TDEG January 2020 Update

Business

Lead: Bill Purvis

purvisbill1@gmail.com

In December 2019, half a dozen small local businesses were invited by TDEG (business group) to apply to join the De Carbonise programme. The programme aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from small businesses by providing grants to invest in energy-saving improvements. It is sponsored by the University of Derby and EU Regional Development funding.

Plasma Coatings in Tideswell have recently had a De Carbonise grant of £6,000 approved. The grant is for the following:

1. Replace old space heater with a more efficient space heater with improved de-stratification fans and controls.

2. Replace poorly-fitting concertina door with electric roller shutter door with integrated personnel door to reduce draughts.

3. Install plastic curtain to the inside of new roller shutter door to insulate and reduce draughts.

Annual kWh saved: 22,303 (kWh)
Annual carbon saving: 4,049 (kgCO2e)
 Lifetime kg CO2e: approximately 40 tonnes

Annual cost saving: £626

If you know of a small local business that would like to make an appointment for a free energy audit or would like further information, please contact:
Liz Pasteur, De-Carbonise Project Officer: liz.pasteur@derby.gov.uk tel. 01332 642031 or 07388 373588.

Litter picking

Lead: Steve Elliott

steveandsuzanne@btint

ernet.com

We had two successful litter picks in September and October last year. It was decided to have a break until the new year, as the vegetation was covering potential sites. We concentrated on arterial routes into and out of Tideswell. There was a good turn- out for each litter pick.

We have had two responses to an advert on Freegle, with donations of hi-viz gilets. Litter picking sticks have been loaned by DDDC, although we are looking into buying some of our own, and litter sacks have also been donated. The litter picked up has been sorted into recyclable, and non-recyclable litter, and distributed between the litter pickers into personal refuse bins,

although we may not be able to continue this practice if the litter picked becomes a larger amount.
Our litter picking date is Sunday 23rd February – meeting in the Pot Market at 2:00 pm. All are welcome. We disseminate into

teams of 2/3, and decide on which areas to pick on the day, although there has been discussion about involving people from Litton, and litter picking in Litton as well.

We have had discussions about how to follow up litter picking by moving into an educative/awareness arena. Preventing litter in the first place is paramount to the notion of environmental/visual pollution, and needs to be addressed at a fundamental level. Tackling awareness at a local level would be easier than tackling awareness to non-residents entering and leaving the village, as much of the litter is a long road verges. Work yet to be done on this.

Recycling

Lead: Rob Mitson

rpmitson@gmail.com

• The Recycling Group is most excited to be welcoming Anne Welch from Derbyshire County Council to address our next meeting on the theme of recycling – where does it all go and how can we improve?

• Crisp packet collections are on-going in the Coop and the box is invariably overflowing, despite being emptied every other day. We are concerned we may have boosted the consumption of crisps in the village! The Star Inn and the Horse & Jockey have continued to be very supportive by saving their own packets. A team of volunteers works behind the scenes collecting the packets and passing them on to the Girls’ Brigade at Cliff College, Calver.

• The recycling group also gives TDEG a presence via the regular “Rob’s Recycling Revelations” on Facebook and the “Did You Know” section of the Village Voice, as well as other articles submitted to our community magazine.

• We have established a growing list of difficult-to-recycle items that can be brought to the Pop-up recycling facilities at our meetings in Fountain Square Church:

  • Unwanted IT equipment, including smartphones (laptops and PCs preferably less than 5 years old, to be passed on to

    PCrefurb in Glossop)

  • Old toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes (to be passed on to Bamford Dental Practice)

  • Make-up containers (to be passed on to BodyShop)

  • Large round chocolate tubs, eg Celebrations, Heroes etc (to be reused rather than recycled)

  • Crisp packets

• We have produced a leaflet on local recycling which is now included in the TDCA welcome pack for new residents in the village and for holiday cottages.

For personal reasons, Rob will have to stand down as the project lead. No one has come forward yet to take on that lead but we hope the group will continue as an important and successful part of TDEG. Rob thanks everyone involved with the group.

Wildlife

Lead: Lynn Crowe

l.crowe@shu.ac.uk

Around 40 people attended the talk by John Ellicock and Lester Hartmann on action for swifts on 27 November, and 23 people signed up to say they were interested in having swift nesting boxes (or barn owl and kestrel boxes) on their property. We have been successful in obtaining grant aid from both the Peak District National Park Authority and Derbyshire Dales District Council to help with the cost of the boxes, and for the fixing of the boxes on houses. The site inspections were carried out in early January, and we are about to contact everyone with recommendations about the appropriate nesting boxes to buy. These should be in place by February/March, and maybe we will see more swifts in our skies this summer. We will be encouraging

everyone to look out for the return of our swifts in May.
We hope this is just a beginning. We’ll be looking for more sites for swift boxes, and barn owl and kestrel boxes, later in the

year, as well as working with others to consider how we create more biodiverse, insect-friendly spaces to encourage all birds and animals.

Everyone remains keen to work with local schools and the youth groups in the area. We will be visiting Tideswell cubs this spring to talk about our local wildlife. Other suggestions included organising public walks to go bird watching in the local area. More work to support hedgehogs was discussed. One of the group members is following up possible opportunities to “re-home” hedgehogs. Other members are researching how to help hares in the local area.
The wildlife group has also been approached by Tideswell Sports Association (who manage some of the land around Bishop Pursglove School) to see if those areas could be enhanced for nature. Several members of the group are meeting the chair of TDSA at the end of January. The group is also keen to support the new working group with Tideswell Parish Council (TPC), as there may be areas of public space managed by the Parish Council that could be improved for wildlife.

Climate emergency

Lead: TBC

The Climate Emergency group met for the first time at the last whole TDEG meeting in November. We had less than an hour but were still able to share many exciting ideas. We were too keen to crack on to decide on a name for the group or a project lead…..all in good time!

We did whizz through “7 Actions to Save the World”, which Faith Johnson gave TDEG last September, and then between us suggested local actions in Faith’s categories. These suggestions included: a TDEG group working with TPC to support their position on climate change; writing a climate emergency newsletter to be delivered in Tideswell; creating small climate emergency fact cards to hand out, along with actions to promote climate conversations and also to support each other in influencing the reduction of the carbon footprint at our workplaces.

Already there has been a first meeting of TDEG & TPC (see below), including Bill & Josie, the steering group have approved funding of a climate emergency newsletter and Matt & Bill have supported Andrea with information which was used for a workshop in Andrea’s workplace within Derbyshire County Council.

The Climate Emergency project group will meet again at the next whole TDEG meeting on the 5/2/20 after the Recycling talk, so please do come and join us. If you would like more details of our meeting in November and the agenda for the meeting on 5/2/20, please contact the email address above.

The Steering Group Chair: Lynn CroweSecretary: Andrea Mitson

Treasurer: Rob Mitsontidzaeg@gmail.com

• The steering group agreed that TDEG can cover any local area that offers representation.

• The secretarial role was discussed and the SG is going to work towards the role being divided up into 3 roles: secretarial,

  membership, communications. Claire McKenzie has taken on the communications role.

• The link between the project groups was acknowledged. The opportunity to swap between project groups will be offered

  at 8:30 on a whole TDEG meeting night.

•  Setting up a link with Tideswell Parish Council, e.g. a TPC/TDEG working group, was suggested to address some

  environmental issues in the area to together (see below).

• A brief of requirements for a TDEG website is being written.