Outcomes from recent meetings and more

Sustainable Shaftesbury (SuSAC)'s recommendations to October's town council meeting were all adopted. This means that Shaftesbury Town Council has agreed:

• the 5-Year Tree Plan including the Orchard Town proposal (becomes Appendix C to the Sustainable Shaftesbury Action Plan), and a revised Allotment Holders policy (becomes Appendix D). Something to celebrate on Apple Day, October 21st!

• a £2k budget for the development of Shaftesbury as a Nature & Wildlife Friendly Town (subject to SuSAC developing a recommendation for STC to consider at a later date).

• a further £5k budget for the development of working groups on Transport; Biodiversity; Food; Energy – to include Climate Action Hub; Health & Wellbeing; and Green Ring/Wildlife Corridors/Maps - all subject to SuSAC developing a recommendation linked to the detail of each proposal for STC to consider at an appropriate time.

• that the Low Carbon Dorset Exhibition of inspiring photographs and stories showing a county committed to addressing climate change should come to Shaftesbury in January (or soon thereafter). The date, staffing of the exhibition and venue are still to be decided but the TIC building in Bell Street has been mentioned.

Links to all the plans referred to above are in the agenda papers for the October SuSAC meeting. Derek Beer, one of our two Dorset Councillors, offered his support to the Transport working group, in particular for progressing work on the proposed cycle trail from Shaftesbury to Motcombe. He would also like to help the Biodiversity working group with tree-planting projects. Participants in the Sustainable Shaftesbury Advisory Committee have worked hard to get this far and are now encouraged by prospects of further productive collaboration with the town council. 

The Future of Energy - what's the next step for Shaftesbury? Jenny Morisetti, Chair of Sustainable Dorset, and Energy Lead in SuSAC had a small but engaged audience for her session on 17th. She talked about community energy from the different perspectives of

* individual households interested in reducing energy use and bills;

* groups of households (perhaps a whole street) wanting to save money by, for example, coordinating solar panel installations; and

* everyone here if we were to have a profitable, Shaftesbury-based, company benefiting the town by increasing locally generated green energy (using wind or solar), paying interest to investors, and making grants to community projects.

Collectively, those present recognised that there's a lot to learn but that Shaftesbury can benefit from experience elsewhere. By the end of the session around a dozen people had expressed interest in seeing and/or supporting progress towards our own community energy initiative.

Afterwards, Jenny suggested that our local initiative might have some similarities to the project currently underway at Loders (village near Bridport), and that some of their publicity materials may inform promotion of our next meeting. Watch out for details and prepare to get drawn in!

'Six Inches of Soil', this film, shown on 10th to around 60 people in the town hall, provoked a lively discussion. It tells the stories of three young British farmers who are all seeking to regenerate nature at the same time as making a viable living from the land. Panellists commented on the supportive network that connects those local farmers using a regenerative approach; expressed agreement with a statement made in the film that impacts on our health and the environment mean that commercially produced 'cheap' food is not really 'cheap'; and emphasised that regenerative farming isn't only about food production, but has a social impact too. One question from the audience led to exploring extreme weather linked to climate breakdown and the resilience gained by a regenerative approach; a second question dealt with the extent to which Environmental Land Management Scheme payments support farmers to transition to more regenerative practices. After the event there was an appeciative buzz amongst the lingering crowd. If you regret having missed it, the film has just been made available to watch at home in the UK on Prime Video.

Invitation to join a dead hedge work party: Sunday 20th October, meet 10am

Weather permitting, Jenny and Neil at Hawkers Farm will be continuing their work on a dead hedge for biodiversity near Duncliffe Wood. A light lunch is on offer in exchange for some help to create a wildlife corridor using branches from their recently coppiced copse. For more details email: info@hawkersfarm.org

DorsetCOP24 takes place on Saturday 2nd November, 9am @Bournemouth University

The organisers have released a promotional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOlSDpvJJEA to encourage people to register through eventbrite. Students/concessions £3, subsidised tickets for others £10. The programme includes talks, workshops and more following the themes set out in “Dorset 2030” the document produced by Zero Carbon Dorset in 2021 which imagines the future we could create and covers everything from energy, waste and travel to food, justice and community action. Booking link on our website or https://dorsetcop.info/

Want to liftshare? Connect with others travelling from Shaftesbury by emailing planetshaftesbury@gmail.com

The Food Conversation, Mon 4th Nov, 7-9pm, Friends Meeting House

Shaftesbury's own contribution to the nation-wide conversation organised by the Food, Farming & Countryside Commission (FFCC) promises to be a lively event. Invitations have gone out to diverse people with concerns about our food so that the conversation will be wide-ranging. If you'd like to receive an invitation for one of the remaining places please email planetshaftesbury@gmail.com.

Stitching Stories: an exhibition to include The Red Dress & Sambali Panels will be hosted at Hawkers Farm Barn, 29th Nov - 5th Dec. Opening times will be on the Defashion Dorset website nearer the time.

Thank you to all who donated so that we could obtain another batch of the Eat Well Shaftesbury food information leaflet (healthy for you and healthy for the planet). These are being made more widely available across and around the town. The next step will be to put the information online - not this month!

Dorset Council produce an emailed Climate & Nature Bulletin that describes some of what the council is doing and details of support available to households. Follow this link to select & sign up to any of DC's newsletters.

The Stop Portland Waste Incinerator campaign is raising money for a statutory review of the government's decision (on appeal) to give planning permission. Dorset Council decided (18th Oct) not to take further legal action on cost grounds - but the campaign group has access to a legal team at lower cost and has received advice that the community has a strong case. Support SPWI's fundraiser and find news updates on their Facebook page.

Climate & Nature Bill: New MP, but long-time environmentalist, Roz Savage, has topped the private member's bill ballot and is championing a Climate & Nature Bill (replaces the CEE bill) through parliament. This is a plan for a new UK law that addresses the full extent of the climate and nature crisis in line with the most up-to-date science. See details here.

This newsletter appears once or twice a month. Please send news or event details to planetshaftesbury@gmail.com for sharing across our network