1- Present: Andrea, Bill, Lynn, Rob, Steve, Suzanne, Jules.
2- Apologies: Alice, Claire
3- Notes from the last meeting (22.7.20) and matters arising
Meeting notes approved.
- Lynn has asked for any volunteers for the Recycling Group but no one has come forward so far.
- Pete Hawkins to add on a plug-in to the website so that we can monitor traffic to the site and different pages.
4- Committee Reports –
a. Chair’s report (next meeting on 23 Sept. & progress with mailchimp)
- Next TDEG general meeting (23 Sep) – Kate Harrison will be speaking from the Ashton Hayes Carbon Neutral group. Then we can give people the chance to consider actions locally in random groups. Lynn and Jules are holding a Zoom practice next week with Kate.
Action – Lynn will promote the event more widely after tomorrow’s XR talk.
- Bill to be back up Chair if needed, and do vote of thanks.
- While Alice is away Lynn has access to the TDEG webmail and mailchimp address lists.
- Mailchimp: enables sending of emails to group members—can have sub-group mailing lists as well. Webmail gives access to the Inboxes. Action – Project group leads (Steve and Sheelagh) to meet with Pete Hawkins to learn how to set up their own group mailing lists—Lynn to send Pete Hawkins email to group leads.
b. Secretary’s report
- 110 Members and 130 Facebook page members
- Received correspondence about planning application concerning 23 houses off Sherwood Road in Tideswell. Email passed on to Lynn for further discussion (see below).
c. Treasurer’s report (current funding issues and updates)
- No change since last meeting General Fund £59 + Local project fund £115 + £20 left in Wildlife Project Fund
- Ruth suggested we take out an annual subscription to the Ethical Consumer Magazine as a gesture following her talk. The annual subs is £29. Agreed that we would do that and Claire would receive the magazine. Action – Rob to set up Ethical Consumer Group magazine sub.
5. Project Group Reports – (any items which need discussion or decisions by the SG?)
a. Litter picking group
- Litter pick taking place Sunday 13 Sep to coincide with DDDC and the Great British September Clean. There will be a Litton Group (led by Kath Clarke) and a Tideswell Group. Decided to adopt the DDDC Risk Assessment. Have posted on Tideswell People and All Things Litton FB page.
b. Ethical Consumer group
- Action – Lynn to sound out Ben Twelves re this group and his involvement.
c. Recycling group
- Rob is open to continuing as Recycling Group lead if there is someone else to take over as Treasurer. Action – All to ask possible candidates if they would take on the Treasurer role.
d. Climate Action group
- XR talk arranged for 10 Sep—22 people have accepted the invite. Tried to reach out to younger people to attend via parents.
- Green Homes Initiative launching end Sep by Government and the group will look at how we can help to get information particularly to the vulnerable.
- Climate and Energy courses by DDC attended
- Sheelagh and Claire looking at how to connect with local schools and education. Claire looking at primary school packs. Sheelagh linked with Hope Valley Climate Action Group so we can co-ordinate activity. Also giving a “Green Voice” to 11-19 year-olds.
- Thinking about another newsletter, which requires funding (c. £200), need to look into sources—could approach Neil Buttle for grant funding. Maybe two-sided, one side for CAG and the other for another sub-group.
- Next meeting Wednesday 7 October.
e. Wildlife group (including wildflower project)
- Working with Tideswell Parish Council (TPC) to identify land in Tideswell to manage differently to encourage native flora and fauna. TPC very welcoming and keen to progress. Reviewing their current sites and 10 volunteers visited 3 sites with TPC. Sent a report to the clerk. Hope to attend next TPC meeting. Current maintenance contracts run until 2022, so it could take a while to action, but have to do the groundwork before next Summer when tenders go out.
- Wildlife group offered to help promote the process and engage the local community in advantages of biodiversity, design signs with youth groups or local schools. Community Woodland Project could be a possible partner and has some funding available.
- Request to have a wildlife speaker for December general meeting. Possibly Derbyshire Wildlife Trust; or maybe Katherine Duffy-Clarke of BeeKinder. Action – Welcome any other suggestions for biodiversity speakers.
- Hedgehog streets idea is popular but don’t have anyone to run the scheme at present and would need funding.
- Wildlife blogs on the website have been well received.
- Keen to share the next newsletter with CAG.
6- Tideswell Parish Council/TDEG working group
- See above Wildlife Group note.
7- Dealing with planning applications (including the forthcoming Notts Housing Assoc. proposals for land just below Sherwood Road – email shared).
TDEG doesn’t currently have a mandate to object/comment as a group.
TPC is keen that we give advice on planning applications. Also the Wildlife Group was asked for guidance on biodiversity. This could form part of supplementary planning guidance (as is common in other planning authorities. But there isn’t one for biodiversity protection or enhancement within the Peak District National Park Authority at present (although they do have SPG for climate actions).
Suggestion: Could we develop some general comments for the Planning Authority from different angles, e.g biodiversity, water usage, climate change? It’s an opportunity to make an ambitious set of demands even though it is only advisory. We can learn from others who have already done this, not start from scratch. Can also request that the authorities adopt the standards and recommendations drawn up by other groups, as Supplementary Planning Guidance. Energy use; water; climate change and biodiversity could be the main themes. It was agreed it is a good idea if it can be done simply. Action – Bill to look at the PDNPA Supplementary Planning Guidance on Climate Change to check if it is sufficient for us to use to ask the Planning Authority to adopt the standards for Tideswell developments, and Lynn to look at what is available re biodiversity.
8- Dates of next TDEG general meetings (and speakers)
- Steering Group – 2 December 8pm (but try to keep meeting to one hour).
- General Meeting – 9 December 7 pm – possible wildlife speaker – this may now need to be via Zoom again (given new restrictions).
- February – provisional dates 3rd for Steering Group 8pm (but trying to keep the meeting to one hour). 24th February for next General Meeting at 7 pm.
Actions:
- Lynn to promote the Wider TDEG meeting 23 Sep more widely
- Project group leads (Steve and Sheelagh) to meet with Pete Hawkins to learn how to set up their own group mailing lists—Lynn to send Pete Hawkins email to group leads
- Lynn to sound out Ben Twelves re the EC group and his involvement.
- All to ask possible candidates if they would take on the Treasurer role
- Rob to set up Ethical Consumer Group magazine sub
- All to send ideas for biodiversity speaker to Lynn for December
- Bill to look at the Supplementary Planning Guidance on Climate Change to check if it is sufficient for us use to ask the Planning Authority to adopt the standards for Tideswell developments and Lynn to look at what is available re biodiversity.
