I can’t believe it’s September already – where did the summer go?! I hope you all managed to get a bit of a break, even if you couldn’t fly abroad for a sunny summer holiday. Like many of you, we holidayed in the UK and had a great time exploring different towns and coastlines, and certainly made a smaller carbon footprint than we would have done if we’d jetted across the continent, so that’s a positive!
We look forward to the Tideswell Food Festival today. Do visit our stall if you get the chance and encourage friends and family who don’t know about us to drop by, have a chat and take away information leaflets about our different projects and how you can become involved.
As we approach COP26, hosted by the UK in Glasgow, bringing together heads of state, climate experts and campaigners to agree coordinated action to tackle climate change, we will be thinking about our next steps as an environment group to ensure that we are doing all we can to support the aims and goals of COP26 and work together to green our local community as much as we can. To do this, we need active members to join us with ideas, enthusiasm and time to support existing and new initiatives. Please drop us a line by email if you can help. Thank you.
Please try to join our next meeting on Wednesday 22nd September on Zoom, where you can hear Andy Shelton from Plastic Free Chesterfield talk about Chesterfield’s journey to earning ‘plastic free’ status. See details below. We hope to see you there.
Now read on to find out what our project groups have been up to during the last few months…
Best Wishes
Claire
Climate Action Group (CAG) – Sheelagh Handy
It’s been another busy few months for TDEG Climate Action Group, with lots of meetings with other climate action groups and learning all about green energy and insulation, and even meeting with our MP Sarah Dines to discuss this subject and the need for funding to help our local community to move forward in this important area. The CAG and the Climate Pathfinders Youth Forum are certainly doing their bit in relation to the climate and ecological emergency in ensuring our voices are heard, load and clear.
- 28 July – Home Energy Transition presentation by four Buxton residents sharing their knowledge and experience of changing their homes to renewable energy sources (see minutes on website).
- 16 August – meeting with Sarah Dines MP, following our Hope for the Future session. A working group came together from across Derbyshire Dales and focused on government home energy policies and the need for funding to train specialist skills as well as for assisting ‘able to pay’ homeowners. Sarah Dines listened and wants to meet the group again. She has written two letters to the relevant government minister.
- NEXT MEETING: 6 October – to focus on ways to take energy transition forward in our locale, including compiling a list of known expertise and research sources.
Climate Pathfinders Youth Forum
The CPYF has been very busy –
- Meeting fortnightly on Zoom
- 14 August – joined Peak Rangers in Deep Dale; surveyed biodiversity in the Dale and dew ponds, finding healthy numbers of Great Crested Newts; learned first hand about the ways a local farmer is putting nature first.
- 22 August – created a Bug Hotel on Tideswell community orchard; and a hedgehog home was planned.
- Group publicity to be shared with local schools and colleges to increase membership.
- Friends of the Earth Youth Consultant has been updated on CPYF, and there have been offers of multiple resources including an invitation to join national action pre COP 26.
- 25 September – stall and presentation slot in Buxton for Climate Fair and ‘Big Green Week’
- Hope for the Future has created a bespoke training session for CPYF to assist with meeting their MPs. The chosen topic is sustainable farming and food production.
- Some progress has been made engaging Hope Valley youth voice.
If you would like to find out more about the Climate Pathfinders YF, or indeed how you or a young person you know (aged 11+) can get involved, please contact us at info@tdeg.org.uk .
Check out what we’re about on our website at www.tdeg.org.uk .
“The climate is changing; so should we!”
Ethical Consumer Group (ECG) – Claire McKenzie
The best way to be an ethical consumer is to buy less, and this is where our group links closely with the Recycling Group because, where we can, we should be doing all of those ‘r’ words – reducing, reusing, recycling, repurposing and repairing. So you will be very interested to read about our latest exciting initiative, led by Jules Fell – the development of a local Repair Cafe. Read more to find out where the group is up to and how you can get involved below.
Our other food projects are ticking along nicely – the link below tells you more about how the Buying for Good Club is going – thank, Jules! This is a great way to buy much of your food and household items in a sustainable and ethical way. Check it out!
Do come along to our meeting next week – Wednesday 15th September at 8pm on Zoom – when we will be drawing up an action plan for our next steps and discussing the repair cafe and making plans for our pre-loved clothes swap/sale.
1. Buying for Good Group
The Buying for Good Club now has 15 members. The project has started by sourcing food and non-food items from Lembas Ltd in Sheffield, ‘an employee owned, vegetarian and vegan whole foods wholesaler’. We have also linked up with the local Fairtrade agent to source food, drink, gifts and more.
We aim to help people to have more confidence that the things that they buy are having minimal negative effect on the planet and ensure that the people in the supply chain are fairly treated and paid well. We are also working with our local traders.
You pay £5 per annum to guarantee free delivery and contribute to the development of the initiative. We help you to buy just what you need. If you’d like to find out more, or join the group, please email: bfgclub@tdeg.org.uk
2. Repair Café
The Repair Café initiative is developing, and we have been offered £200 sponsorship by the Co-op, who we are arranging to meet soon, to get us started. We are also grateful to Green Councillor, Neil Buttle, who has agreed to pay for the Repair Cafe movement joining fee of £75 – this will help to pay for
repair tools and publicity materials.
Our next job is to get together with our volunteer repairers – to whom we are indebted because without the repairers, we don’t have a Repair Café! – to discuss how they feel the Repair Café will work best for them. We will also be focusing on raising more funding, organising training and getting started!
Wildlife Group – Lynn Crowe
Our Wildlife Group has grown to over 60 members. We’ve been working hard over the summer months, with various new projects and some fun events for all to enjoy. Please get in touch with Lynn Crowe (l.crowe@shu.ac.uk) if you have any ideas about our future work or if you would like to get more involved.
- TDEG is Going Wild – In response to our concerns about the huge decline in biodiversity in the UK and to help people take action in their own gardens during the on-going Covid crisis, we launched the `Going Wild` initiative at the beginning of the summer. This project aims to create a network of green spaces for wildlife right across our area – a new “community nature reserve” for Tideswell and the surrounding area. We already have a good number of members signed up across our area, all aiming to do just a little bit for wildlife on their own patches. If you would like to learn more about how we can all help nature recover – have a look at our web site – https://tdeg.org.uk/going-wild/.
2. Adopt a Bird Feeder Project – A brand new project to enable more people to enjoy and learn about our local feathered friends. People can “adopt” a bird feeder, to be placed in any public space in Tideswell (funded by Tideswell Parish Council and Beltonville Farm). Feeders could be placed in one of our squares or public gardens, and are the squirrel and jackdaw-proof type from the RSPB. They will be pre-filled with sunflower hearts, and then people adopting a feeder will be responsible for re-filling and cleaning the feeders.
If you are interested in having a feeder for your favourite public space, please contact us at info@tdeg.org.uk, explaining where you wish to put the feeder. Numbers are limited, so feeders will be allocated on a `first come – first served` basis.
3. Summer Wildlife Walks – Nearly fifty people joined our first programme of summer wildlife walks, including a swift walk around Tideswell, a bug hunt at Tideswell Community Orchard, and a bat walk in Tideswell Dale. These were such a success, that we hope to run similar events next year (perhaps in some of our other local communities?).
4. Wildflower Project – Working in partnership with Tideswell Parish Council, we identified three trial areas where we felt grass verges could be left unmown safely throughout the summer, so wildflowers can bloom.
We also shared the aims of the project with the 1st Tideswell Cubs, during a lovely summer’s evening playing `pollinator bee` games and learning about the benefits of local wildflowers. The Cubs produced some excellent posters to help promote the project around the village. The three trial areas have been very well received. The Parish Council is currently considering how this approach might be extended to other areas in their new mowing contracts.
5. `No Mow May` – Many of our members joined in with the Plantlife campaign `No Mow May` – with some very creative results (and lots of benefits for wildlife as well)! We hear that some gardeners are quite reluctant to start mowing again (although August is regarded as a good time – after wildflower seeds have set)!
6. Tideswell Dale Butterfly Transect – Many thanks to our seven-person butterfly survey team, who have been recording all the butterflies seen along a specific route in Tideswell Dale on a weekly basis. The results are sent to the East Midlands Butterfly Conservation group. There will be more information about their findings in the next Wildlife Sightings blog.
7. Wildlife Sightings – Finally, our spring wildlife sightings were summarised in our latest blog post in June – https://tdeg.org.uk/wildlife-sightings-april-june-2021/ . Remember to keep your sightings of any local wildlife (within about five miles) coming in – either on our web site or on our Facebook page. Look out for the next blog celebrating our wonderful local wildlife in September.
Recycling – Rob Mitson
The Recycling Group is eagerly awaiting the Co-op’s collection bin which should make a huge difference to the recycling of soft plastic in the village. This is excellent news; find out more about reducing our use of single-use plastic at our meeting on 22 September.
Members of the Recycling Group are helping the organisers of the Tideswell Food Festival to improve recycling of cans, glass bottles, plastic bottles and plastic containers during the festival. Two blue bins next to the TDEG stall have been provided; signs on all the bins around the village direct people to recycle at our stall and a team of volunteers will collect bags of recycling during the day to pop in their own blue bins at home. Thank you, Rob, for organising this!
And, as always, don’t forget to look out for Rob’s handy recycling tips in the Village Voice each month.
Litter Picking – Steve Elliott
Following the very successful litter pick for the Great British Spring Clean in June (thank you to all who supported this event), the next litter picking session is scheduled for Sunday 17th October, meeting in the Pot Market at 2pm. We look forward to seeing as many of you as can make it – thank you!
Next Whole Group TDEG Meeting
Wednesday 22nd September 2021 at 7:45pm
Working towards becoming a ‘plastic free’ community
Would you like to find out more about how we can reduce our use of single-use plastic, and work towards becoming a ‘plastic free’ community?
Do join us at this important meeting on Zoom to hear Andy Shelton from Plastic Free Chesterfield talk about Chesterfield’s journey to earning ‘plastic free’ status. Learn how we can each reduce our use/purchase of single use plastic, and help to make our environment cleaner and safer for all.
Please email us at info@tdeg.org.uk if you would like the zoom invitation sent to you.
We look forward to seeing you.
