Ghillean Prance delivers a lecture at the University of Portsmouth during last year's diocesan environmental conference

GREEN-MINDED Isle of Wight Christians will support a new project to reduce the impact a Newport estate has on the environment.

They will do so as part of an environmental conference on the Isle of Wight - entitled ‘Our Earth, Our Destiny’. It will take place between November 28-30, 12 months after a similar conference on the mainland organised by our diocese.

The weekend conference will include an event to promote environmental awareness on the Pan Estate in Newport at 7pm on November 29. The conference will also involve the return of Sir Ghillean Prance, scientific director of the Eden Project in Cornwall and former director of Kew Gardens.

He came to last year’s diocesan environmental conference and impressed churchgoers, campaigners and dignitaries with an informed and challenging lecture at the University of Portsmouth.

He will see green projects along the Medina Valley on the morning of November 29, and give a lecture at 2pm that afternoon at Ventnor Botanic Gardens to members of the Isle of Wight Natural History Society and other guests.

On the previous day he will meet island sixth-formers at Medina High School, then meet professionals, council officials and interest groups concerned with green issues - they will consider the total impact that the Isle of Wight has on the environment.

And the final event of the conference will be a celebration of creation outside St Thomas’s Church in Newport on November 30 at 10.30am.

The conference has been jointly sponsored by the Medina Valley Centre, the Isle of Wight Council, the Environment Agency and Newport Parish Church.