Community Orchard Follow-up Meeting

on Monday 30^th January, 6.30pm – 7.45pm at

Sherborne Abbey Primary School, Lenthay Road, Sherborne

The meeting will provide an opportunity for local residents to further discuss the potential for creating a Community Orchard and how ideas might be taken forward.

This house believes that the risks involved in the generation of electricity by nuclear power make it unusable.

Speakers are Nigel Knee of EDF Energy and Alister Scott from Sussex University. Audience participation and discussion is welcome and actively encouraged!

The debate is at the Senior Lunch Club, Digby Road Sherborne, starting at 7:30pm on Wednesday 23rd November. For more information contact Bob Barker on 01935 813896 or visit the  Sherborne Science Cafe website. Do come along to what promises to be an interesting and exciting evening.

Always seeking new ways to encourage local, sustainable food initiatives which may benefit the community for years to come, Transition Sherborne have started a Community Orchard Group and are keen to work with local residents who are interested in setting up and running Sherborne’s first community orchard. Whilst searching for a suitable location, we have recently discovered a green space next to the allotments, between South Avenue and Lenthay Close which could prove an ideal site. This area already has some native trees and bushes and could have lots of potential for growing a wide range of delicious edibles!

How to find the proposed Community Orchard site

Interested in joining in?  Community orchards rely on community members  to help take care of and manage them. Do you have the time, enthusiasm or expertise to share? We will be pleased to hear from you.

Following on from the successful Love for the Future Lent study, Sherborne Baptist Church (with the help of Transition Sherborne) will be running an Open Space discussion afternoon at 2pm on Thursday 27th October at the Baptist Church, North Road, Sherborne DT9 3JN. The topic for discussion will be Green or Greed? How can we create a globally fair community locally in Sherborne? It is hoped that a community project will stem from the discussion. All are welcome and refreshments and a crèche facility will be provided.

For more information contact Ken or Nicky on 01935 813430

Organised by the Green Party, a Green Approach to the Economy is a talk by Brian Heatley, exploring more equitable alternatives to our welfere, banking and growth approach to the economy.

Wednesday October 12th 7:30pm at the Wingfield Room of the Digby Hall, Hound Street, Sherborne.

Light refreshments are provided. For more details phone 01935 813467

This event has been cancelled. Please see this email from Nigel Engert secretary:

Sherborne Town Council have decided to refocus Sherborne Area Partnership of 6 specific areas of work, not including the Environment Forum.

As a result the meeting planned for Wednesday 19th October will not be taking place.

Original meeting text:

The next meeting of Sherborne Environment Forum will take place on Wednesday 19^th October 2011 2:00pm, at the Council Chamber, The Manor House, Newland, Sherborne.

For regular attendees, please note the change of Day to Wednesday, and the slightly earlier time of 2pm.

Present:

Peter Shorland (Chairman & WDDC)

Peter Rhodes (STC)

Sue Greene (STC)

Mary Brodie (Friends of the Quarr)

Jo Lowndes (Sherborne Transition Group)

Sean Walbank (Sherborne Prep)

Oliver Rendle (WDDC)

Nigel Engert (SAP)

Guest speaker:  Pete West (DCC Community Renewable Energy Officer)

1)       Apologies: Kevin Waterfall, Jo Witherden (WDDC), Mike Riley (Sherborne Transition Group) Steve Martin-Harris (Hope2Cycle) & Elaine Spencer-Wright (Food Mapping).

2)      Minutes of meeting on 26^th May 2011:   Hope2Cycle’s new Sherborne branch, selling a wide range of donated and repaired bikes as well as providing  a number of other bike-related services from the Old Parcel Office next door to Sherborne Station, is now open on Tuesdays.  See www.hope2cycle.org.uk for more information.

3)      Renewable Energy Project:  Jo had attended a very interesting session on Peak Oil at the Science Café.  The Community Arts Centre planned to install solar PV on its roof.  WDP had agreed that the remaining funding in the Renewable Energy Project could be used to set up a CIC.   Jo hoped to learn from the successful Transition Totnes education programme.  Mike Riley’s paper “Renewable Energy for Sherborne” had been circulated and it was agreed that the contents would be discussed in conjunction with the next item on the agenda.  His email to Nigel dated 25^th July (previously circulated) was then discussed.  His anaerobic digester proposal was interesting, given the recent commissioning of a digester at a pig farm in Piddletrenthide. It was believed that West Mill could not be converted into a water turbine as it is a listed building.  Peter S. and about 200 others had attended the recent Dorset Waste Seminar at which it had been revealed that there were 12 separate waste collection systems currently operating in the county.  Oliver said that Dorset Waste Partnership was planning to address this issue once the Olympics were over.

4)      Pete West (DCC Community Renewable Energy Officer) then spoke about his work.  He had been involved in renewables for the last 10 years, 9 of which were in local government.  He recommended that Sherborne Renewable Energy project linked in with www.sustainabledorset.org.uk/community-energy, if it had not already done so, in order to share information with other projects.  Suffolk Community Renewables (http://www.greensuffolk.org/communities) was another invaluable source of information for community groups hoping to promote and generate local renewable energy, including the governance requirements which could be considerable.  EIS were no longer tax-exempt. Local investors might well be interested in signing up.   DCC itself was planning to invest £1.5m in PV on schools.  The planning process for installing PV on listed buildings had recently been simplified.   PV installers could provide the technical advice required.

He moved on to talk about DCC’s involvement with the EU INTERREG Project SEACS (Sustainable Energy Across the Common Space) that runs from April 2011 until March 2014 and includes partners from NW France, South & South West England.  There was a budget of around £7500 (50% from SEACS and 50% from DCC)  to support sustainable activities and awareness in 8 communities in the county of which £5300 will be spent on training, £1800 on buying home energy usage monitors and £600 on room hire.  Forum members thought this was something that Sherborne should seek to join, in conjunction with a publicity campaign to help local householders to save money on energy.  A printed guide to energy saving would need to be distributed as widely as possible in the town and provide opportunities for those receiving it to come along to drop-in sessions to ask questions about it.  The Westfield and St Paul’s Church Hall would be appropriate venues.  Nigel agreed to check with Mark Best on Magna’s plans to install retrofit PV as well as other ways of helping their tenants reduce their energy bills and then convene a meeting with Jo and Mark to take things forward.

5)      Local news:  Jo said that Dig Up Sherborne now has a Horticultural Therapist on board.  Progress on the Community Orchard on STC land adjacent to the Cemetery in Lenthay Rd had halted pending discussions on the possible Cemetery extension. Sabins now have a local food table, as do Budgens (at BP fuel station on Yeovil Rd).

Mary outlined recent events at the Quarr Local Nature Reserve (http://quarrlocalnaturereserve.org/). Yellow Rattle is now established, but the germination of seeds planted in the calciferous soil brought from Portland was slow because of the dry Spring weather.  About 150 orchids, a number of specifically local plants and a large population of butterflies had been discovered on a site on the southern edge of Sherborne which had been reported to DWT.  It was hoped that an effective management plan would be introduced in conjunction with its recognition as a SNCI (Site of Nature Conservation Interest).

Peter R. reported on the work of the Sherborne Stop the Litter Campaign.  He was very pleased to have been able to make awards at the Sherborne in Bloom event on 2^nd August to some of the many volunteers taking part.

Peter R. and Sue noted that 2 potential allotments at Harbour Rd were still covered in stones probably dumped by allotment holders clearing others on the same site.  Sue hoped that a developer might be prepared to remove them.

6)      Any other business: Oliver said that WDDC would be carrying out a Landscape Sensitivity Assessment, focussing on wind turbines, in the Sherborne Area including sites owned by the MOD.  Sherborne Wind Energy Project had been thwarted by the MOD in the past, with claims that turbines installed locally might interfere with RNAS Yeovilton’s navigational equipment.

7)      Date of next meeting:  2.00pm on Wednesday 19^th October in the Council  Chamber.

Tuesday July 19 7pm. Suggested donation £2.

Our July event is a tour of Geoff’s Amazing Permaculture Allotment. Geoff only recently took on his allotment and with little previous experience of permaculture has managed to create a very unique and productive patch. Permaculture is a design process that can be applied to farming/growing that works in harmony with nature rather than against it. The outcomes tend to be higher yield with less work! As well as describing his own allotment Geoff will show us some of the others there, so we can see firsthand the unique environment allotments create.

Numbers are strictly limited. To book a place please contact us via the Transition Sherborne contact form. Meet at 7pm outside the Mermaid Pub, by the entrance to the Quarr Nature Reserve on Tuesday July 19. Suggested donation £2.

Sustainable Gardening Week 2nd – 10th July

Gardeners in the South West are invited to learn more about sustainable gardening during a special week long initiative – Sustainable Gardening Week – which will take place at three garden centres in Yeovil, Dorchester and Sherborne.  As winners of several sustainability and community awards, Castle Gardens in Sherborne, Poundbury Gardens in Dorchester and Brimsmore Gardens in Yeovil, are proud to be supporting the environment by offering practical, sustainable gardening techniques for new and experienced gardens to adopt in their own gardens.

From Saturday 2nd – Sunday 10th July gardeners dropping into any one of the three Garden Centres will be able to learn from the experts and discover tips to help to protect and enhance our natural surroundings.

“Sustainable gardening is not something that is simply trendy at the moment – it has been at the heart of our Garden Centres for many years and we are asked every day by new and experienced gardeners about what they should be doing to help the environment.  The questions often refer to the use of peat or which insecticides are safe to use, or whether or not it’s safe to use slug pellets, in fact a multitude of questions relating to the best sustainable methods to adopt in the garden.  So, during our Sustainable Gardening Week we’ll have the latest, relevant information about gardening with our natural environment in mind.  From water re-cycling to composting, green alternatives to gardeners’ old favourites and new products which will gradually become must-haves in the garden,” commented Steve Fry, Eco and sustainable expert at The Gardens Group.

“Our farm shop team at Brimsmore and all three of our restaurants will also be focussing on the work they are doing to become more sustainable – local sourcing in the restaurants, and encouraging customers to buy just the amount of local, seasonal produce they need in the Farm Shop, loose with no packaging to reduce waste – these are all steps we have taken as a business and which have been recognised by several sustainability awards,” said Steve.

During Sustainable Gardening Week there will also be a board in each Centre where customers can write their top tips for sustainable gardening, the best Top Green Tip across all three Centres will win a sustainable gardening kit as a thank you!

The Sustainable Gardening Week will be held at Castle Gardens in Sherborne, Brimsmore Gardens in Yeovil and Poundbury Gardens near Dorchester. Displays, advice, talks and information during the week will highlight how the little (and big) changes gardeners can make to contribute to a healthy and sustainable environment. There will be a talk at Castle Gardens by Dan at Aqua Allotments, an Aquaponics display and information from the Dorset Wildlife Trust.

The Gardens Group is dedicated to its local community and is continually looking at greener initiatives to introduce into its garden centres.

For further information please call: Castle Gardens, Sherborne on 01935 814633; Brimsmore Gardens, Yeovil on 01935 411000 or Poundbury Gardens, Dorchester – 01305 257250

Wed 22 June 2011, 7:30pm. A talk by Professor Chris Rhodes.
Not our event but we’ll definitely be going along. One of the key principles of transition is that of oil scarcity, or Peak Oil, a topic rarely discussed or mentioned in the media despite excessive petrol prices, so this evening is definitely of interest to us. The talk is run by Sherborne Science Café and is at the Senior Lunch Club on Digby Road.