BEMBRIDGE Parish Council has been left facing a huge legal bill following settlement of High Court litigation against the council.

The sale by the council of 5-7 High Street has been mired in controversy ever since the council first proposed to dispose of the Bembridge village asset.

After raising £19,000 towards the £120,000 needed for a viability study, the group campaigning for a fixed link have pledged to continue past their original deadline. Carl Feeney, of Pro-Link, originally set a time limit of January 31 to raise the money, but he has decided to keep going.

In the courts, a Newport man pleaded guilty to making 65 indecent photographs of a child and possessing two prohibited images of a child. Daniel James Pitman, 37, of Winston Road, was caught by police after he downloaded 18 Category A — the most offensive — indecent images of children.

A 'life-changing' crash case was sent to the Isle of Wight Crown Court. In the Calbourne crash last May, a woman suffered life-changing injuries, including ten broken ribs and liver and spleen damage.

Police are appealing for witnesses following yesterday's three vehicle crash along Whippingham Road in which two people suffered serious injuries.

Another mum has spoken of her concern after a rock was thrown at her husband and their one-year-old son. Cydney Wolfe's husband was walking along Carisbrooke Road at about 4pm yesterday (Monday) with their son and their dog when a jagged rock was thrown towards them by a group of young people.

Officers from Newport’s Neighbourhood Policing Team released a catalogue of arrest information following a spike in reports of anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the town over the weekend. At least nine youths were arrested in four days.

Finally, a Ventnor man was described as having had nine lives, before he died after injecting a large quantity of cocaine. The coroner ruled the death as drug related, caused by cocaine intoxication, after he inexplicably launched himself out of the first floor window and behaving strangely in the cul-de-sac.