PRESENT: Neill (Treasurer), Lynn (Communications Officer), Jules, Fiona (Secretary)
INVITED
All Committee members: Lynn (Communications Officer), Julia, Helen, Yasmina, Fiona (Secretary)
Others invited: Sue, Philip, Jane, Laurie
1. To appoint a chair for the meeting
The committee appointed Jules as Chair for the meeting.
2. Apologies
Apologies had been received from Yasmina and Helen.
3. Matters Arising
Fiona and Jules had requested a budgeted expenditure plan from the Library of Things (LoT), as decided at the last meeting. The LoT team had emailed to say they planned to spend £286 on PAT test training (early in New Year) and repairing broken “things” (buying parts). They had discussed more detailed plans with Neill who advised the meeting that the project was underspent on library items for the good reason that they were reusing and repairing more donated items than expected. The LoT had yet to secure a permanent home and so there was a high probability of increased accommodation costs at some point but precise amounts or timings were not known. It was agreed that it would be wise to hold some of the grant from the Bingham Trust to secure the future of the LoT against the risk of accommodation changes, but that the offer of funding from the parish council should be declined, as there was no specific expenditure plan for it in this financial year.
Action: Fiona to draft letters to the Parish Council and for the Bingham Trust.
Jules and Helen had begun investigating indoor, accessible locations for a Terracycle collection bin, and were planning to start a conversation with the Coop about recycling facilities at the new store.
4. Hon. Officers Reports
a. Secretaries report. An invitation had arrived for a stall at the Food Festival on Saturday 1 May. It was agreed to give full support to the new food-growing project if it wished to have a stall.
Action: Neill and Fiona to ask Lucy if the food growing project would like to have a stall at the food festival.
Mountain Warehouse had offered 20% off to TDEG members. It was agreed to accept the offer for a New Year recruitment drive.
Action: Fiona to accept Mountain Warehouse 20% discount for TDEG members
b. Treasurer’s Report. The meeting reviewed Neill’s report. It noted that at its last meeting it had also allocated £500 to the food-growing project, with oversight from a support group. It agreed that the Rivers & Brooks project should be empowered with a budget against an outline expenditure plan.
Action: Fiona to request an outline expenditure plan from project group leader, Yasmina for an initial spend of £200.
c, Communications Officers Report. Lynn reminded the meeting that she needed any further content for Village Voice by 16 October and for the newsletter by 6 November. She already had a lot of content.
5. Project progress and permissions
Thanks to Helen and Laurie for providing progress reports in advance for the Cycling Project and Library of Things.
a. Cycling. The committee noted Helen’s report and discussed the Tour de France Femmes passing through Tideswell on 31st July 2027.
Action: All to come up with ideas for celebrating Tour de France Femmes in Tideswell.
b. Jules gave updates on the ethical consumer projects and the meeting noted the LoT report. October’s Repair Cafe coincided with International Repair Day.
c. Lynn updated the meeting on wildlife projects for swifts, hedgehogs and butterflies. More swift boxes were available and the Derbyshire team would allocate them to those on the defined corridor route.
d. Rivers & Brooks. Lynn updated the meeting on the four streams of activity: memebrs will be asked to write to our MP about the new Clean Water Bill; engagement with Severn Trent Water and the Environment Agency was progressing slowly; riverfly partnership training begins this weekend so that surveying can start after the trout spawning season; a lot of work was going into the behavioural campaign and it was going well.
e. Food projects: Fiona was building on the conversations started at the “Dairy Farming and the Environment” event in September by setting up a new “View from the Farm Gate” blog on the TDEG website with initial contributions from the AGM speakers. The food-growing project support group were having their first meeting with project group leader Lucy tomorrow to talk about the scoping study.
6. Whole Group Meetings
The meeting was looking forward to Natalie Bennett’s talk on pharmaceuticals in the environment on 1 December and it had already been advertised.
Action: Fiona to liaise with the speaker and circulate a checklist for committee members.
Possible dates for the first Hassop Farm visit were discussed. It was agreed to request 6th of 13th December as a first step.
Action: Fiona to contact Hassop farm.
7. Any Other Business
There was none.
8. Dates of Next Meetings
Saturday 17 October – Repair Cafe and International Repair Day
17 – 19 November – TDEG Committee
Saturday 21 November – Repair Cafe
Tuesday 1 December – Whole Group Meeting with Natalie Bennett
