Jim Baldwin

Tel: 07528 586683

The warm spell in mid-February was a great tonic to us all, with the first signs of spring accompanying it. Crucially, for me, it coincided with the first appearance of my beloved butterflies from hibernation. Four species of butterfly hibernate during the winter as an adult: Brimstone, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell and Comma. Red Admiral also overwinters as an adult but does not enter a dormant state and can be seen on sunny days throughout the winter. Of all the butterflies, it is the Brimstone which is synonymous with early spring. Keen butterfly observers note the date of their first Brimstone sighting and this year on the Island, it coincided with Valentine’s Day.

The male Brimstone matches the colour of sulphur perfectly and emerges from its slumbers dashing off in search of females. However, the paler female emerges later so its early pursuit is in vain. They can survive until the end of May, having the longest adult stage of the UK’s butterflies. Brimstone is among the oldest butterfly names, being established in the 17th century. Because of its colour, there is even the suggestion that the Brimstone was the original butterfly but this has yet to be proven.

Brimstone can be seen anywhere although the early records come predominantly from woodlands. Firestone Copse and Parkhurst Forest are two sites where you are likely to see one. If there is a cold spell in March, Brimstone will return to its wintering quarters and hibernate until the warm weather returns.

With butterflies starting to appear, now is a good time to register with Butterfly Conservation’s Garden Butterfly Survey. If you do not have a garden, you can still take part at an allotment or community space. You can survey your site throughout the year recording the species you see and enter your sightings online. You can find out how to take part at www. gardenbutterflysurvey.org

Recording butterflies is so important. The recent State of the UK’s Butterflies 2022 report has just been published and revealed the alarming news that 80% of butterflies in the UK have declined since the 1970s.

Don’t forget to record the butterflies you see out on your walks. There is an excellent iRecord free app which you can download to your phone. Enjoy your butterflies and let me know what you have seen.

At this time of year Councils, whether they be Parish Councils or bigger Local Authorities, like the Isle of Wight Council, adopt an almost tunnel vision stance as they look at their budgets and decide a new one for the coming financial year.

It wasn’t always like this. It used to be a case of simply identifying what you needed to spend on running the Council day to day, thinking of some projects you would like to do, putting a cost on them and adding it all up. Now the task is very different. At the Isle of Wight Council, it has become a matter of survival. Even leaving aside the failure of the Government to give us our proper share of funds as an Island, thirteen years of austerity and restrictions on Council Tax levels have left us in a state where we can only afford essentials and we can’t fund many of them properly. Very little in the budget is about choice. It’s about scraping together something that works and is legal, which is far from easy.

In recent years we have also seen a political mantra in many quarters stating that Council Tax increases must be avoided at all costs (pardon the pun!). However, if you think about it, that is ridiculous. Can you spend the same on your food shopping bill each year and still expect to get the same for the same money? Or better? Money decreases in value each year, so if you have the same amount or you artificially restrict how much more might be available you hit a problem. In the home you end up eating less, as a Council you end up able to do less.

The Isle of Wight Council will have set its Budget by the time you read this. There will have been a decision to increase Council Tax by 5% and no one will be happy, but

Cllr Jonathan Bacon

w something that enables essential functions to be maintained will have been passed.

In the Parishes there is no restriction upon how much the local element of your Council Tax, known as the precept, can be raised. What is done tends to depend on whether pragmatism or politics wins out. Many Towns and Parishes are increasing their precepts this year. Those I am involved with (Brading and St Helens) are doing so at minimal levels, being conscious of the bigger picture, in particular the ‘cost of living crisis’ that affects us all. It’s not easy to balance creating something that enables the local community to be supported but which takes an acceptable approach to people’s personal finances. Doing so makes one aware of the clear difference between managing public money pragmatically or politically.

In St Helens the Budget has been set to allow the Parish to maintain the services the Parish provides for the Village, while taking account of inflation and enabling the projects to keep the Pavilion running and to restore a public toilet provision in the Village to continue. It is important to support the Village as much as possible. We will never be able to do everything people want but we will do everything we practically can.

Please do feel free to contact me at any time about any issues you wish to raise. I will always respond to messages. You can also speak to me at my surgeries in St Helens, the next few of which will take place as follows:

St Helens Pavilion 28th March and April 25th, all at 10am.