Island Magazines January 2023 Bembridge & St Helens Area

Welcome to the first edition of 2023... I’ve got everything crossed that this year is going to be a great year for us all!

Here at Island Magazines HQ, we are going to continue bringing you a monthly community magazine packed with news, information, advertising, articles, puzzles and much more and I would like to personally thank everyone that picks up a copy to read, all contributors and to the many wonderful local businesses that advertise.

This year I have the pleasure of working with local nature and wildlife expert, Jim Baldwin. Jim is known by many for his outstanding contribution to this field and even calls himself a ‘Nature Nerd’ (his words not mine!), personally I think of him more as a local Isle of Wight David Attenborough!!

Jim will be writing fascinating articles each month which are both informative and are ways to get you involved in nature and projects throughout the year. You can read his first article on page 13.

January is a very quiet month especially after such a busy Christmas period. Our ‘Dates for your Diary’ section on page 15 has details of the few community events happening and if you are planning any future events please let me know and I can include them in the next issue.

In this cold weather we have been having please keep warm, keep safe and please check on others, especially if you have elderly neighbours.

As always, thank you for picking up a copy and I hope you have a great first month of the New Year and I look forward to catching up with you again soon.

Alexandra’s Africa

Eco-Cultural Safaris

“Alexandra’s Africa was established in 2012 as a sustainable safari tour operating company…we have never been anything else…”

Alexandra’s lifelong passion for Southern Africa and the conservation of its wildlife, culture and local communities is the driving force behind ‘Alexandra’s Africa’. For 10 years we have been hosting eco-cultural safaris across some of the most beautiful regions, including South Africa (Limpopo, Namaqualand and Southern Cape), Botswana (Chobe, Okavango), Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls) and Namibia.

Alexandra's Africa

Our trips promise to tread lightly on the environment and create local opportunity, whilst providing guests with a unique ‘out of Africa’ experience. Alexandra is committed to delivering a safe, inclusive experience for travellers of all ages to enjoy, providing guidance from your first contact with us until you return safely home.

Our small group Hosted Safaris: The Classic and The Explorer, take you on journeys combining wildlife, art, culture, legacies, and landscapes to create an experience that is personal, meaningful, and memorable. Our carefully handcrafted Southern African Tailored Safaris are designed to suit your pace, interests and sense of adventure, the choice is yours on dates, budgets and locations. We also offer a very unique Kalahari Conservation Safari where you contribute to the conservation and ecological needs on one of Southern Africa’s largest wildlife sanctuaries. The latest addition to our exciting portfolio is our ‘Women on Safari’ range.

Why wait?

The journey is the destination.…Invest in memories!

Limited spaces available for 2023, and 2024 trips.

Alexandra’s Africa is a New Forest Based Safari Tour Operating Company, offering a range of eco-cultural safaris and conservation experiences in Southern Africa.

Tel: +44 (0) 238 235 4488. W: www.alexandrasafrica.com.

News

Report from Cllr Joe Robertson - Bembridge joe.robertson@iow.gov.uk

I was pleased to join the Bembridge Parish Council during one of their public drop-in sessions in December to consult over current and future projects. It was particularly pleasing to see the new fire vehicle which has been secured from the mainland and is now based at the Bembridge Fire Station. We now need to recruit local crew so that the vehicle can become fully operational. As it is smaller than the large fire engines it can be mobilised with only two crew rather than four and it can navigate some narrower lanes that a full-sized fire engine cannot access. It still has much of the equipment you would expect to see on a larger vehicle including hoses with internal water tanks.

Plans for local volunteer response to flood events were also on display at the dropin meetings. The Parish Council has been able to purchase equipment to help provide support to residents who need it most when a flood warning is issued. I met with Southern Water at the Sandown sewage treatment works back in December to understand more about the challenges with water runoff and sewage discharges into the sea. Bembridge will become one of Southern Water’s pathfinder communities in the next 2 years to help reduce the frequency with which our combined sewage network is overwhelmed. The Environment Agency will be working directly with homeowners in 2023 to help with flood resilience. A post Flood Report meeting was held in the Village Hall in November with representatives from the Council, Island Roads, the Environment Agency and the Parish Council. Together this represents a step forward for the Village but we need to keep up the pressure on the various organisations to talk to each other and make the improvements needed.

I have raised the issue of poor road surfaces with Island Roads, particularly in relation to the High Street and Howgate Road. Island Roads replied that they have no plans for resurfacing those roads as they are not “dangerous” but some pothole patching may take place. This is plainly not an acceptable position to hold. Much of Howgate Road and the middle section of the High Street are more pothole and patching than road and clearly need more substantial work. I have escalated the matter to the Director of Neighbourhoods at the Council and have asked that both roads be reassessed for resurfacing.

Looking back over last year the community has been active in voicing concerns over planning in Bembridge. It was good to see the Planning Inspectorate reject the appeal to build two holiday lodges along Love Lane. The application for 57 homes in the field between Steyne Road and Hillway Road was made over a year ago and has not been determined. There may be an opportunity to engage with those proposing to develop the field on the other side of Steyne Road at a residents meeting in early 2023. If so, I would encourage residents to engage and share views and feedback.

Finally I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone in Bembridge and beyond a Happy New Year and I look forward to working with you in the year ahead. I will continue to make sure Bembridge features high in the minds of those making decisions within the Isle of Wight Council.

We’re adding barcodes to our regular stamps. After 31 January 2023, regular stamps without a barcode will no longer be valid. You can either use up these stamps before this deadline or swap them for the new barcoded ones. The stamps that are changing are the stamps (pictured below) that will be very familiar to you. They feature the profile of Her Late Majesty The Queen on a plain coloured background. Your non-barcoded stamps can be exchanged for the new barcoded version through the Stamp Swap Out scheme. To swap out your stamps, simply complete one of our Stamp Swap Out forms and send it back to us along with your non-barcoded stamps. The step-by-step process for doing this is explained below.

How to get a ‘Stamp Swap Out’ form

• If you have a printer, you can swap out up to £200 worth of non-barcoded stamps by printing out and completing the online form. Go to www.royalmail.com and search for ‘Stamp Swap Out’ form. You can send this back to us free of charge, along with your stamps, by writing on the envelope Freepost SWAP OUT. No other address details or postcode are needed.

• If you don’t have access to a printer you can request a Stamp Swap Out form to be posted to you at www.royalmail.com or pick one up from the Customer Service Point at your local Delivery, or you can call our Customer Experience Team on 03457 740740.

Note: Special Stamps with pictures on and Christmas Stamps without a barcode will continue to be valid and don’t need to be swapped out.

From joy’s humble crumble kitchen

A slight change from our usual recipe page this month but still staying with suggestions to make the most of our available resources and looking after our wellbeing. We are starting the year with some energy saving ideas and tips. Enormous respect to our forefathers who had even less than we have today – no central heating – bigger families – no financial help, probably wasn’t great but they just got on with it - AND so shall we!

HOW TO MAKE A DENIM DRAUGHT EXCLUDER.

* measure the width of your door (or window)

* turn the jeans inside out and cut the leg to required length

* laying the leg flat, you will need to mark, approx. 5 – 6 inches width from top to bottom and stitch along the ‘leg’ length, by hand or machine.

* If making window excluder, follow the same method but make it half the width of the door excluder. (You can also use the sleeves of unwanted garments.)

* turn the jean leg right side out. Stuff with shredded old T shirts, fibre fill from old cushions, tights, old towels etc. Finish off by sewing up the ends.

* You can use any ‘trouser’ leg, or a no longer used towel, old curtain – just roll up and sew to above method. Charity shops are an excellent place to look for these items.

* for the window excluders, add rice or lentils (uncooked) to give weight plus you can squish them into odd corners.

* for the more creative among us, try knitting one using left over balls of wool, or perhaps the excluder becomes a long sausage dog, a snake/crocodile or a ‘whatever you want it to be’!

• If you can’t heat all the rooms you use – try heating the living room for as much of the day as you can, (suggested temperature 18 degrees) and heat your bedroom just before you go to bed.

• wearing several layers of clothing will keep you warmer than one thick layer.

• don’t delay treating minor winter ailments – ask your pharmacist for advice or treatment.

• if bad weather is forecast, it may be harder to leave the house - check you have enough medication and food.

News Report from Jonathan Bacon - IW Councillor for Brading & St Helens. Tel 07973 872150 | Email: jonathan.bacon@iow.gov.uk sthelenscouncillor@gmail.com Cllr Jonathan Bacon

The new St Helens Village Volunteers Group in St Helens, which I mentioned in my last report, is now up and running. A well attended public meeting has taken place discussing potential projects and ideas for the Group to work on. Following on from this an initial group has already come together to undertake work in the grounds of St Helens Church.

The idea that inspired the Village Volunteers Group is also moving forward, namely the project to plant a commemorative Oak on the Village Green, as well as a Willow to help with water issues on the Station Road border of the Cricket Green. At the time of writing we are on the point of ordering the trees with a view to planting them early in the new year. We will also be pursuing the idea of creating Wildflower areas on the Green, as well as work to improve the Horseshoe Trail , which is a hidden gem in St Helens.

The other key project being pursued by the Parish Council is the takeover of the Cricket Pavilion. The aim in doing this is to maintain it as a resource for sport in the Village, to provide a wider use of the building as a resource for meetings and village events and also to provide a public toilet provision in the centre of the Village, which has been sorely lacking for many years.

In County Hall pretty much all discussion

and activity currently revolves around the setting of the Isle of Wight Council Budget for the coming year. National pressures, particularly the impact of inflation, mean that this task is not going to be easy, but work already undertaken has drawn us away from some of the dire predictions being made at the end of 2022. That said there will be difficult and, doubtless, unpopular decisions that have to be made, but the Alliance Administration will strive to achieve an outcome that achieves the best possible outcomes for residents in very difficult circumstances.

As both your Isle of Wight Councillor and a Town Councillor I can be contacted at any time and I will always respond to messages. I have set out my contact details above.

I will be announcing arrangements for my Councillor Surgeries in 2023 early in the new year. Apologies that they are not available at the time of writing this article.

When a New Year comes along, so does the urge to believe this is a fresh start in your life and by setting resolutions/goals you can start on the path to a new and improved version of yourself! But did you know you can set yourself goals anytime of the year… and to be honest you might be more likely to stick to it if it isn’t set for the start of the New Year.

I’ve been there myself on the 1st of January and like many of us the first goal is to lose weight but I won’t be making that mistake again this year because I have learnt from my previous ways. If you are anything like me, Christmas has just passed but there are still mince pies, Christmas cake, chocolate, biscuits, sweets… need I go on… still lurking in the house which inevitably need to be eaten. You can’t throw them out as that is just wasteful and wrong on every level.

My next point is with the constant rise in energy prices isn’t it better to keep that extra layer of fat around the midriff? It’s like an extra layer of clothing, a weighted blanket of warmth. I mean at least wait until Spring when it will be a bit warmer.

Research shows that on average, 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by the second week of February. The main reasons for failure include goals not being specific enough, goals are unreasonable and low accountability. While the intention behind the resolution is good, we need to train our “new actions” into habits so that it becomes an automatic action.

On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact. And how long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances. In Lally’s study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit.

Based on this information it’s no surprise that so many resolutions and goals fail, the stress we are putting on ourselves doesn’t help matters either, so this year I am not going to set myself up for a fall and instead I am going to wait until, these cold, miserable, uninspiring months have passed and then I will have a think about what I really want the end product to be and how can it be cut down into bite size chunks to become achievable and only then will I start to attempt to form a new habit. And on that note of bite size chunks, I’m off to get a bar of chocolate from my selection box.

Word

Baldwin

Tel: 07528 586683

Well, here we are at the start of a New Year and I have been given this great opportunity to write a regular article for Island Magazines.

As a nature nerd, I get equal enjoyment from watching the smallest insect to viewing our brilliant White-tailed Eagles. My hope is this monthly article will get you enthused enough to go out and experience and enjoy nature, perhaps even taking part in some of the projects I will be highlighting during the year.

Getting involved with nature has been proven to be beneficial for our mental health and as we found out during the Covid lockdowns, you can enjoy nature in your own garden or local green space, you don’t need to travel miles!

Among my various nature-based roles, I am the British Trust for Ornithology Regional Representative, County Moth & Dragonfly Recorder and Butterfly Conservation’s Isle of Wight Group Leader.

We start the year with the largest garden-based “citizen science” event in the UK – the RSPB Big Garden BirdWatch 2023. Big Garden Birdwatch is a great community event; it is fun, free and for everyone. And you don’t need a garden to take part! Counting birds from your balcony, or your local park will play a vital role in helping the RSPB understand how UK birds are doing. We have lost 38 million birds in the UK during the last 50 years; House Sparrow and Starling have suffered severe declines and are red listed.

Big Garden BirdWatch takes place on 27-29 January. Choose the date of your choice, watch the birds around you for one hour (you can invite your friends round and make it a social event!). Count how many of each species of bird lands on your patch. When you have finished, go online and enter your results. Not sure of the ID of the birds? The RSPB have produced an ID guide of the common garden birds which you can download. You can register for Big Garden BirdWatch and your free guide now at www.rspb. org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch

Don’t forget if you’re a teacher, your school can take part in the RSPB Big Schools’ Birdwatch which runs from 6 January to 20 February 2023. See www.rspb.org.uk/fun-and-learning/forteachers/schools-birdwatch

Good luck with the BirdWatch and, most of all, enjoy it.

House Sparrow

Photo: Jim Baldwin

St Helens Village News by Parish Clerk Jacky Matthews

Phone: 01983 722575 | E-mail: clerk@sthelensiw.org.uk

St Helens Village,

During the last month there have been some bollards installed on West Green. This is a project that was instigated a long time ago and is to protect the open space.

The Christmas Tree arrived and was installed. The lights switch on part of the Village of Angels event. It is so lovely to see the Christmas lights around the village. Added to which was the visit from Father Christmas doing his rounds from St Helens to Seaview. Thank you to the volunteers who put this occasion on. It brings back childhood memories. By the time you are reading this the festive season will be complete and we will be looking forward to the spring flowers appearing and planning events for 2023.

During the consultation re the Tree Project for St Helens a request was out for volunteers. There was a meeting during December and a great number of people attended - giving so much hope to future

projects. So far a few volunteers have given their time to assist with the Churchyard tidy.

Lots of future ideas where volunteers will be needed - jobs covered will be for the improvement of the village and benefit us all - if you would like to be added to the list please do contact me on clerk@ sthelensiw.org.uk .

Future plans - bringing a Community fridge idea to the Community Centre - this is basically a way for food that would go into the waste from supermarkets being delivered and free for the people of St Helens to use rather than go into rubbish. More about this will follow next month.

If you see anything that isn’t as it should be, or you feel could be improved again please do contact me so it can be resolved.

dates for your diary

First Thursday of every month – Teen Epilepsy Café at Richmonds, Bath Road, Cowes from 6.30pm. It’s an opportunity for teenagers with epilepsy to meet those in the same boat, to chat and listen to music in a safe and supportive space.

Every Thursday - Beginners Bridge, with tuition and supervision, is played at 2pm at Green Meadows, Colwell Lane. For details, please phone Philip on 07712108645

Sunday 1st January – New Year’s Day Dip in Sandown raising funds for Sandown & Shanklin Independent Lifeboat. Meet at the Royal Pier Hotel at 11am then head down to the beach next to the pier for the dip.

Sunday 1st January – Sandown New Year’s Day Firework Celebrations – This spectacular fireworks display will be from Sandown Pier at 6pm. FREE ENTRY! Donations are gratefully appreciated. Friendly volunteers will be positioned around the esplanade with collection buckets. Road closures will be in place before, during and after the display for crowd safety. This event maybe subject to last minute changes or cancellation due to weather conditions.

Thursday 12th January – Dementia Afternoon Club at Bembridge Methodist Hall, 73 Forelands Road, Bembridge from 2pm – 4pm. £5 per person, this includes a selection of sandwiches, cakes, and tea and coffee. Music from Uke ‘n’ Sing, Ukulele Group. To confirm your attendance please call on 01983 218318 or email: iow@rightathome.co.uk (so we can ensure we order plenty of cake!)

If you are organising a community event either for February or the coming months please feel free to email us the information at islandmagazines@gmail.com or call us on 07880587931 and we can share the details in the next issue.

Contact Lui Tel: 520522 Mob: 07795 363 534

www.primotechnical.co.uk primotechnical@gmail.com

All event information was correct at time of print but could be subject to change at any time.

The views and opinions expressed by contributors and advertisers are their own and do not reflect the views of the Editor or Island Magazines unless stated otherwise. Island Magazines reserves the right to refuse or alter material where necessary.