Welcome to February’s Update from Climate Action Stokesley & Villages
Supporting local action for a sustainable, greener and more resilient Stokesley & surrounding villages
Diary 1: CASaV / local (details below in newsletter)
Tuesday 17/2 19.30 Whole group meeting at Stokesley Community Library
Monday 9/2 17.00 – 19.00 Stokesley Mending Circle, Stokesley Town Hall
Tuesday 10/2 13.30 – 15.30 Yatton House Community Garden Working Party
Tuesday 10/2 19.00 – 20.30 Waste & resources group meeting by zoom
Thursday 19/2 15.00 Nature group meeting Stokesley Community Library
Saturday 14/2 10.00 – 12.00 ‘Show the Love’ Repair & Reuse Cafe with sustainable goody bag giveaway
Saturday 21/2 & Saturday 28/2 10.00 – 14.00 Hedge planting for biodiversity & climate change resilience at Kirby
Save the date for upcoming events in March
Saturday 14/3 Sustainable Fashion Week: Future Citizen Fashion Show & launch of Preloved Fancy Clothes Boutique Stokesley School
Tuesday 17/3 19.30 Seed Sovereignty Talk & Whole Group Meeting Stokesley Community Library
Thursday 26/3 19.00 Food group meeting by zoom
2: Regional, National & Global (follow links)
Feb 2nd World Wetlands Day worldwetlandsday
Feb 13 – Mar 1 Dark Skies Festival North York Moors darkskies north-york-moors
Feb 14 – 21 National Nestbox Week BTO nestboxweek
Tuesday 19.30 Whole group meeting at Stokesley Community Library
Everyone welcome to join us to take part in the Climate Coalition’s ‘Show the Love’ Green Hearts campaign. We will be making green hearts to send a message to our MP and council decision makers asking them to support initiatives which address climate change and protect our local environment followed by our monthly round up from our sub groups.
Our next bi-monthly talk will be at our March meeting 17/3 19.30 on ‘Seed Sovereignty’ by Catherine Howell who works for the Gaia Foundation. Did you know one hundred years ago not a single seed was owned by anyone and today seeds are one of the most controlled commodities in the world? Come and find out what seed sovereignty is and why it matters. More info here seedsovereignty
Monday 9/2 17.00 – 19.00 Stokesley Mending Circle, Stokesley Town Hall
All are warmly welcome to join the Mending Circle which meets every second Monday early evening. Learn sewing / mending super powers from scratch or get help and inspiration with your current sewing project. Mending clothes has a significant positive climate impact by reducing waste and conserving resources, as extending a garment’s life by just nine months can lower its carbon, water, and waste footprints by 20–30%.
Clothes Swap success!
Jane and Jo who run the Mending Circle also organise regular Clothes Swap events. On 24/1 their latest session, now sited at Stokesley School, attracted nearly 60 participants who brought 245 items and took away 233, not only saving themselves the cost of buying new but also saving the planet from waste and conserving our earth’s precious resources. Look for Stokesley Clothes Swap on Facebook and Instagram for details of the next Clothes Swap on Saturday 20th June and future dates so you don’t miss out!
Tuesday 10/2 13.30 – 15.30 Yatton House Community Garden Working Party
Thank you to those who helped prune the fruit trees in the Yatton House orchard last month and thank you to the members of Yatton House who baked us some tasty scones. This month we will be clearing a border for perennial veg and checking any shrubs for storm damage. Bring a drink for the break time and hopefully we’ll have some more delicious baking to sample.
Saturday 14/2 10.00 – 12.00 ‘Show the Love’ Valentine’s Day Repair & Reuse Cafe with free sustainable living goody bags, Stokesley Community Library
Show the Love to the planet by reducing waste and extending the use of what you already own instead of buying new. Our friendly pink T-shirted volunteers will be on hand to fix your household items – electrical appliances, toys & bikes, wooden furniture, clothing & textiles, clocks, glass & ceramics, electronic items including laptops and phones as well as sharpening household and gardening blades for the new year and beyond.
There will be free handmade fabric goody bags with gifts and ideas for sustainable living plus a display & information on the Climate Coalition’s ‘Show the Love for where you live’
Running monthly now for four years, nearly 2500 household items have been saved from going to waste – 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.
Everything is free including Valentine’s Day sweet treats and Fair Trade tea and coffee. A great opportunity to meet with friendly, like minded people and learn new repair skills.
Our January Repair Cafe at Swainby was super successful with over 70 people bringing 73 items to mend, 30 volunteers assisting & refreshing our visitors and fixing their items. Joy records every session and here is her latest video.
January’s Repair Cafe video by Joy
New volunteers are always welcome – come along, have a cuppa and a chat or email Simon Gibbon. If you are not sure come and / or bring an item to be repaired to get a feel for the Repair Cafe.
Saturday 21/2 & Saturday 28/2 10.00 – 14.00 Hedge planting at Kirby for biodiversity & climate change resilience – volunteers needed (lunch provided)
Planting hedges benefits the environment by fostering biodiversity, storing carbon and managing water runoff. They act as essential wildlife corridors, providing food and shelter for insects and birds. Hedges also prevent soil erosion, reduce flooding, and act as carbon sinks. Photo above shows our most recent hedge planting at Great Ayton.
David Hugill, local farmer and our council’s climate champion, would welcome volunteers to help to plant a 300m hedge on his farm at Kirkby, lunch will be provided. If you would like to do some hands on environmental action please email David to let him know whether you can make Saturday 21st and/or Saturday 28th February between 10.00 and 14.00 and let him know if you would like some food at lunchtime so he can plan ahead.
Saturday 14/3 Sustainable Fashion Week: Future Citizen Fashion Show & launch of Preloved Fancy Clothes Boutique Stokesley School – FANCY CLOTHES NEEDED!!
Stokesley School students and their teachers are organising a Fashion Show for Sustainable Fashion Week: Future Citizen Week as a launch for the school’s Pre-loved Fancy Clothes Boutique which will allow all students to have the opportunity to borrow ‘fancy’ clothes for proms, dances and work and university interviews.
They need smart dresses, separates, trouser, jackets and suits as well as accessories so please give your wardrobes a spring clearout and donate towards this great sustainable cause. Clothing can be dropped off at school reception or we will have collecting boxes at our Repair Cafes.
Ideas & news from the groups: Whole Group
Flood Resilience Talk
At last month’s whole group meeting we were treated to an informative session on Flood Resilience provided by Frayer Fletcher – Flood Resilience (Environment Agency) and Jason Wainwright – Emergency Planning Officer (North Yorkshire Council). We found out what Flood Resilience means and looks like for us and our communities and learnt about what protection is already underway in the Stokesley and villages area. We were encouraged to make a difference by getting involved with our local Community Flood Groups. For those unable to attend a link to the talk is here flood-resilience-presentation
Erosion of river bank
Photos by Joe Cornish
CASaV members have been active in monitoring flooding locally. Following this winters heavy rain, Jenny highlighted the risk to the safe access to Holme’s Bridge on a popular footpath over the River Leven at Little Ayton. Jenny raised this with Great Ayton Parish Council and Helen contacted the River Leven Sub-Group Partnership as she represents CASaV on the partnership. As a result Tees Rivers Trust have put in some measures to help stabilise the bank and re-direct the flow. Members of CASaV are monitoring the situation on a regular basis and sending photos both to Tees Rivers Trust and North Yorkshire Council’s Footpaths team.
Floodplain Meadow
We have added three alder buckthorn trees to the Floodplain Meadow and another two to the picnic area at Great Ayton Station following recommendation from Martin Partridge, Chair of Butterfly Conservation Yorkshire. Alder buckthorn is a food source for the caterpillars of the Brimstone butterfly which is moving north due to climate change. Find out more about alder buckthorn and the Brimstone on yorkshirebutterflies
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 10/2 19.00 – 20.30: contact email Simon Gibbon for a zoom link
Local recycling / repurposing collections
Medication blister packs – collection boxes now at Stokesley Community Library & the Discovery Centre, Great Ayton collected for recycling at Boots stores in Northallerton and Guisborough (or better still use the recycling points in Boots directly).
Since restarting the collection box in Stokesley Community Library last November our group has ensured that ten standard bin bags full of blister packs have now been saved from waste.
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 boxes at Hutton Rudby GP Surgery as well as Mowbray House Surgery, Northallerton. We are hoping to launch a bra collection point in Stokesley or Great Ayton soon so look out for updates!
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 Thursday 19/2 15.00 at Stokesley Community Library, Stokesley. Contact Bridget Holmstrom for more information.
River Leven Himalayan Balsam project
An introductory meeting was held in January with about 13 people in attendance. The objective is to control balsam on the river Leven and tributaries from its source in Kildale to Crathorne. People are already working to reduce the extent of balsam on the river but there are significant areas of balsam for example between Great Ayton and Stokesley that need to be worked on.
We are working with the Tees River Trust and we will receive training in identifying young balsam and distinguishing between balsam, ground elder and dog mercury. Later on in the year we will also be given training on removing the balsam during a mass ‘bashing’ session.
If anyone is interested in joining the group please contact balsam@casav.uk. This same email can be used if you are aware of patches of balsam on the Leven, Tame or other tributaries above Crathorne.
Nature Group events 2026
The Nature Group are starting a larger project at the Cod Beck Reservoir and events held throughout 2026 may include at bat walks, butterfly and moth walks, and fungus forays. We hope to see you there. Please keep an eye on the CASAV facebook page and remember to read the newsletter.
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 will be 26/3 19.00 contact Wendy Smith for a link to join
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.
Growing your own – good for you and the planet
Wendy has been busy stocking up the Seed Share at Stokesley Community Library – pop in to pick up free flower and vegetable seeds. Growing your own not only benefits you physically, it’s also good for your mental health too, read more here why-gardening-is-good-for-your-mental-health
Ideas & news from the groups: Energy
Warm Homes Plan
The UK Government’s Warm Homes Plan was published on 21/1 is a £15 billion strategy designed to upgrade up to five million homes by 2030. The plan focuses on reducing energy bills, tackling fuel poverty, and decarbonising the housing stock through electrification and modern efficiency standards.
Of specific interest to climate & environment groups is the £5 billion promised to provide free energy efficiency measures for low-income and fuel-poor households. This includes grants for solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, and insulation.
For all households a £2 billion fund will offer interest-free or low-interest loans to help homeowners cover the upfront costs of green technologies like solar panels and batteries.
To support our community to take participate in these climate protecting measures our group is organising some information events in the coming months, please keep an eye out (social media / emails / Climate Column in Darlington & Stockton Times) for information.
Ideas & news from the groups: Travel
This subgroup focuses on low carbon travel solutions
Suggest locations for electric vehicle charging points
Do you know a good spot for an on-street electric vehicle charger? If so, North Yorkshire Council wants to hear from you. You can submit your suggestion through their request tool (below) and they’ll consider it when planning future installations.
Barry Warrington is following up with the council to see when we should expect the planned EV chargers in Stokesley and Great Ayton to be in operation that were stalled due to the installation company going bust but if you know know of other suitable places please use the council’s request tool: roads-parking-and-travel/electric-vehicle-charging
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 (March) update please email Kate Gibbon by Thursday 26/2
Hope to see you at the whole group meeting Tuesday 17/2 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, Helen Almond, Simon Gibbon
Climate Action Stokesley and Villages 