The appeal by Peel Commissioners to stop Heritage Homes building 144 new houses in the town has failed.

The project to build the houses at Reayrt ny Cronk on the Poortown Road will now go ahead after the commissioners’ appeal was dismissed by independent planning inspector Alan Langton, a decision accepted by Department of Infrastructure Minister Phil Gawne.

A letter sent to all interested parties said: ‘The minister has considered the report, concurs with the appointed person’s conclusions, and accepts the recommendation that the appeal should be dismissed.

‘Accordingly he has directed that the planning committee’s approval of the application should be confirmed.’

Chairman of the commissioners, Ray Harmer, described the decision as ‘deeply disappointing’.

The board is expected to discuss the issue at their next meeting, this evening.

Read today’s Isle of Man Examiner for the full story - in shops now.

The government has announced the next dates for the Big Debate.

The two events in December will be open to all.

The previous four were open only to people invited from the electoral roll.

Dates and venues:

Tuesday, December 2: Manx Museum lecture theatre, Douglas

Thursday, December 4: Queen Elizabeth II High School assembly hall, Peel

The presentation aims to engage the public in discussion about:

Reducing the size and cost of government and increase efficiency;

Modernising the welfare system;

Making government more responsive to the needs of the community, families and individuals.

{http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/108-turn-up-to-vote-on-big-debate-issues-1-6936889|Click here to read our report on the last Big Debate}

The Isle of Man International Development Committee has pledged £100,000 in support of the UK Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal to address the ebola outbreak in west Africa, which has caused misery to thousands of families in the region.

The countries which are worst affected by this outbreak are Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

More than 5,000 people have now died and more than 13,000 have been infected by the ebola virus.

The current epidemic is the largest and most complex outbreak since the virus was discovered nearly 40 years ago.

The World Health Organisation recently declared the outbreak as a health and humanitarian crisis with global implications.

In its 50 year history, this is the first time that the DEC has mounted an appeal in response to a disease outbreak.

Minister Phil Gawne MHK, chair of the International Development Committee, said: ‘This significant contribution will help the DEC to provide practical support and vital public health information to millions of vulnerable people in West Africa in the fight to stop the spread of the disease.

‘I would urge the public to consider donating to the DEC ebola crisis appeal through the street collections this weekend across the island.’

Saleh Saeed OBE, Disasters Emergency Committee’s chief executive, said: ‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Isle of Man’s International Development Committee for their incredibly generous donation to the ebola crisis appeal, which will play an important role in combatting the spread of the virus.

‘Our member agencies and partners are working urgently in the affected regions to help stop the spread of the disease and provide support to those affected. We have been overwhelmed by the compassion shown by people since launching this unprecedented crisis appeal.’

Earlier this month, we reported on an island doctor who was working on the ebola front line. {http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/health/isle-of-man-doctor-on-ebola-frontline-1-6937668|Click here to read the story.}

The island has forged close links with Sierra Leone. Click {http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/phil-gawne-tells-conference-in-kenya-about-how-the-isle-of-man-has-helped-sierra-leone-1-6247878|here} to read one of our reports about that.

A meeting billed an alternative to the government’s ‘Big Debate’ meetings attracted 50 people on Friday.

The 2020 meeting, at Onchan Parish Hall in Royal Avenue, was addressed by Onchan MHK Peter Karran (Liberal Vannin), Douglas West MHK Chris Thomas and Onchan commissioner Rob Callister.

It was chaired by the Captain of the Parish Peter Kelly.

It looked at means testing, an issue that’s currently big in the news because of government plans to introduce more of it as the squeeze on public finances tightens. A government plan to introduce means testing for council and commissioners’ housing next year was recently scuppered when the government learned it did not have the power to introduce it.

An Examiner reader contacted us to point out that apart from Rob Callister, none of the other Onchan commissioners turned up, yet a commissioner from Patrick and one from Braddan attended. Onchan MHKs David Quirk and Zac Hall also didn’t go.

Another attraction in the village, the Manx Arms’ mhelliah, might have dented the attendance figures, he suggested.

The Isle of Man Pool Players Association’s FA Cup of Pool will take place at its new home in the Rosemount pub this weekend.

The third staging of this popular handicapped event starts on Saturday and is open to all players.

Contact Pete Crellin by emailing pete.crellin@manx.net for more information

The AGM of the IoMPPA will be held at 6pm on Sunday, November 30 at the Rosemount. All are welcome.

The final event of the year will be the 2014 Island Pool Championships. This will be held over the weekend of December 12, 13 and 14.

The Manx Natural Healing Centre will hold a ‘dream therapy’ workshop on Saturday (November 22) .

The afternoon will cover learning about dreams which can provide guidance for healing and self development, dream recall techniques and analysis.

To ensure a place and CD to accompany the course call Chris on 393735. Workshop costs £15 and starts at 2pm.

It will take place at Centre 21, Greenfield Road, Douglas.

This week marks the launch of a new digital edition of the Isle of Man Examiner.

It’s a complete replica of the newspaper, with the same news, features and comment you expect, available for the first time in an easy to read format online through your computer, tablet or smartphone.

You just click to turn the pages online and read it as you would normally.

If you’re already a subscriber to the printed edition, you get the digital edition free of charge. You will shortly receive a letter with details your personal login details so you need never miss a copy of the paper again as you can read it wherever you can access the internet.

Find out how to subscribe and view a sample of the online edition by visiting our subscriptions page.

Call Emma Mann on 695648 for more information.

Italian lawyer Quirino Mancini of SCM Lawyers told the eGaming Summit in the Isle of Man that people in the gaming industry are ‘good guys’ but the media did not always see it like that.

Drawing upon a series of examples from his home jurisdiction Italy, which harbours a notoriously complex relationship with eGaming, Mr Mancini tackled the perennial problem of the controversial image of gaming in the face of media and public opinion.

He said the media in his home country often concentrated on gambling addiction but not other addictions such as smoking and binge drinking.

The first support day for bereaved parents in the Isle of Man takes place at St John’s Mill on Saturday.

The event is being run by Maddie Porter of Care for the Family, a national charity which is also the organiser, and she will be helped out by bereaved parent support co-ordinators Mike and Kath Coulson.

Mrs Porter said: ‘The death of a son or daughter is perhaps every parent’s worst fear. Sadly for around 25.000 parents in the UK every year that fear becomes reality and when your child dies you can feel very alone.’

The aim of the charity is to strengthen family life and help those facing family difficulties and the support team, who have all lost a son or daughter, will be on hand to talk to people.

Mr and Mrs Coulson will also share their own experience of bereavement and suggest strategies to find hope and a way forward.

‘The main aims for the event are to help parents develop resilience, rebuild their lives and discover a new “normal” for themselves and their family,’ Mrs Porter said.

She said the event was open to any parent, at any stage in the grieving process, whose son or daughter has died at any age, in any circumstance.

Tickets cost £20 and include lunch and refreshments. To book call 029 2081 800 or visit www.careforthefamily.org.uk/bpsday

eGaming chief Peter Greenhill has spoken of ‘dramatic changes’ ahead which will test the island’s ability to grow the industry.

‘To use a famous quote: ‘‘The old order changeth”, Mr Greenhill told delegates at the fifth KPMG eGaming summit.

‘Things are changing, they are changing dramatically and a lot of those changes are outside our control.

‘A number of licensees around the world will fall by the wayside.

‘Their business models will not be as strong as they were before and they will have to fall away.

‘That’s just the way things are.

‘New business plans are being brought forward now.’

And he asked the audience at the Villa Marina, Douglas: ‘As we move into a more mature market now are there suffiencient new ideas out there?

‘We need new ideas .’

He predicted: ‘We will lose licensees over the years to come, absolutely definitely.’

Mr Greenhill, chief executive officer, eGaming Development at the Department of Economic Develoment told the audience which included visitors from Italy, Germany and the USA: ‘We need to adjust, adapt and attract new people to the IoM.

‘We need to develop the public/private partnership. Working together is the only way forward.’

He spoke of mergers and acquisitions increasing.

He predicted major moves and acquisitions taking place in the UK as well.

Mr Greenhill said that looking to the future there wasn’t a single USP for the IoM. He said that when the decisions to relocate are made, they are made holistically.

Steve Brennan, chief executive of the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission said: ‘We are trying to be as helpful and supportive of our sector as possible.’

He reveale d that there are currently 56 licence holders. This is the same number as in November last year.

Twelve new licences had been issued this year and these had replaced operations that had moved out of the island over the last 12 months.

‘We’ve had some casualties along the way’ said Mr Brennan.

Both Mr Brennan and Mr Greenhill spoke of promising hopes in the ‘pipeline’ for the future.

Mr Greenhill said he was heartedned at seeing people in the audience he had met at foreign conferences which played an important part in boosting business.

eGaming now accounts for 13 per cent of the island’s economy.

Backbench MHK John Houghton’s antics in the House of Keys have been branded ‘outrageous’ by the Chief Minister.

Mr Houghton was ordered to leave the Keys last week after refusing to apologise for questioning the honesty of the Treasury Minister.

Chief Minister Allan Bell said: ‘It seems the election is already well under way – it’s started a year or two early in North Douglas!’

Mr Houghton’s departure from the House followed an exchange over Treasury Minister’s Eddie Teare’s visit to Berlin last month to sign a global tax information exchange deal.

The backbencher suggested it was a ‘huge black cloud which is about to pour down on us’ and then called on Mr Teare ‘to be honest with the House for the first time this morning’.

This prompted Speaker Steve Rodan to demand he apologise. When he refused, he was instructed to leave the sitting.

But Mr Bell said he believed this was nothing to do with the global tax deal. He said: ‘It was outrageous. This has nothing whatsoever to do with FATCA and everything to do with the Debt Recovery Bill he is trying to promote.

‘It’s worth reflecting that Mr Houghton has supported the government’s negotiations in relation to FATCA and never once spoken against it.

‘He talks of the island losing millions of pounds of business and of a dark cloud hanging over us. Nothing could be further from the truth. If the Isle of Man had not taken the lead we would have been in a very difficult position and at some point could have been blacklisted.’

The historic agreement signed in Berlin places the Isle of Man among the first group of countries in the world to move to a new global standard for tax information exchange. It is based on the FATCA model of automatic exchange agreed with the US and the UK.

Earlier in last week’s Keys sitting Mr Houghton had criticised the Treasury over delays in implementing the Debt Recovery and Enforcement Act, which started out as his private member’s bill.

Mr Teare said the original legislation was ‘defective’ and there were data protection issues over the listing of outstanding executions for debt.

One of the hightlights of the Manx calendar will take place on Thursday night when the Isle of Man Newspapers Awards for Excellence evening takes place.

Forty-eight finalists have been selected in 16 categories in awards in a wide variety of categories from the public and private sectors and charities.

The judges have had a difficult task picking winners.

The winners will be announced at a glitzy event in the Villa Marina in Douglas hosted by Dead Ringers impressionist Jon Culshaw.

More than 1,000 people will be in the audience for the show, which is a patriotic celebration of our island nation.

This year it will feature a tribute to the island’s armed forces and those from the Isle of Man who made the ultimate sacrifice in the world wars.

Before the event, 450 people will have a meal. Three different venues will be used.

The Sefton Group will cater at the Sefton Hotel and in the Royal Hall in the Villa Marina, while some guests will eat at the Claremont on Loch Promenade.

In addition, 400 people will have canapes and champagne before the event begins.

Towards the end of the evening, the guests will find out who has been given the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ in a surprise tribute.

The event will be streamed live here on iomtoday.co.im

TT organisers are requesting expressions of interest from organisations that may want to run the TT races from 2015.

The current contract to run the races is with ACU Events Ltd, which comes under the umbrella of the ACU controlling body for motorcycle events, but this expired earlier this year.

The Department of Economic Development, which is the current holder of rights relating to promoting and running the TT races, has advertised inviting applications from parties who may be interested in running the races in 2015 and 2016 with a possible extension up to and including 2019.

As well as running the actual races, the successful party would also be responsible for any parade laps on the course which form part of the programme and they would also oversee technical matters such as ensuring riders meet the entry criteria and operating the IT system for entries, race timing and race control.

Other duties include providing suitably qualified race officials, including a clerk of the course, currently Gary Thompson, and working with personnel like scrutineers, marshals and others.

Duties also involve liaising with contractors setting up the course, ensuring road closures are in place, ensuring the course is fit for purpose and ensuring medical cover including rescue helicopters are all organised.

A government spokesman said the contract was due for renewal and it therefore was offered out to tender to comply with standard financial regulations. The first stage of this was for parties to make inquiries and express an interest and if enough suitably qualified parties did this, a tendering process would follow.

Current organiser ACU Events Ltd has run the races since 2008 and is the commercial arm and a subsidiary of the ACU. In addition to running the TT races, it also runs the ACU British Motocross Championships and runs its own motocross track at Milton Malsor near Northampton. The company was set up in 2006 and has five directors, all from the ACU. Its initial contract to run the TT was for three years but this was extended by a further two years then one more year.

A government statement confirmed ACU Events Ltd would be submitting a tender for the new contract and has already submitted its expression of interest in the event.

Before ACU Events was in charge of the TT, the races were organised and run by the Manx Motor Cycle Club but this contract came to an end after the centenary TT races in 2007, after which ACU Events Ltd took over.

As well as the duties already mentioned, any body taking over the running of the races would also be responsible for a large budget for which audited accounts have to be produced. They would also need to ensure best practice was complied with in terms of risk management as well as accommodating any requests by the Department of Economic Development for promotional or commercial entertainment opportunities.

The three-D film Closer to the Edge, which was released in 2010, the year of Ian Hutchinson’s historic five wins in a week, coupled with day-by-day coverage on ITV4has seen a huge growth in popularity for the TT in recent years, spurring the Steam Packet to create extra space in the Manannan fast craft with an extra mezzanine deck to accommodate more motorcycles travelling next year.

Pre-fabricated sections for the new Isle of Man police custody block have arrived in the island and are in the process of being hauled into position for assembly.

The sectional building was brought over by boat from Wales and stored on the car park at the back of the Grandstand before being slotted into place behind the police headquarters off Glencrutchery Road.

The new block, which is costing £2.795 million, and consists of 30 separate sections, is expected to be finished by March next year. It will offer more up-to-date accommodation to comply with latest Home Office guidelines, which the old block, in operation since the 1970s, did not.

Bruce Norton Turkeys v Elder Health Care Phillies

Phillies didn’t have it all their own way as they encountered a Turkeys side missing some key players on Thursday at the National Sports Centre.

Both sides traded baskets in a slow first quarter, which Phillies edged 16-10. Revi Del Rosario hit some lovely long range three-pointers to extend the lead and give the bench something to cheer about.

This enthusiasm caused Turkeys to play some poor passes as they forced the ball into the key and were unable to take the points.

Phillies dominated as the score increased with half-time fast approaching, to take a comfortable 42-26 lead into the break. But they didn’t start the second half with the same momentum, although they did enough to stop Turkeys scoring for the first six minutes. By the end of the third quarter they had only managed a handful of baskets, leading 60-32.

Paul Ellison and Dave Boyle pulled their team through the match but Turkeys couldn’t stem the flow as Phillies piled on the offensive pressure with fast breaks from Marc Dato inviting the defensive fouls and converting.

A determined Turkeys side fought to the end. On a different week and with a full squad the score would have been a lot closer.

Phillies took the win 86-41, with Del Rosario collecting player of the match.

Buchannan and Pitts Slammers v Fellas

Sarah Gribben opened the Slammers account early on but the lead was shortlived as Fellas replied within minutes. The game was played at great pace with neither side able to make an impression on the score. At quarter-time Slammers had a marginal 10-7 lead.

Fellas crept closer with some pressing defence led by Sarah Kerford, but couldn’t find the golden basket to take them ahead and were trailing for most of the game.

Slammers settled and stopped the Fellas press, taking the half 17-14 with it all to play for.

Slammers Tracey Dentith and Emma Callow orchestrated the offence, working the ball well to create open shots which Nicola Walkingshaw took at first opportunity, but it wasn’t enough to put clear daylight between the teams.

As with every match, Fellas Jessie and Amber Carridge worked tirelessly at both ends and, with baskets from Fiona Guest, the latter side took the lead by one point.

Both teams desperately wanted the win and as quickly as Fellas were ahead, they lost it as Slammers scored two unanswered baskets.

The second half continued in the same vein as the evenly-matched teams slogged it out and the fourth quarter showed why Slammers are reigning champions, keeping their cool and stepping up their game with some lovely outside shooting to build up a nine-point lead; the biggest of the game.

Fellas continued to play some great fast break offence as they battled back in the last two minutes, narrowing the margin.

A great women’s game played in good spirits saw Slammers take the win 40-33. Player of the match - Tracey Dentith (Slammers).

Paragon Legends v

Skanco Saints

Saints decided to take charge of this match as they stepped on court against Legends who were slow off the mark. Both sides traded baskets and there was nothing between them in the opening quarter with Legends taking a narrow 12-11 lead. Legends Wendy Owens grabbed the bull by the horns and took charge of the scoring, converting some great baskets and totalling 30 points.

Assisted by Mel Gribben and Lesley Murray, Legends notched up the points and in defence switched to man-to-man, limiting the Saints scoring opportunities. At half-time Legends were ahead 29-11.

The third quarter saw a repeat of the opening one with Saints going on a scoring spree. Leanne Costa led the way, assisted by Sport Aid recipient Gemma Kirkham.

Jade Lambert worked the ball well at the top of the key for Saints, scoring some vital baskets to reward her efforts, but a long three-point shot from Legends’ Sarah Corkish finished off the quarter.

Saints tired in the final quarter as an experienced Legends squad saw out the remaining minutes, taking the win 56-28. Player of the match, Leanne Costa (Saints).

Celton Warriors v

IoM College

On court one, the newly-formed Isle of Man College team took on the seasoned Celton Warriors. With the recently signed Mel Valencia, the college team were certainly fired up, but right from the tip-off Warriors took control with some solid offensive moves from Harry Brindle.

After the initial onslaught College managed to slow things down with some excellent individual scoring from Mel Valencia. At half-time Warriors had a decent lead to carry them through 56-23.

The start of the third quarter saw a fightback from IoM College led by Christian Lima, who seemed to be causing all kinds of problems for the Warriors defence. The experience of Chris Wolfendale saw a change in tactics to steady the ship and Warriors managed to secure their rebounds. Phil Valencia ran some nice lanes to score some uncontested lay-ups.

Warriors scored a season high of 102 points with IoM College shy of scoring half points on 49. Top scorers were Chris Wolfendale 26, Chris Kennish 23 and Harry Brindle 20 for Celton, plus Mel Valencia 14, Christian Lima nine for IoM College. Player of the match - Phil Valencia (Warriors).

Giants v Microgaming Cavaliers

Giants by name and giant in terms of their squad size as they took on champions Cavaliers, who were missing one or two players. In preparation for the match Giants must have been practising their three-point shots as they failed to miss in the opening minutes, taking Cavs by surprise.

Cavs congratulated their opponents on some fine shooting before getting down to business with Sean Doyle taking the reins. Tom Dalton-Brown had a strong game, controlling the Cavs offence, creating some lovely moves to the basket to score himself. Corey Vaughan, Mar Dato and Jakob Glover helped themselves to some great baskets as Giants continued to stun Cavs defence, and with their large squad were able to use their subs to great effect.

As the whistle blew for half-time, Cavs were up 45-27 with Giants remaining upbeat believing in their talent to keep up with the champions and in the game.

The second half was all Cavs who shared the points equally, with Paul Killic adding some three-point shots.

Long passes down the court and the odd slam-dunk from Doyle saw Cavs extend their lead, leaving nothing to chance as the game drew to a close. Giants squad had a great game and will be a force to be reckoned with in years to come, with Jakob Glover taking player of the match honours. Cavs sealed the victory 82-48.

Rams v PokerStars

With the final clash of the evening between two league table neighbours from the previous season, this was widely anticipated to be a closely fought and well-coached affair, and that proved to be the case from the opening tip.

While the back court duo of Shawn McCurry and Dylan Coady appeared to be leading the attack for PokerStars early on, it was the size of inside duo Norbert Bojte and Pasquale Egisto who were causing Rams the most problems.

Some tricky ball handling and long-range shooting from the Rams guards kept them in the game, with Jim Manuel proving particularly difficult to contain, and neither side was able to establish a substantial lead throughout the first three quarters.

The game was decided in the fourth quarter and as the PokerStars players began to foul out so Rams started to extend their lead and what the league table will record as a reasonably comfortable victory for Rams hides the fact that PokerStars could have ended the night victorious if they’d had a full complement of players on court when the final buzzer sounded. Rams took the win 55-46; player of the match JP Banaag (Rams).

Isle of Man Swimming Club claimed an impressive win at the second round of the National Swimming League took place in Horwich, Bolton on Saturday last week.

A total of 40 swimmers and a band of supporters made the 48-hour round trip via Birkenhead worthwhile with a convincing 50-point victory.

After the first five races saw the AXA Wealth International-sponsored squad were one point behind City of Chester SC meaning this would be first time in the two seasons that the Manx had not dominated the league competition from start to finish.

A rallying cry for the team’s senior athletes was matched by the fantastic noise levels from the travelling supporters in the stands and after an initial shock the team went on to win the next five races in convincing fashion.

The performances from the ‘usual suspects’, those swimmers experienced in national level competition, was matched this round by the island’s new breed of swimmers.

Standout performances came from 11-year-old Abbie Callow who won the girls’ 11 and under 50m freestyle by more than a bodylength while Jacob Callow took the honours in the boys’ equivalent.

The relays saw some getting their first taste of national league swimming with nine-year-old Magnus Kelly showing his potential by holding off challenges from competitors two years his senior.

Also, 11-year-old disability star Ben Grainger made a big impression swimming huge best times to overhaul able-bodied swimmers of the same age.

The 12-year-old girls team of Emma Hodgson, Kazia Whittaker, Isabella Needham and Tara Mitchell were the only quartet to take maximum points in both individual and relay events.

By the time the match reached its halfway stage IoMSC had amassed a comfortable lead and one last team chant from the seniors got everybody up and determined to put on a show.

This certainly was the case as the Manx went on to take the win by an astounding 50 points, the biggest margin of any match over the three divisions.

The result has put the team into the division final by more than 30 points. This takes place back in Horwich on December 13.

Head coach Lee Holland was delighted with the result, stating; ‘There have been many changes put in place over the last two years to enable this competition to take place.

‘It has not been easy by any stretch but to see the team dominate a match against quality opposition, it proves those changes were worth it.

‘The amount of time and effort put in by our volunteer coaches and workforce needs recognising as much as possible and what better way for the swimmers to give back.

‘Also to our sponsor AXA Wealth International, who have been with us throughout this journey, I hope the performances are providing everyone involved something to be proud of.’

A presentation about drug and alcohol addiction in the Isle of Man is to take place later this week.

Motiv8 Addiction Services, in conjunction with the London-based National Centre for Social Research, has conducted a project funded by the Manx Lottery Trust.

The aim was to better understand experiences of drug and alcohol-related addictive behaviour in the Isle of Man.

The results involve the experiences of affected individuals and their personal, anonymous, testimonies.

According to Motiv8, these findings are designed to ‘give a voice to an often marginalised and stigmatised group’ on what it’s like to live with and also recover from an addiction and will ‘hopefully improve attitudes and interventions in harnessing what they felt helped them recover’.

The event is at the Manx Museum’s lecture theatre in Douglas on Thursday at 2pm and 7pm. All welcome.

The climbdown over parking and bus fare charges does not give a good impression of a government that is supposed to be working together, the Chief Minister admits.

A series of U-turns on controversial new charges were announced last week by Infrastructure Minister Phil Gawne MHK.

The planned 50p fare to be charged on school buses is to be halved to 25p.

Proposals to restrict free bus passes to pensioners, by raising the age of eligibility from 60 to the state pension age, are now to be phased in but in order to pay for this, pensioners will be charged half fare at peak times.

And two-hour disc zone parking on Douglas promenades is to be retained –following an outcry from retailers worried the plan to cut free parking to one hour would hit trade.

Mr Bell said: ‘It’s probably doesn’t give the best impression of government or government thinking – I fully accept that. One of my ambitions is to improve connectivity across government, to encourage an end to silo thinking and get government working more closely together. I’ve only been partially successful in achieving that.

‘But Mr Gawne has an exceptionally difficult job to do with the challenge to find £5m of savings. His department has identified several million pounds of savings so far. Transport issues are one part.

‘Mr Gawne made the announcement. Council of Minister were aware of this and went along with him at the time. Clearly there has been public reaction to some of these proposals and Mr Gawne has taken those comments on board, particularly the concerns of retailers on parking. The government is regularly criticised for not listening.’

Mr Bell added: ‘Communication in government has got to sharpen up.’

The Chief Minister stressed that the charges were the result of the island’s changed financial circumstances in the wake of the VAT bombshell.

‘Things change, We have not got the money we had and we’ve got to cut our cloth accordingly,’ he said.

But Mr Bell said he was hopeful that there would not be many more increases in charges for public services.

He said: ‘I hope we are close to the point where we don’t have to put up charges. There is only so much pressure you can put on the community without it have a contrary effect.

‘We are close to rebalancing the budget and with a fair wind we will rebalance a year early. I hope we won’t have to simply fall back on putting up charges all the time as the cumulative effect will have a detrimental impact on some sections of our community.’

Airport baggage handlers are being balloted on a proposal to cut their pay, reducing the salary budget by about 20 per cent.

An access to government information request made by iomtoday has revealed that one baggage handler earned just under £44,000 last year, including overtime.

Department of Infrastructure chief executive Nick Black said serious consideration was given for the public sector to pull out of providing a baggage handling service altogether, saving £1m a year.

But Infrastructure Minister Phil Gawne MHK felt greater savings could be achieved by negotiating with the unions over revised terms and conditions. He said the move would cut the salary budget in the region of 20 per cent.

The Prospect union, representing half the workforce, confirmed its members have voted to accept the proposals which are based on acceptance of a new shift system that effectively reduces overtime to nil.

A result of the ballot of Unite members is expected early next week.

Mr Gawne said a ‘few’ of the 26 baggage handler posts would be lost under the proposals but the main savings would be made through cuts in pay.

The Minister announced last week that a working group he is chairing was looking at reviewing terms and conditions for all new civil servants and government manual workers in a move that could save more than £1m next year and up to £10m a year after eight years.

In our access to information request, we asked for details of pay and overtime for airport baggage handlers.

Mr Black replied: ‘As at November 1 2014 there were 26 staff employed as baggage handlers. The basic annual salary ranges from £21,090 for apron hand grade 2 to £29,881 for supervisors. Shift, weekend and unsocial hours premia are also payable.

‘The maximum amount earned by a baggage handler was £43,996 gross including an exceptional overtime of £11,891 in 2013/14. Only one other person earned an amount close to this figure. The average overtime payment in the year was £2,145.’

Mr Black confirmed: ‘The department gave serious consideration to ceasing to provide this service. It did not consider privatising the existing operation as private sector companies are already capable of offering this service at Ronaldsway.

‘The department estimated an overall annual saving (not including redundancy costs) of £1m. The Minister is working with trade unions on revised terms and conditions for DoI and other government staff so that savings greater than this can be realised by negotiation.’

In our access to information request we also asked about pay and overtime rates for Bus Vannin supervisors.

Mr Black replied that there are four supervisors employed by Bus Vannin and six supervisors employed for railway supervision but who will also cover bus supervision.

He said: ‘The basic hourly rate is £14.92 per hour. Bus Vannin supervisors work four days over seven on a daily shift 9 hours 15 mins giving 37 hours per week.

‘For the period April 2013 to March 2014 the maximum earned by a Bus Vannin supervisor was £49,497. It should be noted that this reflects exceptional overtime worked during the 2013 industrial action.’

Directors of Manx-registered space exploration company Excalibur Almaz says they will vigorously defend ‘baseless’ claims made against them in a US civil lawsuit.

In a civil suit filed in Harris County district court, Texas, Japanese businessman Takafumi Horie alleges Excalibur Almaz founders Art Dula and J Buckner Hightower misled him into investing $49m in a commercial space transportation venture.

In a statement, Excalibur Almaz said: ‘These allegations are baseless and will be vigorously defended.

‘To set the record straight, Excalibur Almaz is not out of business and is vigorously pursuing a profitable commercial space program utilizing proven Russian flight hardware capable of re-use, contrary to recent allegations.’

Mr Horie’s petition alleges fraud, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. It claims that he learned the investment was a “sham” when he discovered that Mr Dula had sold a Russian spacecraft at auction that allegedly was ‘only suitable for display in a museum, and not as a potential flight vehicle as had been falsely represented to the plaintiff from the beginning.’

This isn’t the first lawsuit filed against Excalibur Almaz. In 2012, Donna Beck sued the company and a number of its directors for allegedly defrauding her and her late husband into investing $300,000 in an asteroid mining scheme. Lawyers for Excalibur said they would mount a ‘rigorous’ defence against the ‘completely unfounded’ claims.

In July, Mr Dula told the Examiner that the company had shelved its space tourism mission. One of the former Soviet space programme re-entry capsules formerly stored at Jurby has subsequently been sold at auction in Belgium.

The company says its mission is to become the world leader in space exploration, experimentation and tourism using flight tested products and systems from the US, European, and Russian space programmes.