Present: Lynn, Rob, Sheelagh, Alice, Suzanne, Bill, Steve, Jules, Claire, Josie.
- Apologies– Andrea
- Matters Arising from 4 March 2020: none, all action points have been actioned.
- Committee Reports
- Chair’s report: The AGM was successful, Ruth Strange’s presentation went well and all the info is now on the web site. Lynn is interested to know what traffic to the new website has been, and will try to check with Pete Hawkins
- Secretary’s report: we have 103 members subscribed.
- Treasurer’s report: After a £20 donation to the Ethical Consumer Magazine following Ruth Strange’s presentation to the recent AGM (in addition to the £10 voucher given directly to her) we have balance of £174.61. Claire to send the donation. Thanks to Rob for his meticulous accounting.
- Project Group Reports
- Litter picking: There doesn’t seem as much litter at the moment as there haven’t been many visitors until recently. The next litter pick will be in the autumn when the grass is not so high. It was noted that the bin by the Co-op is now a single one and the bins in the new playground were overflowing recently. Steve to find out from DDDC how often these bins are emptied and whether this was enough.
Adam, the new village caretaker has been busy litter picking. Josie will investigate via the Parish Council, where he is contracted to litter pick and his feedback on litter in the village generally.
Katherine Clark is interested in arranging a litter pick in Litton, Lynne will pass her email to Steve to liaise.
Josie suggested cross project group activities (eg litter pick plus butterfly count) may be interesting. Will consider this in the new year especially in areas that overlap.
- Ethical Consumer group: Ben continues to operate the group through Facebook . An article was uploaded to the Website about ways to never buy new clothes. The clothes swap is on hold because of Covid-19 but there is still enthusiasm to do this when possible. Claire will contact Ben prior to Steering Group meetings for his updates.
- Recycling group: Rob still looking for a new lead for this group. Lynn will approach Richard Thorowgood and Andrew Carrie directly to see if either might be interested.
The crisp packet collection isn’t happening as the Girls Brigade not taking them anymore. Is there anywhere else they can go?
- Climate Action group (including XR talk): Sheelagh reported that the group has had two meetings. They have refined their aim: “to become carbon literate and support Tideswell and District in becoming a low carbon community – energy, engagement and empowerment, informing and campaigning”. This has now been amended on the we site as well.
They have set up some mini-working groups and would like to focus on youth engagement. Claire and Sheelagh are hoping to work with schools. They would like to raise awareness when planning applications come through and include climate change considerations in response to these. Bill and Sheelagh will be carrying out some domestic energy surveys as there are houses in Tideswell that could benefit.
There are free DCC Adult Education Courses online on energy & climate change.
Several have lodged objections to Isle of White drilling application.
The XR talk is confirmed 3rd September, titled “Climate extinction and what to do about it’. The group are happy for others to come the talk. The Steering Group agreed that it should come under the TDEG banner and of course TDEG can be included on the publicity poster as well as using TDEG Facebook and mailing list to distribute information. It would be made clear that XR is coming to address the climate action group, rather than the whole of Tideswell, but others are welcome. They are hoping to hold the meeting outside with Zoom as a backup if the weather dictates (in which case attendees will have to indicate their interest and send their email addresses for a Zoom meeting to be set up).
- Wildlife group: Some activity around the owl and swift boxes is expected later in the year. The next project, looking at improving biodiversity around the area, particularly through the management of Parish Council land, is going well. Another project in the pipeline will be on forming hedgehog streets;.
- TPC/TDEG working group: Hannah Owen (Parish Council Clerk) contacted TDEG about exhaust emissions in the Pot Market. The Parish Council are considering putting a sign asking people to turn the engines off and wanted to know if TDEG wanted to be involved. Most people haven’t registered this as an issue but is it something that we could monitor. Lynn will respond to the PC to indicate this and provide some advice.
- Dates of next TDEG general meetings (and speakers)
Wednesday, 23rd September, 7pm (CAG would need to change their meeting on 23rd Sept). Speaker suggestions included Roz Lees about the restoration of peat bogs. The lady from Ashton Hayes (the 1st Carbon neutral community in the country). It’s likely to be a Zoom meeting. Lynn to approach both potential speakers.
Wednesday, 9th December 2020, 7pm (provisional date)
- Communications/updates scheduling (Claire) Please would project group leaders provide updates on their activity at least 2 weeks before the meetings with as many photos as possible. Claire will email project group leaders at the right time. Claire needs a few days to update the website before meeting reminders go out. The news update page will contain the whole general TDEG update. There is also the facility to put ‘sticky notes’ to indicate updates relevant to the groups on each project page, so individual project pages will also be updated with their own ‘headline item’. Please make your ‘headline’ items clear to Claire.
The Facebook page will be used to notify people of updates on the website. Any updates to the website should be emailed to Claire.
- Mailchimp and mailing lists (Alice) Project leaders will need to use Mailchimp to contact project group members. This will overcome any issues on keeping the email lists updated and also help with GDPR compliance. Lynn will contact Pete to send the necessary info to Project Group leaders.
- Any other business Wildflower verges, some councils are getting feedback from people complaining about the untidiness of the verges. TDEG want to support the Parish Council with signage and information in the Village Voice. along with the identification of priority sites for increasing wild flowers in these areas.
Green homes grants from the Government are imminent (around £2bn). It could be helpful to identify who locally could benefit. The Climate Action Group will follow this up.
- Date of next Steering Group meetings:
A brief discussion about the timing of the meetings was held but the majority preferred the 8pm schedule.
Wednesday, 9th September 2020, 8pm (probably by Zoom)
Wednesday, 2nd December 2020, 8pm
Thanks to Jules for providing Zoom for the meeting.
Meeting closed at 9.55pm
