Archive
October Monthly Meeting - Going Green in Winsley
Monday 17th October, 7.30 - 9pm, Hartley Farm Shop, Winsley
We will be learning about some of the exciting green developments that are happening in Winsley. The headteacher of Winsley School, Simon White, will tell us about the school's Eco Schools programme and we'll hear from some of the pupils about their visit to Magdalen organic farm the previous week.
There will then be a short overview of what Climate Friendly Bradford is all about, including the 'bulk buy' solar PV scheme and to round off the meeting we will hear from Richard Bowles of Hartley Farm about all his plans and ideas for making the farm carbon neutral. There'll also be a chance to try a few tasters of their delicious farm produce.
Hartley Farm Shop is just off the Winsley by-pass, on the right coming from BoA. If coming by car do please try to car share.
September monthly meeting
Monday 19th September 7.30 p.m. Friends Meeting House, Whiteheads Lane.
"Beyond the Tipping Point" is a short documentary film made by Dr. Stefan Skrimshire, a Research Associate at The University of Manchester. It is an excellent vehicle for promoting discussion about climate change. We are going to use this as the main focus for this meeting to help us discuss various climate change issues and examine our own thoughts and feelings towards these. As usual, entry is free, although donations are always welcome and we will bring you up to date with the latest news and plans for CFB.
CFB AGM and 5th birthday celebration
Monday 15th August in the West Barn 7.30 - about 9.15
Please come along and join us for our AGM. The formal bit, at the start, will last less than half an hour and you will have the opportunity to find out more about CFB becoming a Community Interest Company. Then we'll share some short 'films' that were put together to celebrate the Green Streets programme, together with some food and drink.
Please bring along some finger food and/or drink to share, preferably locally sourced and we're aiming to make this a zero waste event, so as little packaging as possible please.
It's open to everyone so please tell your friends and try to bring along someone new! Hope to see you there.
Climate Friendly Bradford on Avon meeting on Monday 18th July
The speaker at our July meeting was Vincent Albano, Wiltshire Council Climate Change Officer. The climate change team was set up in 2009 following the creation of a unitary authority, and it has been looking at behaviour re energy use and carbon emissions both within the Council and by residents in the county.
The council has adopted the ECO (climate change) strategy. W C must pay £12 per tonne of CO2 emitted, in carbon tax to the government which is a big incentive to reduce carbon emissions. The council's buildings, including schools, are the biggest emitters, with transport in second place. Carbon reduction now permeates all the council's business plans and all departments are monitoring energy use.
Examples of projects being implemented are: revamping street bollards with low energy bulbs, part night street lighting and heat recovery and lighting controls in leisure centres. Energy and CO2 emission reduction influences the Council's plans and strategy in areas such as the Core Strategy, Local Transport Plan and the Housing Strategy.
The council is also looking at understanding the opportunities and risks associated with future climate change eg colder winters bring more spending on road repairs, hotter summers can adversely affect the behaviour of children with learning difficulties, and there may be a risk of greater infestation of cockroaches which will affect the work of Environmental Health. At present the emphasis is on data collection of the effects of climate change.
Outside of the work of the council Vincent's team is looking at energy reduction throughout the county by initiatives such as Warm and Well (offering free insulation of homes for over 65s, unemployed, those on benefit etc); providing energy monitors; Schools Young Energy Champions (training young people to monitor energy use in businesses) and Project Achieve (training unemployed people to audit energy use in houses and take action to reduce it). They are also exploring a Trowbridge Energy Hub which should be an ultra efficient use of heat and energy based around the revamped County Hall. Wiltshire is the lowest user of renewable energy in the South West and that needs addressing.
The Council is committed to taking action to reduce emissions (Vincent's team survived the recent cutbacks), but it is evident there is in very long way to go. We wish him well.
BoA 2026 Your Town, Your Future, Your Say!
Please take a few minutes to fill in one of the cards you will see around the town - in the library, TIC, Town Council offices and at various other points. CFB is working in partnership with the Development Trust and Town Council as carbon reduction will be an important element of what happens in the town's future. To find out more go to the BoA2026 website.
At the monthly meeing of CFB on Monday 18th April, the guest speakers were Magdalene Francke and Dan Smith who are Mother Courage Arts. This is a local group whose aim is is to raise awareness of environmental issues using their training in visual arts. Their philosophy is to Interact/Educate/Entertain in order to bring about social change. Their installations are designed to entertain the 'audience' to attract their attention and to interact with them and educate them. An example of their work was a pedal powered film show in Bath. Passers by were attracted by a tent in which people were pedalling a static bike. When they had a go they realised that they were creating energy to show a film about a local community garden. So they were being educated while being entertained. The pair have also staged an installation at Neston Park to attract children to explore an 'Enchanted Wood' and plant wild flowers to encourage bees. Both the children and their parents learned a lot! They also showed us a film they made about community gardening and allotments in Bath. In encouraging the gardeners to talk about what they do it showed the community benefits of friendships and the sharing of plants and knowledge.
During the meeting we were encouraged to express our ideas on issues relating to climate change and how to reduce its effects, and future plans for CFB, in an entertaining and engaging way. The Mother Courage philosophy and way of working seems very effective and would work well with all age ranges, especially with young people. Look out for them in Bradford on Avon towards the end of the year, when they will be working on a project with young children for Westbury Gardens. Also go on to their web site www.mothercouragearts.co.uk to find out more.
The Big Climate Reconnection
A group from the Chippenham constituency met Duncan Hames, MP for a couple of hours on morning of April 9 as part of the Stop Climate Chaos organised Big Climate Re-connection. The nine of us represented Climate Friendly Bradford on Avon, Climate Friendly Melksham, Transition Town Corsham and CAVE (Chippenham and Villages Environmentalists) There was also someone representing Bradford on Avon Chamber of Commerce and from Southern Solar, a renewable energy installation company. We discussed the energy bill and Duncan took the briefing paper away and promised to look at it and see what action he could take. He had also been visited by some people from WWF on the subject. We discussed the FIT at some length as it was something those present were particularly concerned about, also other forms of renewable energy, international aspects, population and transport, particularly rail fares, and whether we can make the Chippenham constituency the Greenest Constituency ever! . Duncan was generally sympathetic to our points and it was great to have two hours of his time to discuss climate change issues in depth.
