Newsletter - Autumn 2010
Contents of this edition:
Giving it Away in Chepstow
Alan In September Transition Chepstow held its third Give It Away, Take It Away event, this time in Chepstow Comprehensive School car park.
The event enabled the local community to pass on unwanted items to others instead of them being thrown away. Anything could be left, so long as it was not alive or rubbish, though the term rubbish is in the eye of the beholder. In the past toys, chairs, BBQs, cat litter, earplugs, a trouser press, televisions, bikes, a kitchen sink and many, many other items have found new homes. Such events are the perfect opportunity to pass on those items that you know will be useful to someone somewhere, but they are not the sort of thing that a charity shop takes. No money changes hands; people leave their unwanted items and if someone else can use it, they simply take it.
The events are organised by Transition Chepstow and ComBAT with support from the Welsh Assembly Government, Keep Wales Tidy and Monmouthshire County Council. The small number of goods left at the end of the day are taken by the charities Tools for Self-Reliance and Homemakers of Abergavenny.
Janet Rawlings of Transition Chepstow said, ‘Most of us have heard of the three ‘R’s of waste – Reduce, Re-use, Recycle - but we tend to focus on recycling and overlook re-use which is even better for the environment. We would like to encourage everyone to come along to our event next May.’
For more information about Transition Chepstow and these events, visit www.transitionchepstow.org.uk/. If you are unsure that your item would be suitable, then check out the photos on the Transition Chepstow facebook page to see the type of things that have been left during past events. Join the facebook group and when the date of the next event has been set, you will be sent an invite. Back to top
Chepstow Society News
The talk at the September meeting of the Society was given by Adrian Cook on Chiswick House. He was introduced by Keith Underwood who remembered a Society Excursion to visit the House some years ago . The speaker enlarged on some of the alterations and restoration which had taken place over the intervening period . The gardens of some 65 acres now acted as a park for the surrounding area and there was a lot of local interest and public participation involved. He traced and discussed using many slides the influence of Burlington, Pope and Kent on the unique architectural qualities of the Villa and its now restored 18th Century setting .
The meeting went on to discuss local matters . There were worries about County Council proposals to close certain Public Toilets. This could not help the position of the tourist trade in the Town. Traffic delays too were expected up to and beyond Christmas due to Sewerage works and a new set of traffic calming measures in Welsh Street. Yet more controversy seems to have arisen at the Ruffets Housing development as rumour has it that some of the most recent batch of houses are built out of their agreed positions. Members were sorry to hear that the Gwent Schools Theatre group is set to become the latest casualty in the public sector economy drive.
Volunteers in Monmouthshire come to the rescue of rare bumblebees
Recent restoration work on natural habitats around Magor and Caerwent in Monmouthshire will provide the rare shrill carder bumblebee with ideal, flower-rich grasslands, essential for them to thrive. The shrill carder bumblebee (Bombus sylvarum) is restricted to just six areas across the UK. It’s one of our rarest bumblebees and depends on large areas of grassland that are full of flowers from April to September. The Gwent Levels is one of its last strongholds in the UK.
The work is being carried out by the Monmouthshire Meadows Group (MMG) and Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BBCT), thanks to a grant from the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW).
CCW Conservation Officer Robert Bacon said “There are 24 bumblebee species in the UK, but only six of these are common. Habitat restoration work like this is key to the continued survival of our rarer species of bumblebee.”
Stephanie Tyler, Chairman of MMG said “The scrub cutter – a type of heavy duty lawn mower purchased with the CCW grant - has really helped the dedicated volunteers’ efforts to improve the overgrown sites.”
Although some of the sites are owned by members of the Monmouthshire Meadows Group, the group has also contacted local landowners to tell them about the work.
Pippa Rayner, Conservation Officer for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust said: “The Monmouthshire Meadows Group have worked closely with local landowners, giving them good advice on how to manage grasslands for bumblebees and other wildlife. The involvement of landowners is invaluable so that our grassland restoration efforts can extend over wider areas in Monmouthshire, helping to expand the range of the shrill carder bumblebee.”
For more information about the Monmouthshire Meadows Group and Bumblebee Conservation Trust or if you would like to get involved go to: www.monmouthshiremeadows.co.uk or www.bumblebeeconservation.org
The Monmouthshire Meadows Group and Bumblebee Conservation Trust play a crucial role in helping to meet the Local Biodiversity Action Plan Targets (LBAP) in the area through improving and restoring grassland habitats for wildlife. This project has been funded by the Countryside Council for Wales through a grant to the Monmouthshire Meadows Group who have done the work in partnership with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Back to news index
Gwent Living Churchyards Project
The Gwent Living Churchyards Project has been operating for the last 3 years to help local people to learn more about the wildlife and history of churchyards, and to join in helping to care for them. The Living Churchyards Project is now reaching the end of its funded period.
The project has been run by Gwent Wildlife Trust and has been very successful in enthusing new people about history and wildlife. 75 churchyards groups have contacted the project for information and advice over the last 3 years. 25 of these have been supported more closely. New data on species and habitats has been collected and basic wildlife friendly care plans have been developed. Talks and training sessions have attracted 600 people, ranging from training to restore stone churchyard walls, to talks on churchyard yews and lichens. Local churchyard groups have organised open days and events such as haycutting and raking, fungi forays, bug hunts and native bulb planting with local schools. More than 10 groups have been successful in getting funding to produce information leaflets and interpretation boards to spread the word about their churchyards.
Back to news index
TFSR Cymru show the true spirit of Christmas
TFSR Cymru have come up with a novel idea for Christmas gifts. With a consignment of 70 sewing machines and 30 toolkits due to be sent to Tanzania next April, the group are offering the opportunity for people to give a donation to TFSR Cymru on behalf of their friends and relations knowing that it will help meet the shipping costs. Transporting a sewing machine to Tanzania costs £10, a toolkit £25, and a treadle sewing machine £30. In exchange TFSR will provide a card for each donation made, with details of the item sent, and who will benefit from it.
If you would like to help the people of Tanzania, follow this link. http://www.tfsrcymru.org.uk/xmas-gifts
The TFSR Cymru Facebook page has a great gallery of photos from a recent visit to Tanzania, showing what everyday life is like for the beneficiaries of the tools.
Even more news from TFSR Cymru, Tony Care, their stalwart volunteer and organiser, was deservedly awarded an Outstanding Achievement Award at the Cylch Wales Recycling Awards in October.
South East Wales Energy Agency
The South East Wales Energy Agency is an independent charity based in Newport, covering the whole of south east Wales. The agency aims to help people reduce their current energy usage by providing free, impartial energy saving advice and promoting insulation grants. For householders, the benefit of energy efficiency is a warmer, more comfortable home and reduced energy bills.
In Monmouthshire, our Healthy Homes scheme targets those who have or are at risk of suffering from illness due to a cold, damp home. A cold damp home can lead to the deterioration of an existing health condition or the development of new health problems. Healthy Homes aims to provide affordable warmth for vulnerable householders and help reduce the number of people suffering from a cold or damp related illness. The scheme will also work towards reducing fuel poverty (fuel poverty means having to spend more than 10% of your disposable income on fuel bills).
Training in fuel poverty will be provided for health, voluntary or community workers who are most likely to come into contact with those who are at risk of fuel poverty. For example, the elderly or those with a long-term health condition are often not able to get out and about much, so they are faced with having to heat their home for longer as well as possibly not being able to work or having a low income. We also offer a one hour FREE training session to key workers, for further information please ring Elaine at 01633 223 119.
The scheme is primarily aimed at owner occupiers in receipt of qualifying benefits which entitle them to have insulation or heating works carried out free of charge. However, all residents in local authorities taking part are eligible to be referred and we will put them in contact with the relevant organisation to deal with their particular need.
The Energy Advice Centre is open Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm and has a freephone advice line 0800 622 6110. Our friendly, helpful staff can help with any enquiry you might have about energy efficiency or insulation, and can also assess your eligibility for a grant. Grants for cavity wall insulation and loft insulation are open to all homeowners and private tenants. The advice centre staff can also go out to meet the public at local events to provide energy advice and give away energy saving lightbulbs.
If you would like us to attend your event or for free impartial advice about energy saving, call us on 0800 622 6110 or visit our website www.sewenergy.org.uk
A Living Wales - a new framework for our environment, our countryside and our seas
The Welsh Assembly Government has released a consultation document aimed at improving management of the environment in its interconnected entirety. The document attempts to address some key areas – the failure of Wales, in common with most other countries, to meet its biodiversity targets, the failure to adequately protect our environment because it has not been viewed holistically and a failure to properly value the full range of services that ecosystems provide us with.
Our land, water, seas and air provide us with the essentials for life. They create employment and income worth billions of pounds, offer us health, recreation, sport and learning, they provide fresh water and prevent floods, absorb our pollution, produce our food, energy sources and sustain our wildlife. A degraded environment would severely damage our health and wellbeing.
The consultation document also points out that the economic value of these services is not adequately recognised – for example the collapse in bee populations in the USA in 2007, and their value in pollinating crops cost American farmers $15 billion.
The document proposes gathering information and evidence on the health of our environment, which will improve decision making and help set local priorities. It also proposes looking at the economic value of ecosystems that will reflect the true costs and benefits of managing flood risks, water abstraction, landscape, soil carbon and others. This will provide a better basis for decision making, and a stronger incentive to prevent damage to our environment and ecosystem services. The document also proposes linking the various regulatory and management mechanisms to create a more integrated approach. It also raises questions about the effectiveness of the way that planning frameworks and strategies work to protect our environment, and asks if these can be improved. The proposed merger of functions currently undertaken by Forestry Commission Wales, Countryside Council for Wales and Environment Agency Wales is also included in the document, as one of the ways in which a more integrated approach might assist in improving the health of the environment.
The consultation closes on 31st December, and the full document is available at http://wales.gov.uk/docs/desh/consultation/101007livingwalesen.pdf
Click here for Previous editions of the newsletter
Back to top
