Happy New Year from Planet Shaftesbury |
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Looking ahead: meetings in January & February; updates on tree & hedgerow planting this winter; collaboration with Shaftesbury Town Council and Shaftesbury School; activity across Dorset climate action network and nationally |
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Join us in January to look at the year ahead: Thursday 19th at Shaftesbury Town Hall, 7.30pm. How much progress was made through the global climate (COP27) and biodiversity (COP15) summits at the end of last year? We'll have a brief presentation and discussion. Has the context for our local work changed? After a break we'll compare notes on our aspirations for 2023 (our 5th year). How can we build more momentum, amplify our impact, reach more people ... whilst continuing current activities such as all those described below? This promises to be a lively meeting and there's useful additional food for thought on our website. Recent Forum posts from Lucy Young (changing our diets, positive news stories) and Rachel Bodle (interesting course outlined in 'Planet Shaftesbury Matters'). A new Project page for Great Big Green Week thanks to Chris Harwood. And, of course, Blog posts to remind of past events. |
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February meeting: Thursday 16th at Shaftesbury Town Hall, 7.30pm Diana Harris will chair this meeting and we'll be joined by two local businesses offering different services linked to energy. Ridgewater Energy are leaders in energy efficiency and assist households at risk of fuel poverty. They work alongside Dorset Council to provide access to energy saving grants or funding towards heating or insulation. Find out about funding available here in North Dorset. Peter Bywater, managing director at Ridgewater Energy, will give a presentation, answer questions and offer advice. Daisy Electric is a new business set up to install electric vehicle (EV) charge points and assist eligible commercial customers to access grant funding. They are based in Shaftesbury, family owned and want to learn about how they might get involved with our network. Co-owner Katie Petre-Mears will provide a brief introduction and join our informal discussions. This meeting is open to all and will be promoted to attract those who could benefit directly. Please help to spread the word. |
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Great Big Green Week (GBGW) Now an annual national celebration, GBGW was launched in September 2021 when over 5,000 events highlighted community action to tackle climate change and protect green spaces. In 2021, Planet Shaftesbury linked the town's Tree Festival and participation in a Dorset-wide Open Greener Homes event to GBGW. Last year the week was celebrated at the end of September and was marked in Shaftesbury through an autumn programme including a display at the Library (Cost of Living - what can I do and save the planet too?), a film show (Kiss the Ground), and other events including further participation in Open Greener Homes. Our experience suggests that concentrating several different activities under a single 'umbrella' can extend our 'reach' and have more impact. In 2023 GBGW will take place in June (10-18th). Chris Harwood has volunteered to liaise with GBGW nationally and act as a point of contact for those wanting to organise or support activities for Shaftesbury's own GBGW. He will be sharing ideas at our January meeting or email him: Chris@GreatBigGreenWeekShaftesbury.org |
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Trees & hedgerows: the planting season continues Supplementary planting at Cockram's Field, in Enmore Green, at Wincombe Rec and in Ash Close Play area is now being carried out by a combination of local people and Shaftesbury Tree Group volunteers. Thank you to all those who're taking part. Join a community planting day: Work to create a new woodland just outside Shaftesbury starts on January 21st at Lower Coombe Farm. Families welcome. Directions included with event details on the website. Amenity woodland in waiting: Redrow agreed 4 years ago that amenity woodland planting would take place into undisturbed ground within the proposed public open space adjacent to their Blackmore Down development. This did not happen in advance of construction but Shaftesbury Tree group is working with the town council, and local planning authority, to ensure that appropriately managed planting takes place this season if ground conditions permit. |
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Sustainable Shaftesbury / Climate Change working group The new working group bringing some Shaftesbury Town Council (STC) people together with members of the wider community has now met twice and will be engaging young people through the town's Youth Council later this month. The current aim is to produce a realistic updated Sustainable Shaftesbury Action Plan that could be agreed to by full council. This plan will separately indicate actions that are achievable by the council, by businesses, and by individual townspeople. Members of the group have signed up to concentrate on different aspects of the necessary preparation. If it's ready, the plan will be put to council in April - but this is ambitious and it may be necessary to publish an assessment of progress against the old Sustainability Action Plan. Lucy Young, one of those participating in the group, has volunteered to act as a point of contact for our wider network - email her at LYoung@wwf.org.uk |
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The Future of the Planet was the theme for two half days (one for primary and one for secondary students) of talks and workshops at Shaftesbury School on 11th January. Jocelyn Elson-Riggins, a participant in our network, put the day together and recruited a couple of additional volunteers to offer practical help on the day. Alex More, Assistant Headteacher, wrote: "Just to say a huge thanks and well done to Jocelyn who organised an excellent STEAM 'Future of the Planet' event yesterday. 185 children engaged with excellent speakers. The feedback has been really positive so thank you for Planet Shaftesbury's ongoing support." There are two more themed days in the The Future of ... series with additional volunteering opportunities: Music (8th March) and Fashion (10th May). If you'd like to join those helping the school to manage the influx of visitors - with opportunities to sit in the sessions - email Rachel c/o planetshaftesbury@gmail.com. STOP PRESS: We received a last minute request for help on Tuesday 17th for a Learn to Earn Day at Shaftesbury School. They were looking for volunteers to speak with children about careers and advice about jobs, employment. The organiser of the day, and Careers Lead at the school, is Claire Brown (Claire.BROWN@shaftesburyschool.co.uk). Please contact Claire if you could be available for part of the day, or if you want to connect and participate in the future. |
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Help wanted! A personal plea ... Anyone in our network can ask for support if they want to initiate a Shaftesbury event or activity. Poster design and display. Publicity through the newsletter. Discussion at a meeting. Information on the website. It works so long as there's a central point through which we can all connect with our requests and offers. And being at that central point by handling emails and editing the newsletter is not overly onerous and provides me with a lot of satisfaction. However, during 2023 I need to have some medical treatment that will affect my availability to some unpredictable degree. If you could be 'on call' or work alongside me for a while so that you could cover for the odd week or month, please let me know. Thank you! rachel.bodle@gmail.com Liaison? Planet Shaftesbury is currently loosely associated with Friends of the Earth (FoE) as a Climate Action Group. FoE is now requiring that groups in their climate action network should have a named liaison person who can receive messages, will sometimes participate in regional gatherings (usually online), and who can share FoE information with local associates. The person who used to play this role has moved away so there's an opportunity for someone else to step in, or we will revert to supporting FoE at arm's length. Comments or offers to Rachel, c/o planetshaftesbury@gmail.com |
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News from across Dorset Climate Action Network (Dorset CAN) A General Meeting of network members on December 14th agreed to wind up the existing organisation and apply to the Charity Commission to be registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). The Dorset CAN Rivers and Beaches campaign has news of a range of local rivers initiatives and is hosting an online public meeting on 30th January to share information and experience for anyone involved in, or wanting to be involved in, cleaning up their river. See link to campaign page below.
The Great Big Dorset Hedge is Dorset CAN’s campaign to survey, map, plant, expand, extend and join up sections of hedgerow across Dorset into multiple corridors that promote biodiversity and help wildlife to flourish. It’s already been widely featured in the media and has won a grant award from Dorset AONB. The core team of Julie Leah, Ian Duckworth, John Calder, Sheila Hawkins and John Blanchard have got the system up and running with a detailed survey process, map and methodology. Initial surveys are going well along the Jubilee Trail in West Dorset and North Dorset (Jenny Morisetti and Ros Eveleigh) and on Dorset Wildlife Trust Land and other private estates. To become involved locally please contact jennymorisetti@hotmail.com
There will be a Dorset CAN fundraising ceilidh and supper on Burns Night, January 27th. The venue has been rearranged and is now in Sherborne. Details on our website. |
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XR Changes Tactics: On 1st January Extinction Rebellion made a New Year's Resolution to not undertake any disruptive actions targeting the public for the next 100 days. Quote: ‘we will prioritise attendance over arrest and relationships over roadblocks, as we stand together and become impossible to ignore’. This is an opportunity to shift the priority from public disruption to disrupting the narrative that activists are a nuisance. It's time to challenge the power at Government, those responsible for the climate and ecological crises.
They are planning a big demo in April and are hoping to get 100,000 people there. To do that, it probably needs to NOT be an Extinction Rebellion event, but a Climate Change protest involving ALL the green groups, XR, Fridays for Future, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace etc etc - but why stop there? Lets face it, climate change is an issue that affects EVERYONE, and therefore every organisation.
Quote: 'Be there and choose your future' (See link below) |
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Power for People, the campaign to create dramatic growth in community renewable energy generation, is moving ahead. In December, two amendments to the Government's Energy Bill (based on their Local Electricity Bill and enabling community energy schemes to sell their clean power to local people) were debated in the House of Lords. The debate indicated that there's likely to be enough support in the Lords to win a vote on these amendments at the next stage of the Energy Bill (probably February). See more through the link below. |
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