than in November 2014.

‘The figures are positive,’ Mr Bell said.

‘A small increase is normal at this time of year.’

He said there were 400 job vacancies in November and some areas, like ICT, were still experiencing skills shortages.

A vehicle was forced off the road this morning.

The incident happened at about 7am on the Sloc Road, Rushen.

A vehicle travelling towards Port Erin has been forced off the road and into a ditch by an oncoming vehicle travelling in the middle of the road.

The weather at that time was very foggy and visibility was exceptionally poor.

A police spokesman said: ‘Unfortunately, the aggrieved vehicle has had extensive damage caused to it and required recovery from the ditch.

‘The oncoming vehicle was described as a large 4x4 and appeared to be unaware of what had happened to the other vehicle.

‘Police would like to trace the driver of the other vehicle to obtain details.

‘If anyone has any information they are requested to contact Constable Rebekah Collings at Lord Street police station on 631212.’