Medina, Isle of Wight Medina, Isle of Wight Medina was a non-metropolitan district with the status of a borough on the Isle of Wight in England from 1974 to 1995. The district was formed by the Local Government Act 1972, and was a merger of the municipal boroughs of Newport and Ryde along with the urban district of Cowes. It was one of two districts on the Island formed in 1974 - the other was South Wight. "Medina" was an older name for Newport which has been preserved in the River Medina. Following a review by the Local Government Commission for England, the borough
Politics of the Isle of Wight of Wight, to what could be described as the opposite extreme of merging the county back into Hampshire. The pro-independence lobby had a formal voice in the early 1970s with the Vectis National Party. Their main claim was that the sale of the island to the crown in 1293 was unconstitutional (see History of the Isle of Wight). However, this movement now has little serious support. Since the 1990s the debate has largely taken the form of a campaign to have the Isle of Wight recognized as a distinct region by organizations such as the EU, due to its relative