AGM: 12 December 2007, Victoria Methodist Hall
The Annual General Meeting of Tenons was held on 12th December
2007 and a full report will be issued in due course. Two proposals
were passed to look at membership fees and to update the constitution.
Your committee was re-elected for another term and at the first
committee meeting in January the following posts were filled:
Rosemary Dowie, Chairman : Richard Greenland, Treasurer : Rose
Hughes, Secretary.
By chance the AGM date was the day that the Bali Conference
announced that, following a U turn by the USA, agreement had
been reached to a two-year process of negotiations designed
to agree a new set of emissions targets to replace those in
the Kyoto Protocol. We are thankful that agreement has been
reached but disappointed that it will take another two years
to implement. |
 |
In the year to our AGM in December 2007, your committee, who
represent Tenons at the groups or organisations they belong
to, also represent us at various committees and seminars or
business events. The main events were:
• A 3 day workshop followed by review meetings to discuss
the new build on the old RAF Locking base.
• Homes for Good, an exhibition held in February at
the Winter Gardens which hosted stands showing environmental
products from Yurts to eco-building and from green roofs to
rainwater harvesting.
• ‘Festival in the Quarry’ one of the many
events run during the Arts Festival in Weston.
• The Winter Gardens for the Royal Visit in July. We
hosted a stand and our Chairman was one of the guests who
dined with the Queen.
• To support the Winscombe Zero Waste initiative to
encourage the village to go plastic bag free, Tenons held
a joint meeting at which we showed the documentary ‘Message
in the Waves’. If you would like support to encourage
your village/shopping areas to follow this example, please
contact us and we will arrange to show this documentary locally.
Following the meeting Winscombe launched their ‘plastic
bag free’ project at their Michaelmas Fayre where Tenons
had a stall alongside them.
• Tenons attended the NERC or (Natural Environmental
Research Council) Conference which took place in Weston in
2007. To view the North Somerset local biodiversity action
plan go to North Somerset Council’s website where a
copy can be downloaded.
• Tenons were also invited to attend the ENVEC conference,
the main environmental business event in the South West which
provides managers from industry, commerce and the public sector
with the information they need to respond to the challenges
of the environment.
• ‘Taste of North Somerset’ Apple Day Conference
held at Puxton Park
• Community Champions – A Defra backed 2 day course
see
www.everyactioncounts.org.uk and if you would like us
to arrange for our champion to help your group with an action
plan please contact us.
• Whenever possible we visit our groups’ open
meetings which included Wrington’s transition meetings
and also attended Transition Bristol’s ‘The Big
Event’ at the Council House. Bristol, like Wrington,
are on the way to becoming a transition area. See www.transitiontowns.org/.
|
Meeting 29 August 2007:
Documentary "Message in the waves" (www.messageinthewaves.com)
at Winscombe Community Association Hall
|
 |
July 2007:
Her Majesty the Queen visited Weston for the first
time in 30 years and Rosemary Dowie, in her role as the Chairman
of TENONS was one of the specially invited guests who dined
with the Queen and Prince Philip at the Winter Gardens.
As part of the day’s programme a few selected groups
and organisations were asked to set up stands and TENONS were
honoured to be among those chosen. |
 |
Our exhibit was manned by Walters Mundi and Rose
Hughes who, in a demanding week, created a stand highlighting many
of the environmental groups belonging to the Network and also providing
an overall view on current environmental concerns both local and
global.
There were about 200 specially invited guests who
spent time viewing the exhibition in the morning and, after luncheon
and the toast in local golden sparkling cider, the Queen with Lady
Gass stopped to see the stands before she left, and graciously extended
her time to speak to every one. A memorable day for all.
National Allotments Week 13th to 19th August 2007
A Case for Allotments With the increasing
trend of building more houses in ever smaller areas resulting
in tiny or no gardens, there is a strong case for the provision
of allotment gardens, leisure gardens or community gardens,
all within easy reach by foot or bike.
The time has come when planners must think globally as well
as locally and long-term as opposed to short-term. Whether
we like it or not a lot of changes are promised to us world-wide
with the climate warming up, the threat of peak oil, over
grazing and soil erosion from intense cultivation. Among the
many solutions for some cities the answer to feeding the thousands
is to encourage urban agriculture. As well as small farms
on the outskirts, included will be small plots, some as little
as a metre square, in vacant lots, roof tops anywhere where
a single crop can be grown.
Now in the UK we are fortunate that we are not faced with
these problems, at least not yet, but what we have is a percentage
of people who are very keen to produce their own food which
they know is as organic as possible and which has not travelled
great distances, further adding to emissions. The food can
be picked and eaten the same day and, therefore, has not lost
any of its nutritional value and has not been either irradiated
or packed in plastic with special gases to stop it rotting.
That is just one aspect for ‘growing
your own’. Add to this the benefits from the exercise
the body gets and then the mental benefits. There is now a
new study called Eco-psychology or Environmental Psychology
which looks at the special bond we have with ecology. This
is evidenced in the many groups for people with special needs
who work on allotment sites as a therapy tool. Then, of course,
there is the community aspect of people coming together and
forming social bonds and, lastly, for some there is the spiritual
aspect from working directly with the earth.
What we need is a policy that states that when it comes to
planning new housing a certain area of land is set aside for
allotment use and, furthermore, that land in existing areas
of housing is provided for allotment use all within easy distance
of where they live.
Weston Allotment Club: Allotments Open Day at Hutton Moor
Allotment Site, Hutton Moor Road, Weston-super-Mare, Saturday
18th August 11.00 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. |
Transition Village Wrington
We are moving toward the “post carbon economy”
and we have a simple choice. Either to wait for this to overtake
us and hope we can cope with the consequences, or to act now to
reduce our dependence on hydrocarbons and move into a lower and
non-oil based world.
This process of energy descent is now being
embraced by a number of towns, cities, villages and communities
in the UK using the concept of “Transition Towns”. |
|
Meeting 11 July 2007: Dr Roger Wade on the Severn Estuary
and the effects of Climate Change and the Severn Barrage.
|
 |
|
9th May 2007: The effect of Pesticide exposure on the health
of farm workers in Cameroon
Presented by Walters Munde and Ernest Fru Che
The population of Fako division-Cameroon and
it’s environ are facing severe health and environmental
problems as a result of the inappropriate and persistent use
of pesticides. Unfortunately the pesticides that were meant
to bring good, increase food prevent or destroy pests, have
in the contrary turned against the health of human beings,
animals and the environment. Structural deformities, chronic
poisonings leading to all kinds of health hazards and death
are being experienced by workers and people living in and
around this area. |
Fire at Oldbury Nuclear Power Station May
2007: see
www.thisisbristol.co.uk...
Meeting 18 April 2007: Fairtrade - Who Benefits? |
John Jackson has been endeavouring to make
Weston-super-Mare a Fairtrade town for many years. He was
part of the team which succeeded in making Somerset, within
its old traditional boundaries, into the first Fairtrade county
in England. The FAIRTRADE Mark is an independent consumer
label which appears on products as an independent guarantee
that disadvantaged producers in the developing world are getting
a better deal. For a product to display the FAIRTRADE Mark
it must meet international
Fairtrade standards . These standards are set by the international
certification body
Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International. |
|
 |
14th March 2007: Illustrated talk on climate change by Stuart
Tomlinson, follwed by a discussion. |
Green
Waste Collection in North Somerset
Quote from reply received by Peter Kehoe following
a recent meeting at Towens Feb
2007
1.
What normally happens to the green waste collected?
The primary purpose of the introduction of the new service was to
divert biodegradable waste from landfill in order to minimise Landfill
tax and LATS permit purchase costs / fines.
At the present time, green waste and corrugated card from the kerbside
collection and green waste from Civic Amenity Sites is taken by
the disposal contractor, Viridor, to Hinton Organics near Keynsham
and their own site at Castle Cary, where it is processed into products
such as compost, mulch and wood chips.
Compost product output from the two composting sites are as follows:
Hinton Organics: 60% to local farms to replace nitrogen based fertilisers,
20% to horticultural customers and 20% to landscapers and growing
media companies. The site produces approx 6,000 tonnes per annum.
Viridor, Castle Cary: 60% to local farms (mostly organic) and land
remediation projects, 20% to horticultural customers and 20% is
bagged of sold in bulk to the public. The site exports 30,000 tonnes
per annum.
2. Have any green waste collections been diverted to landfill?
No
3. What circumstances would cause green waste collection to be
sent to landfill?
None from North Somerset Council. The vehicles have been hired out
when not being used for Green Waste purposes. A quantity of green
waste was used in Long Ashton to create a dry access to a school
building site. This became integrated into the ground surface.
 Meeting:
19th Feb 2007: Consultation on the disposal
of residual waste.
Council Meeting Room, Clevedon
As the question of waste and what to do with it and,
more importantly, where to site any plants will be the concern of
many people, we have been chosen as one of two groups in North Somerset
to host the consultants for the West of England Waste Project. The
other group meeting was in Weston but we are holding ours in Clevedon
as being closer to the surrounding areas of Portishead, Yatton,
Nailsea, etc.
 |
The actual consultation is on how to deal
with our residual waste, ie that which goes to landfill now
1) the preferred technology to deal with it
2) where should this plant or these plants be?
The different technologies have been put to
a range of people and the most popular was a gasification/pyrolisis
plant followed by an EfW Unit - there are 7 options which
are covered in a leaflet called The Issues and Options
for Waste in the West of England. |
The
Winscombe Zero Waste Project Feb
2007
| The project was born in October 2005 when a flower
pot recycling collection point was set up at Winscombe Market
and the pots were taken to a recycling plant in Highbridge.
In June 2006 a Sustainable Living and Recycling Information
Stall was also opened at the market. |
|
7 February 2007, a screening of the film 'An Inconvienient Truth'
(U).
 |
(US 2006) dir. David Guggenheim 1hr 40mins
A
documentary on Al Gore’s campaign to make the issue
of global warming a recognised problem worldwide.
An
Inconvenient Truth is not a story of despair but rather a
rallying cry to protect the one earth we all share.
|
  |
|
