The Chief Minister, Tony Brown, opened a meeting in Douglas last week to discuss the Town and Village Regeneration Scheme and in the audience were three members of the Port St Mary Regeneration Committee, eager to understand how they could progress.
Chair of the Port St Mary delegation, Laurence Skelly, explained that Port St Mary had been busy over the past few months:
"We’ve had many interesting ideas and are really close to submitting a couple of projects, including improved signage - one examines Port St Mary’s history and architecture, explaining it to residents and visitors, which brightens up the village and provides useful information.
"But we are also actively looking at other exciting projects."
A consultation exercise called Port St Mary 2020 Vision is planned to invite residents to submit their ideas for what Port St Mary could look like in ten years time.
"Applications can come from any sector of the community, but they need to have community approval," explained Laurence, "so we will be asking everyone to get involved."
Port St Mary already organises the popular Queenie Festival, which this year will take place from 9th - 11th July.
The festival runs from 11am to 5pm on each day and will feature the Manx Wildlife Trust touch tanks, a trawler race, beer tent, Paddy’s Market, seafood, open water swimming championships, scuba diving, snorkeling and boat trips.
Tim Croft from Island Seafare said he was pleased to be running Queenie Festival for second year: "It’s great to see a real buzz in the village and hopefully events like this will assist in the long term regeneration of the village."
In September last year, Port St Mary Commissioners invited local businesses to come forward to collaborate on projects to rejuvenate the village.
Since then, Port St Mary Business Association has been set up and a new village information website is currently being developed.
Chair of the Business Association, Michelle Haywood, explained that the www.portstmary.im web address had been purchased: "We looked at getting a web address of portstmary.com, but someone in America has bought it and wanted ?5000! So we went for the .im domain instead".
The aims of the site are to promote life in the village, act as an information source for visitors and residents to find local businesses and it will include a local diary of events.
"We are trying to make our site one of the best adverts for Port St Mary and would love to hear from anyone who has high quality images of life in the village that they could contribute," Michelle continued.
"Any photos that are used will be credited to the photographer, and we know that there are some great shots to be had."
Any community groups that wish to be included on the website are being asked to supply their details.
"This is jointly funded by Port St Mary Commissioners and the Business Association as a resource for the whole village.
"We recognise the vital part that community groups play in village life and so they will have free listings on the site to help them promote themselves," said Michelle.
One of the key goals of the Business Association is to provide networking opportunities for members, allowing them to build up contacts and provide valuable input to the Port St Mary Regeneration.
A social get together for members and their guests will be held on the evening of 15th April, please contact Michelle Haywood (details below).
If you represent a Port St Mary business that hasn’t yet joined, please contact Donna Sloane on (07624) 451543 for information.
If you have any images that show Port St Mary at its best either now or in the past, please contact Michelle on 300090.
If you are interested in sponsoring the 2010 Queenie Festival, contact Tim on (01624) 834594.
