CASaV Update – October 2025

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Welcome to October’s Update from Climate Action Stokesley & Villages

Supporting local action for a sustainable, greener and more resilient Stokesley & surrounding villages.

There’s a chill in the air this month so keep warm with a free draught excluder from the Repair Cafe, work up a sweat at the Yatton House Community garden working party, wrap up warm and venture out at night to a dark Skies Fringe Festival event or try a slice of spicy apple cake, the October recipe of the month.  

Diary 1: Local / CASaV (details below in newsletter)

  • Tuesday 21/10 19.30 – 21.00 Whole Group Meeting at Stokesley Community Library
  • Tuesday 7/10 19.00 – 20.30 Waste & Circularity Group Meeting by zoom
  • Friday 10/10 10.00 – 14.30 CASaV Apple Pressing, Faceby
  • Saturday 11/10 10.00 – 12.00 Repair Cafe, Draught Excluder Workshop / Giveaway, Stokesley Community Library
  • Monday 13/10 17.00 – 19.00 Stokesley Mending Circle, Stokesley Town Hall
  • Tuesday 14/10 13.30 – 15.00 Yatton House Community Garden Working Party
  • Thursday 16/10 15.00 Nature Group Meeting face to face, Stokesley Community Library

Diary 2: Regional, national & Global (follow links)

Newsletter

Tuesday 21/10 Whole Group Meeting 19.30 Globe Library, Stokesley

At our AGM we amended the aim of CASaV to “The aim of CASaV is to help the communities in Stokesley and the surrounding villages to take action on the interlinked crises of climate, food security, biodiversity, pollution and inequality by supporting and developing local initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, adapt to the changing climate, increase biodiversity and reduce pollution in an equitable way.”

The evaluation report we had undertaken on our first 5 years reinforced the need we were aware of to reach a wider audience. Therefore during our October monthly meeting we will discuss different ways other organisations are engaging with their local communities so that we can share across Stokesley and Villages area the work we undertake linked to our wider aim, find out who else is taking action in our area and encourage others to take action on existing or new activities. The steering group are currently thinking of a leaflet to send to all households in the area followed by an event to help develop a vision for 2030 for our area. Barry Warrington is going to lead a sub-group to help take this forward. If you are interested but can’t make the meeting please get in touch with Barry

At our November meeting (18th November) Chloe Lawrence from the Tees Rivers Trust will come and talk about their work on invasive species and how people can get involved.

Membership – If you would like to be a formal member of CASaV, the annual membership is now £10 for 2025-26. As a member you now won’t need to remember to bring a contribution to cover the costs of room hire for meetings and can vote at general meetings. To renew or join for the first time please complete membership form and make a bank transfer using the details given in the form.

Friday 10/10 Apple Pressing, Carlton

All slots are now fully booked but if you would like to join a waiting list in case we get any cancellations please contact Caryn Loftus tel. 0777 3048250 or email

NB We no longer able to loan out our equipment for use elsewhere.

Saturday 11/10 10.00-12.00 Repair Cafe with free Draught Excluder workshop / giveaway Stokesley Community Library

https://casav.uk/repaircafe

To date over 2000 household items have been saved from going to waste by our Repair Cafe – saving our local community the cost of buying new, allowing them to carry on using their cherished items for longer as well as reducing carbon emissions from manufacture & landfill waste or incineration.

This month you can also make your own bespoke draught excluder (or choose a ready made one!) to keep your house warm, cut your energy bills and also save scrap fabric going to waste! Circularity in action!

Our incredible pink T-shirted volunteers will endeavour to fix your items – including electrical appliances, wooden furniture, toys & bikes, clothing & textiles, laptops & mobile phones. Plus we have blade sharpening so bring along your garden and home tool blades to give them a new edge!

On average, we manage to fix 75% of items, give advice on possible repair steps for 10% and how best to recycle the 10% that are sadly beyond repair (statistics). But 100% of attendees are offered free refreshments of Fair Trade tea, coffee or juice as well as cakes and biscuits and a great opportunity to chat with friendly, like minded people and learn new repair skills.

September’s Repair Cafe at Swainby was well attended with over 50 items saved from landfill, thanks to all who came!

Windows 10 automatic free security updates stop on 14th October, so find out what you need to do before then, come along to the Repair Cafe and get advice on what you can do to keep on safely using your computer by updating to Windows 11, or if your computer isn’t upgradable we can show you the options that won’t involve you having to buy a new computer.  Read more about Windows 10 options here too – https://casav.uk/windows10​.​

What can I do now?

Come along with your item in need of repair and sit with our skilled repairers as they share their fixing knowledge with you. New repair and reception volunteers always welcome – come along, have a cuppa and a chat or email Simon Gibbon. If you are not sure come and bring an item to be repaired to get a feel for the Repair Cafe.  

Monday 13th October 17.00 – 19.00 Stokesley Mending Circle, Stokesley Town Hall

The Stokesley Mending Circle continues, a monthly textile mending group where the purpose is to reduce textile waste, encourage sustainable consumption, and celebrate the art of mending through free face to face hand mending support where you can learn and share sewing and darning skills including how to mend holes, sew up seams and hems, alter and adapt your existing clothing, sew on buttons and patches.All materials will be provided or you can bring an item you are working on. Session is free but donations to cover costs welcome. More info email mending@casav.uk

The Mending Circle co-ordinators, Jo & Jane, also organised the first Stokesley Clothes Swap on 27th September which attracted 60 customers who swapped 255 items of clothing, promoting textile circularity, reducing waste and gathered lots of compliments. Jo & Jane are hoping to organise another event soon, details in subsequent newsletters and their social media.

Tuesday 14/10 13.30 – 15.00 Yatton House Community Garden Working Party

The garden is being much appreciated by visitors, both young and old, this summer. They particularly like being able to taste some fruit or even take some away to eat later.

What can I do now?

This month’s working party will be Tuesday 14th October from 1:30-3:00pm. The main task will be preparing the perennial vegetable area ready for some new planting at the October working party. Just turn up and join in on the day and enjoy time in a beautiful garden.

Ideas & news from the groups: Waste & Circularity (including Repair Cafe)
https://casav.uk/waste

This subgroup focuses on reducing waste through circularity: rethinking & reducing consumption; and  repairing, repurposing and recycling materials that might otherwise go to landfill or incineration.

Please join us at this month’s zoom meeting on Tuesday 7/10 19.00-21.00: contact email Simon Gibbon for a zoom link

Local recycling / repurposing collections

Winter coats & clothing – Stokesley Rotary is linking up with Wrap Up UK who are collecting serviceable warm winter coats to distribute to homeless shelters, refugee centres, women’s refuges, children’s centres & other charities locally and have collecting points at Stokesley Methodist Church, Stokesley Sports Club & Stokesley Town Hall

Medication blister packs – collection boxes now at Stokesley Community Library & the Discovery Centre, Great Ayton collected for recycling at Boots

Plastic milk bottle tops – Rea Funeral services, Stokelsey, raises funds for cancer research

Spectacles – Cooper & Barr, Stokesley collects unwanted spectacles to repurpose for good causes

Bras – donate usuable condition bras to raise funds for breast cancer research, collection box at Mowbray House Surgery, Northallerton

Used postage stamps, used but clean aluminium foil, children’s wellies, good condition underwear – all being collected locally for good causes contact Louise

Small electrical appliances – the Mind charity shop, Stokesley collects these for sale after safety testing

Ideas & news from the groups: Nature Group

This subgroup focuses on discovering more about and supporting biodiversity and our living environment. Face to face meeting 16th October 15.00 at the Globe Library, Stokesley. Contact Bridget Holmstrom for more information.

Enjoy time in nature this October!

The more we connect with nature, the more motivated we are to protect it. Lots of ideas for getting up close to nature on the North York Moors National Park here: northyorkmoorsoctober

The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust website is also a great place to find ideas of ways to connect with nature. You can find the nearest reserves including those of Tees Valley Wildlife and Durham Wildlife Trusts. A great resource https://www.ywt.org.uk/ Look out for fungus forays throughout this month across Yorkshire and Teesside.

Ideas & news from the groups: Food Group

This subgroup focuses on food & its impact on climate change – from growing your own and eating seasonally to reducing food going to waste. Meetings held bimonthly, next meeting online in November, date tbc contact Wendy Smith for a link to join

Growing Your own: October Tips of the Month

What are the benefits of growing your own? As well as health & economic benefits, the environmental benefits are: you can avoid pesticides and herbicides, which pollute the air and water, you can practice water conservation, you reduce food miles, you help pollinators by providing food for them.

What can I do now? In October, focus on planting cool-season vegetables like garlic, onions, spinach, kale, and broad beans for overwintering or quick harvests, and prepare the soil by adding organic matter. Protect newly planted crops from frost with cloches or fleece and harvest winter crops like pumpkins. You can also start preparing for next year by sowing green manures and planning for spring crops.

Foodshare – nightly food redistribution

Foodshare is a joint initiative by the Food and Waste groups and is organised by Jenny. EVERY evening at 9pm a Volunteer collects surplus food from the Ayton Coop and Premier supermarket and both Stokesley Coops and takes it to various distribution centres (often in Middlesbrough) such as Nitelight (for homeless) for use/distribution to those in need. This is fresh food such as fruit, veg and bread, NOT tins and dried food that are needed by Food Banks. Our group collects 40-60 kilos of food every day with a value of approx £250, worth £78,000 every year.

What can I do now? Jenny is always keen to recruit more volunteers to support the foodshare so if you feel this is something with which you could help, please contact Jenny here Jenny Earle.

Recipe of the month – spicy apple cake

Use up some of those windfalls in this tasty vegan cake: vegan-apple-cake

Ideas & news from the groups: Environment & Climate Osmotherley (ECO) Group

Environment Climate Osmotherley (ECO) meets regularly and holds events which raise awareness and address local environmental issues such as becoming a Dark Skies Village and increasing local biodiversity.

Contact Becci Wright for more information

Signing off

If you have any news or any event / activity you would like promoting on next month’s (November’s) update please email Kate Gibbon by Monday 27/10

Hope to see you at the whole group meeting Tuesday 21st October 19.30 at Stokesley Community Library

Kate Gibbon,

on behalf of the Climate Action Stokesley and Villages Steering Group Steering group:

Bridget Holmstrom, Caryn Loftus, Ron Kirk, Barry Warrington, Simon Gibbon

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