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Contents of this
edition:
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Ravensnest Fishery, Tintern |
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Local Development
Plan Makes Progress |
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With small amendments, Monmouthshire
County Council has endorsed the draft Deposit Version of
its new Local Development Plan (LDP). The plan, together
with its Sustainability Appraisal/Strategic
Environmental Assessment and its Habitat Regulations
Assessment, will be issued for consultation in the
Autumn.
The draft considered by the Council can be
viewed online (www.monmouthshire.gov.uk) via the County
Council agenda for 1st July, and many other relevant
documents generated since 2007, can be viewed via the
Planning section of the website. |
The consultation, with 'drop in' sessions across the
county, will be a chance to make representations. It
will allow new or alternative development sites and site
amendments or deletions to be put forward and these will
be the subject of further consultation before the plan
is submitted to the Welsh Government. An independent
Inspector will then carry out an Examination to consider
whether the plan is 'sound'. The Inspector's report will
be binding on the Council, who will then adopt the plan,
replacing the present Unitary Development Plan (UDP).
The LDP could be described as a 'roll forward' of the
UDP to meet needs up to 2021, based on extensive
evidence-gathering and taking account of evolving
national and local priorities and the outcome of
consultations during its preparation. The LDP provides
for housebuilding at similar rates to the UDP, but
inevitably public attention is likely to focus on new
allocations of land for housing. 4000 are needed during
the next ten years, mostly on sites already committed or
within settlements, but 1700 will be on new sites. Most
of these are in or adjoining the main towns where
development is more sustainably accessible to jobs,
shops, health services, public transport etc.
Rural
housing needs are recognised, especially by requiring
around 60% of new housing in the countryside to be
'affordable'. One interesting proposal is for the mixed
housing/business redevelopment of the 'brownfield' site
of the Mabey bridge-building site at Chepstow. Strategic
sites at Monmouth and Abergavenny are probably more
controversial.
Only small amounts of new employment land are proposed,
the Council's emphasis being on a new strategy to
accelerate the development of existing allocations.
Rural enterprise and diversification is provided for.
Similarly there is little change in shopping policies
that aim to reinforce the existing hierarchy of centres.
The plan requires all development to be consistent with
the principles of sustainable development. This and the
impact of climate change are themes running throughout
the plan. For example, the transport and land use
proposals are much about reducing the need to travel by
car, though how much can be achieved in car-dependent
Monmouthshire is debatable. Another example is the
attention given to renewable energy, but clearly large
scale windfarms are not anticipated.
The Special Landscape Areas that have been a feature of
development plans for many years are replaced by the
consideration of proposals against the LANDMAP landscape
character assessment. The values of landscape,
biodiversity and green space connectivity are now
recognised.
There is a clear intention to achieve high quality and
sustainable building design, though some may still
question recent interpretation of the rather subjective
measurement of quality.
There is a wealth of detail on many other matters in
nearly 250 pages, and anyone interested in the
Monmouthshire environment should examine the plan.
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Llangattock Green
Valleys wins British Gas Green Streets
Challenge |
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Llangattock Green
Valleys in the Brecon Beacons National Park was named
Britain's greenest energy community in July after winning
the British Gas Green Streets challenge.
The team in Llangattock have won £100,000 to spend on a
local environmental project of their choice after they
impressed judges with their ambition to become a carbon
negative community.
Over the last 18 months a number of measures were installed
in homes and community buildings helping the people of
Llangattock slash their energy use and CO2 emissions. In
that time the local school installed solar panels and 100
radiator panels, the village hall installed an air source
heat pump and 43 local homes installed 655 energy efficiency
and generation measures including insulation, solar panels,
a biomass boiler, multi-fuel stoves and new efficient
boilers. As a result the community expects to save £62,000
over the next five years and nearly 200 tonnes of CO2. |
Llangattock was chosen from 100 nationwide projects to be
one of the final 14 communities who would go head-to-head
over 14 months as part of the Green Streets challenge - a
project helping Britain's communities to save energy and
generate their own energy. The competition, which asked
communities to come up with their own innovative energy
projects, ended on 31 March 2011, and the final results were
announced in July.
Gearoid Lane, Managing Director of British Gas New Markets,
said:
"Over the last 14 months the people of Llangattock have
shown some amazing levels of commitment to cutting carbon
emissions, changing their behaviour and educating the wider
community about what can be done. We are thrilled to crown
them Green Streets champions. We believe it is people at a
local level who will help revolutionise the way that energy
is generated and consumed in the UK. The British Gas Green
Streets project is about helping people act as trailblazers
to inspire others. Already we have seen 800 other community
groups across the country wanting to set up their own energy
projects."
Michael Butterfield, Project leader at Llangattock, said:
"We're absolutely over the moon that we've been crowned
Green Streets champions and will receive a further £100,000
to invest in our community. We've all worked really hard to
get this far, and it's great to see that British Gas really
understands and appreciates what we're trying to do here in
Llangattock. We're committed to building on this, and to
helping neighbouring communities develop their own
sustainable vision. Through Green Streets we've learned
that, together, ordinary people can achieve extraordinary
things."
Finalists key achievements:
IPPR estimates that every year Llangattock Green Valleys
will generate 3280kWh from microgen on community buildings,
10,717kWh from microgen on households and save 143,055kWh
from participating households, resulting in a total
financial saving of £12,506. To find out more
information about how they did it, visit their website:
http://www.llangattockgreenvalleys.org/
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The June meeting
of the Chepstow Society was again very well attended .
The Chairman announced that the Society's latest
publication - "The Chepstow Story" was currently at the
printers. It is intended as an easy introduction to the
history of our town and should be on sale in July.
The speaker for the June meeting was Dr Naylor Firth on
"WWI Ships of Chepstow". He traced the early development
of iron and steel working in the town which started with
Finch and Co's contribution to Brunel's innovative
tubular railway suspension bridge over the Wye.
This led to some small ships being built in the
last decades of the 19th century, and expansion
first by "The Standard Shipbuilding Co" and then
by HM Government's "National Shipyards" in the
First World War. |
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Most of the ships
launched missed the war and had fairly short careers at
sea. But shipbuilding at Chepstow was linked to the
development of supporting infrastructure, both housing
and industrial in the town and the Beachley area.
Members were impressed by the detail of the research
involved and the surprising relevance of those years in
the First World War to the layout and structure of the
town even today.
Brunel's tubular rail bridge over the Wye, built
by Finch & Co in Chepstow.
After the talk members went on to discuss local matters.
There was concern that the proposed "food kiosk" in Bank
Street had been put to the County Council Planning
Committee with a recommendation to approve . Members
were strongly opposed to such an unsuitable structure
within the conservation area. Another matter of concern
was how the dreadful fire at Thornwell School had
started and what its long term consequences would be?
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Llanthony and
District Open Gardens |
After months of
drought, the June day chosen to open gardens for the
National Gardens Scheme turned out to be gray and
untempting, although it was still better than the
preceding Sunday when the garden at The Pant, Fforest
Coalpit, opened in pouring rain. But never mind: the day
produced over £1500, only just below last year's figure,
and all of it going to excellent charitable or local
causes.
Four
gardens opened this year: Yvonne O'Neil's garden at
Mione, Pantygelli, David and Christine Hunt's garden at
Grove Farm, Walterstone, Jim Keates' at Perth-y-Crwn,
Cwmyoy, and, opening for the first time, Steve and Jane
Hart's garden at Trwyn Tal, just above Capel-y-Ffin.
It proved a good mix of gardens for all visitors,
travelling around the district on the trail of the
yellow NGS signs.
Perth y Crwn, in the geographic centre of the group,
turned out, as ever, to be the day's coaching inn, where
visitors drank most tea and consumed cakes and
sandwiches by the dozen, while admiring the views across
the valley, Jim's little walled vegetable garden, and
the plants for sale, produced by the Garden Club. There
seemed to be dozens of helpers there, washing up, taking
ticket money, parking cars, selling plants and cutting
sandwiches, and it is good to see how much all these
open days are a community effort, as well as months of
hard work for the owners.
Yvonne O'Neill's garden is the one where the
plantaholics gasped. It may be small but it certainly
packs a punch, with roses smothering the pergola, a
pond, a specialist collection of ferns, but also bags of
colour. People were especially taken with the monkshoods
and towering 9ft Thalictrum at the front and miniature
6in form out the back.
Grove Farm is every bit as much a collector's garden but
has space to spread its wings. A series of smaller
gardens have been made, from formal or wild pool to
sunken terrace to vegetable garden to orchard, and all
full of fascinating plants. Everyone went home vowing to
imitate the fine turf sofa in the orchard.
Trwyn Tal must be one of the NGS's highest gardens,
bordering the hill, and stands at the end of a field
track. It has been the Harts' project for many years,
pulling round a derelict farm and its buildings, and
sandwiching them together with garden designed to cope
with the steeply sloping land (the views are
stupendous.) It's not a sophisticated garden but it is
exactly what Trwyn Tal needs, something welcoming that
blends happily into its surrounding landscape. Nothing
too much, and all very sweet.
£5 a ticket for all those gardens together? Hmm. Opened
separately, they'd make £3.50 each. But then to keep
people coming back to this out-of-the-way valley, year
after year, we need to offer good value. It's certainly
that.
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Bridges Community
Centre's Climate Change Challenge |
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Bridges Community
Centre in Monmouth is participating in the Welsh
Government's 'Climate Change Challenge'. They
hope to make the biggest carbon footprint
reduction, in a challenge with two other Welsh
community centres in Powys and Pembrokeshire.
More than 1000 local people use Bridges Centre,
in Drybridge Park each week, and it has made a
number of changes to the building to make it
greener. Inefficient appliances have been
replaced with items such as a smart meter to
monitor energy usage, radiator reflectors, and
special push taps in toilets to prevent water
wastage.
The centre, which is a listed building,
has recently received approval to install
photovoltaic panels on its roof, to generate its
own electricity, helped by Transition Monmouth
and Gwent Energy CIC. The challenge will
continue for the next 12 months, after which a
judging panel will compare the three
participating centres' carbon savings, the range
and effectiveness of its activities and how many
people have been persuaded to act on climate
change.
Deputy Centre Manager, Heather Vincent
said that she has already seen the benefits of
the actions taken so far in terms of reducing
costs, educating local children and helping the
environment. She said: “Low carbon
considerations are now an integral part of the
centre’s planning, and will continue to be after
the challenge ends.” |
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Tools for Self Reliance Cymru News |
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June was a busy month
for TFSR Cymru. The latest consignment of 13
tons of tools and sewing machines left
Crickhowell on June 3rd, to arrive in Dar es
Salaam Tanzania by 20th July. It costs over
£4000 to ship and transport each container to
Mwanza, so donations of money are just as
important to TFSR Cymru and the people that the
group helps as the tools themselves. There is a
particular need for anvils to send with
blacksmithing kits.
The group is appealing
for Co-op members to vote for them by 30th July
as they will then have a chance of winning £2000
to continue their work. Follow this link to vote
http://bigcommunityvote.cooperative.coop/partnership/TFSR%20Cymru/ |
TFSR Cymru will
be selling their refurbished and very high quality
garden tools (hoes and hooks have proper sharp blades
and wooden handles come ready oiled to survive the
weather) at the Green Man Festival Crickhowell 17th-21st
August, at the Big Skill Penpont near Brecon 3rd-4th
September, Abergavenny Food Festival 17th-18th September
and Abergavenny World Trade Fair 2nd October. Tools are
also available from the TFSR HQ in Crickhowell and a
selection is usually available at the monthly seed and
plant swap at the Priory Monmouth run by Transition
Monmouth (last Saturday of each month).
To see images of the people and places that TFSR helps,
visit their Facebook page.
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A new project aiming
to increase the sustainability of rural and semi
rural communities throughout Monmouthshire has
just been launched. Called Vital Villages, the
project will have a dedicated Community Energy
Advisor who will offer practical advice and
resources to help communities 'green up' their
local facilities.
Rising fuel costs and
cold winters mean that it is more important than
ever to address sustainable energy in community
buildings. Improvement in energy efficiency mean
lower fuel costs as well as a more comfortable
space for the halls users. This in turn will
increase the hall's usage and therefore its
revenue. Renewable energy technologies can
provide heating, hot water and electricity while
development of green spaces for food growing
will reduce the need for imported food. |
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The project has
grants attached that will support three main areas of
sustainable improvements: renewable energy, energy
efficiency and green spaces.
The Renewable
Energy Community Investment Fund - up to £50,000
towards renewable energy installation projects
(available to groups that are social enterprises.
The Sustainable Energy Investment Programme - up to
£2,500 to improve the energy efficiency of community
buildings such as village halls or sports clubs.
The Community Environmental Improvement Scheme - up
to £2,500 to develop small scale community gardens
and growing food for community use.
The Community Energy Advisor will be able to advise
residents on the most feasible options and help find
match funding for the measures.
All village halls
and community centres in Monmouthshire can apply for the
grants. If you would like to be part of the Vital
Villages project please contact Eileen O'Haire, Vital
Villages Community Energy Advisor to arrange a visit.
Contact details:
Eileen O'Haire
Community Energy Advisor
Tel: 01452 835087 or 07967 824679
Email:
eileen@swea.co.uk
See Vital Villages webpage at
www.swea.co.uk
Download the Vital
Villages leaflet
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