Our February monthly meeting was in The Globe Community Library, North Road, Stokesley on Tuesday 17th February from 7:30pm to 9:00pm.
Everyone was welcome to join us to take part in the Climate Coalition’s ‘Show the Love’ Green Hearts campaign. We made 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.
Minutes from CASaV Group Meeting Tuesday 17th February 2026
Attendees: Caryn, Helen, Derek, Kate, Wendy, David, Robert, Kirk, Simon, Jenny, Bridget
Apologies were received from Ron, Barry, Pete & Joy, and Helen Herring.
Green Hearts Campaign (“Show the Love”)
Kate reported on the “Show the Love” campaign held in conjunction with the Repair Cafe. The campaign, spearheaded by the Climate Coalition, encourages people to create green hearts representing things they love that are threatened by climate change.
35 bags were prepared, with 5 remaining. Approximately nine hearts were collected on the day,.
Action: Kate will send the collected hearts to Rishi Sunak and David Skaith (Mayor) and submit a composite letter to the North Yorkshire Council,.
Caryn wrote the February Climate Column in the D&S Times tying her personal story to the campaign. Kate’s next column will focus on energy and potentially solar farms,,.
Upcoming Events
Great Big Green Week: Scheduled for June 6th–14th. A Repair Cafe will be held on the last Saturday of this week.
Great Ayton Fete: Occurs the same Saturday in June. Helen has offered to run a stall.
Catherine Howell Talk: Scheduled for March 17th. The topic is seed resilience.
April 25th Town Hall Event Planning
Bridget reported back on the Greening Leaflet sub-committee’s work.
Background: Based on inspiration from the Greening campaign it was decided that CASaV should leaflet our whole area to allow people to show their support for environmental action of all types and potentially hold an event. So, a community outreach event is scheduled for April 25th at the Town Hall (Stokesley Room and Jack Brenton Room booked),.
Objective: To reach every household in the area. Leaflets/flyers will be delivered to Stokesley, Great Ayton, and surrounding villages,.
Branding: The group discussed names for the event, including “The Greening Event,” “Eco Fair,” “Eco Vision,” and “Our Green Tomorrow.”
Funding/Support: The group is coordinating with the “Village Green” campaign (North Yorkshire/Community First Yorkshire). Patrick from Village Green is reviewing the poster design.
Theme: The focus is on “What If” (visioning a positive future) rather than just “What Is”.
Visual Aid: Pete created a weighted egg timer model to visualize time running out versus a positive future. The group discussed how to use this to balance urgency with hope,,.
Planned Stalls/Activities:
Nature: Focusing on the Codbeck project, Potash, invasive species, and citizen science.
Food: “Beans is How” campaign, Eat Lancet report, and seed/seedling giveaways,.
Health: Potential collaboration with HDRC regarding the link between climate change and health.
Waste/Resources: Repair Cafe promotion, upcycling, and reducing plastics. A children’s activity something like planting sunflower seeds in paper pots.
Energy: Focusing on warm homes and solar energy examples (e.g., Marian Wilston’s array and Pete’s passive house).
Transport: Promoting public transport (bus/rail) and the “20’s Plenty” (20mph zone) consultation for Great Ayton.
Interactive Visioning: A collage activity where attendees cut out pictures from magazines to visualize their hopes for the community.
Action: Siub-committee widen involvement in leaflet / event realisation
Group Updates
River/Erosion: The group is monitoring bank erosion at Holmes Bridge and Little Ayton. Data and photos are being sent to the North Yorkshire Council footpaths department. Teesside Rivers Trust has installed stakes and willow, but the top bank remains unstable,.
Himalayan Balsam: Training updates are expected at the end of March.
Heather Burning: Robert presented research from the Moorland Association regarding “cool burns” versus wildfires and methane spikes. It was agreed that a dedicated meeting is needed to discuss the pros and cons of managed burning versus the health impacts of smoke,,.
Clothes Swap: The event at the end of January was successful, with ~250 items exchanged. Swaps will now occur every four months (next in June). A link has been established with the Stokesley School to support their initiative of a pre-loved prom and interview clothing exchange scheme. £75 was given to Stokesley School as the last Clothes Swap was held in Stokesley School and to support their clothing initiative.
Food Share: The volunteer rota is currently well staffed for weekly slots, but emergency cover is still welcomed.
AOB
Hedge Planting: Volunteers are helping David Huggill with planting on upcoming Saturdays (specifically the 21st and 28th).
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.
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%.
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. 
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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 
Warm Homes Plan
This subgroup focuses on low carbon travel solutions
Wishing you all a very happy new year, a big thanks to you for all you have done to protect biodiversity and the climate throughout 2025 and a warm invite to a range of further activities in 2026.
All are welcome to fascinating and pertinent illustrated talk and discussion on local flooding resilience by Frayer Fletcher from the Environment Agency followed by a short whole group meeting.
Members of the nature group will be at the main Cod Beck car park between 10.30 and 12.30 to provide help to those wishing to participate. Please take photos of any flowers in bloom (or anything else from the natural world that you find interesting) that you see on the Drovers Road or the footpath round Cod Beck Reservoir. Please send them to 
From January we are going to finish a bit later to give time for a mid working party break. Please bring your own hot or cold drink and cake will be provided!The focus of this month’s working party will be pruning the apple and pear trees in the Yatton House orchard, weather permitting. Meet in the car park at Yatton House, Guisborough Road, Great Ayton at 1:30pm. It would be great to have as much help as possible. If you are not sure how to prune fruit trees, come and learn about the 3 Ds and an X and have a go. Tools available but great if you can bring your own gardening gloves.
Following the interesting talk on invasive species at November’s whole group meeting, a group has been formed of those interested in managing Himalayan Balsam which has been reducing local biodiversity. The group’s first meeting will make plans for the year ahead including identifying areas along the river Leven and elsewhere where volunteers can use a range of strategies for reducing the impact of this invasive species. If you would like more information or to join the group please email Bridget.
Start the New Year more sustainably by 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. 
We already have enough clothing for the next six generations and textile waste is a huge source of carbon emissions. One solution is to swap not shop! Following last September’s fantastic inaugural event, Jane and Jo have organised another Clothes Swap extravaganza for the new year.
There are many birds that come to the UK overwinter. These include Fieldfares, Redwings, Whooper Swans, Bramblings and Waxwings. Many, or more likely most, of us are unlikely to be able to identify these from a distance but we can all be helped with the Merlin App. Merlin helps to identify birds from their calls and song. It is free to download and easy to use. The Woodland Trust have provided a short list of birds that you may see, or hear, during the winter months.
All are welcome to a pooled festive buffet with mulled wine. No formal meeting, just a chance to reflect on and celebrate our year of eco action and look ahead to the next.
fuel bills and making homes more comfortable through energy-efficient technology.
Research shows that we spend around £220 million on Christmas jumpers each year in the UK and at least a quarter of those are only worn once and will end up in landfill. This year aim to avoid this unnecessary waste, wear what you already own or bring last year’s jumper & accessories to our collection points at Stokesley & Great Ayton Community Libraries November’s Repair Cafe where you may pick up something new to you all for free or a donation to your local library would be welcome. On Thursday 11th December it is Save The Children’s Christmas Jumper Day so why not pick up a new to you jumper and donate the cost of the one you might have bought to this important cause. Any jumpers remaining just before Christmas will be donated to charities supporting vulnerable local people.
Love decorating your home for Christmas but hate the waste and the cost? Want to learn new crafting skills to make memorable sustainable decorations for years to come? Come along to our crafting workshop where all materials and tuition are provided for FREE (donations to the library welcome). Suitable for all ages and skill levels (under 12s must be accompanied by an adult). We will be creating with resources that might otherwise have gone to waste like old library books and natural items like pine cones, transforming them into unique Christmas decorations and ornaments like stars, angels, jolly gnomes and light catchers.
It’s time again for our Seasonally Sustainable Stall! Come along to pick up your early Christmas gift of a FREE upcycled draught excluder to keep you cosy and save energy costs, be inspired by our waste free wrapping and home decorations (make one to take home!), chat to our festive recycling expert on how to reduce waste, leaflets available on seasonal cooking & cutting energy bills and talk to us on how we can all take steps to live more sustainably and protect nature this Christmas and the coming year.
celebrating dozens of community organisations. This year, as well as our upcycled sustainable decorations, the CASaV tree is focused on nature and fighting biodiversity loss. Bridget’s heirloom artificial tree is going beautifully strong and having been reused for decades is now much more sustainable than a real tree. Come to view all the creations but most importantly – VOTE FOR OUR TREE!!
This month all are welcome to our environmental action talk by Chloe Lawrence, Tees River Trust, on how non native plant species have colonised the banks of our local river, the Leven, severely impacting on native plants and affecting biodiversity. She will also explain what actions are being taken to manage this and how everyone can help. We will then spend a short time on updates of activities.
Running monthly now for more than three years, well 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’s working party will be working in the perennial vegetable area. The garden is being much appreciated by visitors, both young and old, throughout the year. They particularly like being able to taste some fruit or even take some away to eat later.
CASaV is partnering with Great Ayton Discovery Centre to bring you two hands on eco / upcycling crafting sessions, making festive decorations from resources that might otherwise go to waste.
As part of Buy Nothing New month and following our successful Halloween Switch event last month we will be collecting your unwanted Christmas jumpers (all ages / sizes) for free distribution via our festive clothing drawers at Stokesley & Great Ayton Community Libraries. Research shows that we spend around £220 million on Christmas jumpers each year in the UK and at least a quarter of those are only worn once and will end up in landfill. This year aim to avoid this unnecessary waste and wear what you already own or bring last year’s jumper to our collection point at November’s Repair Cafe after which they will be available to take away at our local libraries all for free or a donation to your local library would be welcome.
November is an important time of year for seeing fungus. Local woods are fantastic places to go and see the huge variety of colours, shapes and sizes. Don’t forget to look up into trees. This is the jelly ear, often seen on Elder trees.
To celebrate World Vegan Month make more of beans in your diet which are healthy, nutritious and affordable, more info here 
Foodshare – nightly food redistribution
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 
Foodshare – nightly food redistribution
Climate Action Stokesley and Villages 