TDEG Steering Group Minutes – 4 March 2020
Present: Lynn, Rob, Andrea, Sheelagh, Alice, Suzanne, Bill, Steve, Jules
Apologies: Claire, Josie, Richard, Sue, Leonie
1. Matters arising – all actions from the Steering Group 11-12-2020 have been undertaken.
2. Officer reports
Chair’s report: We hope to clearly structure the meeting through a fuller agenda; each agenda item should state the discussion or decision needed at the meeting. Action points from the previous meeting should be reported back to the steering group just for the record, as matters arising (unless further discussions are needed). Project group reports should also be made in writing prior to each meeting, and only discussed where needed. We also hope to ensure everyone has an opportunity to contribute to meetings fairly (and that we finish on time!).
Secretary’s report: The post previously been carried out by Andrea has been split. Claire will take over the communications role. Alice was welcomed and will take minutes of these meetings. Andrea will continue to hold the membership emails and these in time will be held as part of the web site function. Andrea reported no additional new members and has received minimal email.
ACTION: Alice, Claire and Josie to be added to the Steering Group list.
Treasurer’s report: At the last Fountain Square Church, meeting approx 40 people attended. Takings on the door came to £77.20 which was helped by people being greeted at the door – thanks to Sheelagh on this occasion. We will continue to do this at future meetings. Outgoings: £27 for the hall hire. Ann (who spoke on recycling) didn’t want a fee but was given some local gifts, an outlay of £6.
We have received £200 from Neil Buttle’s Derbyshire Dales District Council fund, towards the Swift project. This has been set aside to pay for putting up the swift boxes although it is uncertain what or whether we will be charged for this. The money is held in the TDEG’s Santander account.
3.Project group reports
Business (Bill) Plasma Coatings were pleased to receive a £6,000 grant toward draft-proofing their doors resulting in a carbon reduction of around 4 tonnes p/a. Bill has also approached 6 other businesses around the estate though they have not as yet taken up any suggestions.
Climate action/emergency (Andrea) The first climate action newsletter is almost finalised with the intention of publishing on 23rd March 2020. Information from the Recycling Group will be printed on the back.
It was agreed to use some of the earlier Neil Buttle’s DDDC funding towards the cost of the first issue. Costing £100 to print 1,000 double-sided copies: 930 copies are needed to distribute one to each household and the remainder can be left at strategic points for individual collection. It was agreed that distribution in Tideswell would be with The Peak Advertiser at a cost of £85. Notices will be placed in the Village Voice and on Facebook to alert people to be on the lookout for the newsletter.
ACTION: Andrea to circulate the latest draft of the newsletter to Steering Group for final comments.
Ethical consumer (Ben) – no report submitted although the Facebook page is still being used for this group.
Litter pick (Steve) – The group is planning to join with the Great British Spring Clean and to organise a litter pick on Sunday 22nd March. They may need some money for new bags although some are available at Bakewell Swimming Pool for collection.
ACTION: Steve agreed to get in touch with DDDC for whatever supplies they are providing. The next litter picking date could be added to the newsletter (above), and also promoted via our Facebook pages.
Recycling (Rob) – The main talk on 5 February went down very well, engaging a new audience with very good attendance. Around 16 people attended the recycling group afterwards and various snippets of key messages went into the Village Voice. The new recycling advisor with DDDC is keen to get involved with us.
There have so far been no offers to replace Rob who is stepping down as project lead. Rob is hoping to share out the work for the group in the meantime.
The Wakes committee is still considering if reusable beer cups are viable but have said that they will only back the idea if all three pubs are behind the initiative. Although hopeful, it is not really likely to happen this year.
Wildlife (Lynn) – Swift Project: A cherry picker will be coming on 10 March to install most of the swift boxes. The remaining ones will be installed with Nigel Megson’s assistance during March. National Swift Awareness Week will run from Saturday, June 27th to Sunday 5th July 2020 and it was agreed that the Tideswell Swift Project would lead a walk around the village during this week. Vicky has offered her garden for picnic probably taking place on 4 July 2020.
The group have submitted a long report with a diverse range of suggestions to the Tideswell and District Sports Association following a site visit and initial discussions with Will (Chair of the Sports Association). It will be discussed by the Sports Association and their response is awaited.
Tideswell Parish Council are keen to do something similar to improve the land they manage for wildlife.
TPC &TDEG: TDEG representatives met with Josie from the Parish Council and suggested an informal working group giving advice on an ad hoc basis. To create another name for this ‘Sustainable Tideswell’ would probably be confusing, so it was agreed to keep this as an informal working group TPC/TDEG.
4.Proposed dates for future meetings:
22nd March 2020: 2 pm Litter Pick (part of the Great British Spring Clean) 1st April 2020: 7-9 pm Whole TDEG meeting – National Trust Ranger
speaking on Climate Action on the Peak District Moors.
24th June 2020:
4th July 2020:
15th July 2020: Nothing in August
2nd September 2020:
7th October 2020: 4th November 2020:
2nd December 2020:
AGM & Whole Group Meeting (Wakes Week)* TBC Swift walk and picnic
Steering Group meeting (moved from 1st July)
Whole TDEG meeting ~ with the speaker on a community topic, possibly someone from Ashton Hayes where they are aiming to become England’s first carbon-neutral community – LYNN to action
Steering group meeting
Whole TDEG meeting ~ Theme: green business speaker with someone from the Decarbonise programme to come and speak – BILL to action
Steering group
* AGM & Whole Group Meeting It was agreed to hold this on 24 June 2020 being the Wednesday of Wakes Week, provided a room is available at Fountain Square Church. This was checked with Wakes Committee who are fine with the idea and have offered to include details in the Wakes Programme (details needed by 23 March). They also suggested TDEG might have a presence at the Wakes Parade.
ACTION Andrea to enquire if Fountain Square Church is available.
The intention is to keep the AGM brief (appoint and re-appoint officers, present a summary of the year’s activities and have a display of activities). It will be followed by the whole group meeting and speaker.
We would like a strong speaker to attract good attendance at the Whole Group Meeting. It was suggested that the evening might be combined with a clothes swap evening, possibly to include a children’s clothes swap to make it attractive to children. We could ask Helena Downing if the cubs might be involved.
Suggested Speakers included someone from Friends of the Earth or Extinction Rebellion. Although some members felt these might not be attractive to the wider community (at present). A speaker focusing on Ethical Consumerism, possibly looking at sustainable fashion could be attractive.
ACTION: Andrea to contact the editor of Ethical Consumer magazine.
ACTION: Clothes swap working group to plan and also liaise with Helena D
If the EC speaker was not available – others with a similar topic could be explored (e.g. Mark Day from Day-Zero shop, in Buxton, or denim lady from Sheffield – Jules has the details).
ACTION Lynn will liaise with Claire and Alice on the format of the evening, and possible ways of including a celebration of TDEG’s work over the last year.
5.Litton involvement: There is minimal involvement currently from Litton. As Litton Village Hall is heavily booked it would be difficult to hold meetings there. We could consider starting the swift walk from Litton? Lynn to consider.
6.Communication role: As discussed earlier, Claire is taking over the main communications role and will liaise with Village Voice (discussed further below) and undertake the bi-monthly updates for all members.
7.Website development: (Lynn)
The 3 tenders had been circulated previously to all steering group members anonymously. Lynn had discussed some issues with Richard (as he had helped with the tendering process and couldn’t be here this evening). He felt only Tender A addressed the brief fully (middle-priced). He was particularly keen on this one as it considered a membership plug-in on the site. Tender C didn’t address this. He thinks it’s very important to have a website for promotional purposes, publishing and membership management. Someone will need to keep content up to date. Lynn agreed to co-ordinate this possibly with the help of Claire. It was noted that we would also need a good photographer. We intend to pay for a professionally designed website to ensure its effectiveness (and it will not have adverts popping up randomly).
The disparity in pricing was noticeable. Tenders B & C tenders were not so informative as Tender A and did not specifically address the membership. Tender A offered a local website designer who can be easily contacted which would make support more straightforward. It was agreed to appoint Tender A as the `preferred contractor`. Lynn then explained that Tender A was Pete Hawkins.
Web Site Costs: The next step would be to find funding. £1,000 is needed to set up the web site and a further £2,700 for the next 5 years. It was noted that Tideswell After School club has received a grant for 5 years for their web site. ACTION – Lynn to contact all the tenders and will investigate possible sources of funding, including the Community Association and Parish Council, local authorities, and private funders (such as Landfill Tax and Breedon at the Hope Valley Cement Works).
8.Jules’ suggested way of working
As a lot of work was falling on Andrea, Jules thought it might be helpful to follow a model for transformational change which is used around the world, the aim being to attract more people without others taking on the weight. However, TDEG has moved on a lot since the initial discussion so it may be difficult to introduce this now.
It would be helpful to get others engaged in taking on the action. It was decided to observe what happens over the year and then see if changes are needed. This would give time for the groups to evolve and hopefully confidence will build.
9. Village Voice
Managing our submissions: Submissions have been a bit scattered across the magazine but following suggestions from the group this has been rectified. It appears helpful to submit information to the Village Voice using bullet points, which can then be edited. It might be helpful to contact VV through its committee in future.
ACTION – Claire to thank VV for putting the TDEG news in one place and introduce herself as the new person taking the communications role.
It would also be helpful to plan ahead on the stories that we would like to focus on for VV (for which the deadline is 15th of the month). We could link articles with the talks coming up or other main news. We will ask Claire to liaise with VV and build the relationship.
ACTION: Andrea will submit the VV information for April and will do bullet points for Claire (max 5 plus the date of the next meeting, and photos)
Lynn would like to submit something on the Swift Box Project for the May edition, particularly asking people to look for first swifts coming back in May and submit something about the swift boxes going up and photos of the cherry picker.
The June edition would be on Ethical consumers and fashion
ACTION: Claire to liaise with Ben for this
10. Festival ideas: It was thought holding a festival this year might be one thing too many at the moment. It was agreed to re-consider this for 2021 after seeing how the Hope Climate Group day goes in Bamford (which Sheelagh may attend). ACTION: Andrea to check the date ~ Saturday 28th March 2020
11.Links with Hope Valley Climate group (Sheelagh): There is a lot of energy and expertise in this group and Sheelagh is suggesting a link with this group might be useful. There are many environmental groups emerging all around us at present. Perhaps when our new web site is up we can link more easily and include dates from all groups in the area.
Bill pointed out that Marches Energy Agency already connects many of the groups (see www.everybodys-talking.org/communities-area/community-groups) and he will pass these details on to Claire and also discuss with her our calendar of events and how that might be distributed.
Additional date to note – RSPB planting trees on Totley Moor, near Sheffield – 29 March.
12. Second-hand clothes event: “Reuse to Reduce” – As discussed earlier we are considering linking this with the Wakes Week/AGM meeting, depending on the availability of the FSC.
13. AOB: Rob has been talking with Simon Maybe about the possibility of Tideswell having its own sustainable wood source, a community woodland. This person may come forward to our group.
14. Date of Next Meeting: Wednesday, 6th May 2020, 7 pm hosted by Jules, Midnight Barn (and we would like other volunteers to host future steering group meetings).
The meeting closed with thanks to all for their attendance and contribution, and particularly to Andrea for all her work in the administrative role in the past.
