The Environmental Network Of North Somerset: News Archive 2007

Previously... News from 2007

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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

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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.

Photgraph courtesy of North Somerset Council

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”.

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Meeting 11 July 2007: Dr Roger Wade on the Severn Estuary and the effects of Climate Change and the Severn Barrage.

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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.

See the website www.rubbishorresource.co.uk...

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.

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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.

View trailer...

Visit www.aninconvenienttruth.co.uk...

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