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

Thank you for your role in taking urgent action globally and locally on climate breakdown and biodiversity loss.

The Big Butterfly Count is this month

Diary dates

(details of all events below in Newsletter section)

• Tuesday  16th July 7.30-9pm Whole group Annual General Meeting & shared picnic supper, Howard’s Court, Great Ayton TS9 6RL
• Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th July 10-4 Roots Celebration of Nature Exhibition, East Rounton Village Hall
• Tuesday 9th July 1.30 – 3pm Yatton House Community Garden working party
• Tuesday 9th July 7.00pm CASaV Waste group meeting by zoom (link below)
• Friday 12th July – Sunday 4th August Big Butterfly Count, nationwide
• 21st July 1.30pm Restore Nature Now March in York organised by Extinction Rebellion York, starting at St Helens Square and ending near the Millennium Bridge, York
• Saturday 20th July 10am – 12 noon Repair Cafe, Swainby Village Hall
• Thursday 1st August 6.30pm CASaV Food Group meeting, shared potluck supper, Great Ayton (details below)
• Thursday 15th August 3.30pm Nature Group meeting, the Globe Library, Stokesley (NB No Nature Group meeting in July)

Newsletter

Our online newsletter / magazine focuses on our group’s values and purpose, summed up by our motto ‘Think global, act local’, beginning with global / national / county issues including ways in which you can influence policy, followed by local news and activities you can participate in that develop our relationship with the environment and fight climate change and biodiversity loss.  

“Think global”

National and global climate action news and campaigns

General election July 4th:

You’re just in time to Vote Climate

Climate Action Stokesley & Villages aims to be politically non aligned and we are delighted to be supported by voters from a range of ideologies who put the climate and biodiversity above their political allegiances. This coming election this week, more than those before, is an opportunity to cast your vote according to which party is promising to do the best by our environment by having clear actions to reduce climate change and biodiversity loss.

Climate Action Stokesley & Villages has been active in gathering candidates views on these important matters including helping arrange hustings. More information here: general-election-2024/

Richmond and Northallerton Prospective Parliamentary Candidates Views of Nature and the Environmental

CASaV contacted all the candidates for our constituency Richmond and Northallerton, that we had contact details for, inviting them “to send us a statement of, say, between 200 and 500 words setting out your views and priorities on some of those key environmental challenges that lie ahead, such as nature restoration, biodiversity loss, river pollution, active travel, climate change resilience, energy infrastructure, energy efficiency, sustainable agricultural methods, net zero targets, competing land uses (growing food, generating energy and protecting nature), public transport and funding mitigation and adaption – both in your constituency and more widely across the country. Please don’t feel you need to cover all these – perhaps just a few! It would be great to hear about your own personal and professional views on climate change and protecting the natural environment and how high you prioritise tackling the climate and nature emergencies.”

So far we have received responses from Daniel Callaghan, Kevin Foster and Tom Wilson. Their responses have been uploaded to the North Yorkshire Climate Coalition’s website. We thank them for taking the time to send us a statement.

Daniel Callaghan (nyclimatecoalition.org)

Kevin Foster (nyclimatecoalition.org)

Tom Wilson (nyclimatecoalition.org)

If we receive any more statements they will be added to the North Yorkshire Climate Coalition website North Yorkshire General Election Candidates (nyclimatecoalition.org) and we will also link these to our general election web page, where you can also watch recordings of the local hustings  https://climateactionstokesleyandvillages.org/general-election-2024/

National

Following on from last month’s newsletter where Friends of the Earth’s and Greenpeace’s approaches to enabling people to be friends of the earth and vote for the climate were covered, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have now carried out a joint assessment of the main parties manifestos in summary:

• Labour’s plans for climate and nature have scored 4 times higher than the Conservatives, marking a big difference between the two biggest parties.
• But – and this is a big BUT – Labour still haven’t promised anywhere near the level of funding we need to stem the climate and nature crises. If they win they’ll need to invest bigger in our future.
• The Green Party scored a near perfect 39 out of 40, with the Lib Dems second on 31.5.

More info here https://friendsoftheearth.uk/system-change/general-election-2024-manifestos-final-scores
Please read FoE’s and Greenpeace’s ranking of the different manifestos to guide how you vote. No matter who wins, groups such as CASaV will still need to hold the new government to account to deliver the improvements we need to minimise climate change and increase protection and restoration of nature.

21st July 1.30pm Restore Nature Now March in York organised by Extinction Rebellion York

Following the hugely successful Restore Nature Now march in London in June attended by over 100,000 people Extinction Rebellion has organised a more local march in York. Starting at St Helens Square at 1.30pm there will be a march by a range of local nature and environmentalist organisations ending near the Millennium Bridge, York where there will be speeches. Check Extinction Rebellion York Group’s social media for more information.

Citizen Science: local, national and global environmental monitoring

Citizen Science, also known as Community Science, is a way anyone can help gather scientific information in their local surroundings or the comfort of their own home.  Citizen Science initiatives focusing on the environment are becoming more common – such as the loved Big Garden Birdwatch – and with technological innovations increasing the ways in which individuals can participate, projects can even become global in scale, long-term, and engage hundreds of thousands of volunteers. The information Citizen Scientists gather is hugely valuable for furthering our understanding of the impact of climate change on biodiversity for example. People taking part as Citizen Scientists feel closer to nature and get great satisfaction of doing something valuable and purposeful.

Some Citizen Science environmental information gathering you can take part in now:

The Big Butterfly Count 12th July – 4th August

The Big Butterfly Count begins on Friday 12th July 2024 and will run until Sunday 4th August.

This is a nationwide citizen science survey organised by Butterfly Conservation aimed at helping to assess the health of our environment. It was launched in 2010 and has rapidly become the world’s biggest survey of butterflies. Over 64,000 citizen scientists took part in 2022, submitting 96,257 counts of butterflies and day-flying moths from across the UK.

The Big Butterfly Count 2024 reopens on 1st July ready for the main event between 12th July and 4th August.

Why this matters: Butterflies are not only beautiful, they are vital parts of the ecosystem as both pollinators and components of the food chain. However, they are under threat. Numbers of butterflies and moths in the UK have decreased significantly since the 1970s. This is a warning that cannot be ignored.

Butterfly declines are also an early warning for other wildlife losses. Butterflies are key biodiversity indicators for scientists as they react very quickly to changes in their environment. Therefore, if their numbers are falling, then nature is in trouble. So tracking numbers of butterflies is crucial in the fight to conserve our natural world. That’s why taking part in this massive citizen science enterprise is of great importance not just for our butterflies but for the wider environment and biodiversity in general.

See here for more information on how to take part bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/

Sunset bat survey now – October

Did you know that there are eleven different species of bats living in North Yorkshire, according to the North Yorkshire Bat Group north-yorkshire-bats/

The Sunset Survey (running from now – October) organised by the Bat Conservation Trust brings you a perfect opportunity to get together with family/friends and discover bats and other wildlife in your local area. This is ideal for you if you don’t have previous bat surveying experience. Just spend an hour from sunset (or before sunrise) and let us know what you see/hear from your window, balcony, garden or local green space. More information here: national-bat-monitoring-programme

Bugs Matter now – September 2024

The Bugs Matter citizen science survey is an important initiative measuring insect splats on vehicle number plates as a marker of insect abundance. In previous survey years, with the valuable contributions of citizen scientists across the UK, we have made significant strides in understanding the challenges facing our insect populations.

This year, we need your help, once again, to build on our knowledge and make our impact even greater. Sharing the findings from your journeys will help us understand more about our insect populations, as growing evidence highlights their declines on a global scale.

Your participation in this nature survey is vital for us to monitor population trends, address causes of insect loss, halt and reverse them.

info here: bugs-matter

Other projects

Kew Gardens has a list of 10 different projects you can take part in here:

kew.org/science/engage/get-involved/citizen-science

“Act Local”

This month’s local activities and ideas from our focus groups (Nature, Food, Waste, Energy, Transport) to address biodiversity loss and fight climate breakdown

CASaV Annual General Meeting & shared picnic supper Tuesday 16th July 7.30-9pm Howard’s Court, East Angrove, Stokesley Rd, Great Ayton TS9 6RL

Our next whole group meeting is our Annual General Meeting (and shared light supper) on Tuesday 16th July, at the beautiful outdoor (indoor if inclement weather) location of Howard’s Court, East Angrove, Stokesley Road, Great Ayton TS9 6RL  7:30 – 9:00 pm.

A report on our activities along with our accounts will be sent to CASaV members in advance of the meeting and will also be available at the AGM. The steering group were elected in July 2022 for a 3-year period, as per our constitution, so there will be no elections this year. However, as Jack Turton is now away at university, he has decided to step down leaving a vacancy. If you are interested in becoming a steering group member then please get in touch. The steering group meets at least once a quarter, usually via Zoom, and business between meetings is via email or phone.

All welcome to come and find out about what we have been up to in the last year and discuss plans for the coming year.

This will be a relaxed and convivial evening, after hearing and discussing our annual report we will enjoy a shared light supper (bring whatever picnic food you like) with the opportunity to see the progress of the many hundreds of trees the group has planted here over recent years.

We’re a friendly bunch and we welcome everyone!

This is the link to last month’s meeting’s minutes to give a flavour of what we usually discuss casav-group-meeting-18th-june-2024/

Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th July 10-4 Roots Celebration of Nature Exhibition, East Rounton Village Hall

Feel more connected to the wonders of nature and the changing seasons at The Roots: Celebration of Nature Exhibition which will feature:

• A vibrant Makers Market
• Live craft demonstrations
• Engaging nature activities
• And much more!

Come connect with the natural world through art, making, and discovery. Follow the facebook page for updates as they announce additional activities and attractions. Adult entry is £2 and children are FREE.

Tuesday 9th July 1.30 – 3pm Yatton House Community Garden Working Party

There is a monthly working party in the Yatton House Community Garden on Tuesday 9th July (2nd Tuesday of the month) from 1:30 – 3:00 pm. Jobs for July in the community garden include taking docks, thistles and nettles out of the grass area and weeding round the fruit bushes and paths. French beans, mangetout, rainbow chard and nasturtium seeds are starting to come up so will need thinning.

Saturday 20th July 10am – 12 noon Repair Cafe,

Swainby Village Hall

Our monthly Repair Cafe will be at Swainby Village Hall on Saturday 20th July 10-12

Our pink T shirted repair volunteers will be eager to fix your household items – clothing & textiles, electrical appliances, wooden furniture, toys & bikes, laptops & mobile phones, blades needing sharpening – as well as give you hands on demonstrations to encourage us all to extend the life of things we own by mending them when they get damaged or wear out, saving money from not buying new, saving resources used to make new and also reducing carbon emissions in manufacturing.

Bicycle Health Expert Andy from Sustrans is joining us again this month to provide free bicycle ‘health checks’ – a thorough check over of your bike to check it’s road worthiness plus small repairs and advice.

As usual, through coming to the Repair Cafe you can save yourself money, the earth’s resources and prevent climate damaging gases from waste going to incineration or landfill. On average, we manage to fix 70% of items, give advice on possible repair steps for 20% and how best to recycle the 10% that are sadly beyond repair (statistics). But 100% of attendees are offered free refreshments of tea, coffee or juice as well as cakes and biscuits and a great opportunity to chat with friendly, like minded people.

This month’s free refreshments include Fair Trade beverages and home made sweet treats made with Fair Trade ingredients, kindly donated by Stokesley Co-op, facilitated by Eileen Driver.

New repair and reception volunteers always welcome – come along, have a cuppa and a chat or email Simon Gibbon.

Last month’s events

There were several events last month including a range of activities during Great Big Green Week; we feature three events here:

Mend in Public event June 8th

The world’s first Mend in Public Day took place in May and we were only slightly later with our Mend in Public event on June 8th. Alongside our June Repair Cafe, Jane Mercer and Joanna Whitwell took to Stokesley High Street with needles and genius sewing skills to show busy Saturday shoppers how to mend their torn and damaged clothes. Dozens of shoppers stopped, chatted and were inspired by the ‘Street Stitchers’ who encouraged them to ‘Stitch It, Don’t Ditch It’. The idea behind the event is to stitch in protest against disposable fashion and to stand as a beacon of change in a world inundated with fashion waste. Further ‘Mend in Public’ days are planned, details in following updates. You can join in too and by participating, you’ll be part of a global creative action resisting the cycle of excess through repair and reuse.

Restore (local) Nature Walk 22nd June

Members of the Nature group walked from Stokesley to Great Ayton in support of the Restore Nature Now march led by Chris Packham being held in London on the 22nd June. We removed non native Himalayan Balsam (see feature on non native species below in Nature Group section) and removed litter.  We were sorry to miss the London march, which you can see here, but good to do something to help restore nature in our own neck of the woods.

Wildflower and Poetry Walk, 30th June Great Ayton

CASaV organised and led a walk round Great Ayton’s floodplain meadow on Sunday 30^th June. The group stopped every now and again to learn about the wildflowers that could be seen, how the meadow is being managed to increase biodiversity and hear poems written by Margaret Mawston. Poems were read by representatives of the groups involved in funding and managing the floodplain meadow: Cllr Ron Kirk, Chair of Great Ayton Parish Council; Carol and Peter Morgan; Trustees of the Margaret K Mawston Environmental Trust; Bridget Holmstrom, Climate Action Stokesley and Villages; and Caryn Loftus, Brighten Up Great Ayton group (and Climate Action Stokesley and Villages). The opportunity was also taken to pull up some Himalyan Balsam.

A new poem will be written, in the style of Margaret Mawston, using words and phrases collected whilst sat on the picnic benches funded by her Trust.

Find out more about the floodplain meadow https://climateactionstokesleyandvillages.org/nature/floodplain-meadow/

Issues / ideas from the groups: Environment & Climate Osmotherley (ECO) Group

Environment & Climate Osmotherley (ECO) is now an established part of Climate Action Stokesley & Villages. ECO organised a very successful Pre-Election Climate & Nature Meeting on June 14th. All the main parties were invited and the general election candidates from the Green party and the Labour party attended with a representative from the Liberal Democrats. The panel answered questions from the audience and local environmental groups and you can see a recording of the event here: https://climateactionstokesleyandvillages.org/general-election-2024/youtube-livestream/

ECO is a group of like-minded villagers with shared concerns around our environment & climate change. Their lead, Rebecca Wright notes “We meet once a month & also have four sub-groups exploring Decarbonisation, Sustainability, Flora & Fauna who meet regularly. We hope to encourage other residents & visitors to our village to adopt a more thoughtful & sustainable approach to our environment, and also work with the relevant local authorities to promote sustainable living.”

Contact for more information

Issues / ideas from the groups: Nature

Next month’s Nature Group meeting is at 15.30, Thursday 15th August (no meeting in July) at the Globe Library In Stokesley. Please join us there.

Contact  Bridget Holmstrom for information

Extinction Rebellion York is holding a Restore Nature Now march in York on July 21^st at 1.30pm starting at St Helens Square and ending near the Millennium Bridge

Coming up later in the summer / early autumn will be a ‘Bat Night’ which will feature an evening talk on these fascinating and endangered mammals and then after sunset a ‘bat hunt’ with bat detectors. Details soon.

Invasive Non Native Species Concerns

Invasive non native species are capable of causing extinctions of native plants and animals, reducing biodiversity, competing with native organisms for limited resources, and altering habitats. The Wildlife and Countryside Link warned recent flooding and warming temperatures had increased the risk of these “problem species” already in the UK growing and spreading.

This includes plants such as Japanese knotweed, which can cause structural damage, giant hogweed, with sap that can cause burns to skin and Himalayan balsam, which out-competes native species and increases flood risks as well as animal species such as the Asian Hornet.

Asian Hornet

Asian Hornets were inadvertently brought to France in 2004 and have spread rapidly into adjoining countries including the UK. The hornet preys on a wide range of insects including honeybees, and disrupts the ecological role they provide.  In the UK it is consuming large numbers of bees, including the well-known European honey bee and many lesser-known solitary and colonial bee species. Nature conservation organisations are concerned about the impacts of Asian Hornets on bees and other insects, as these pollinating species are an essential component of well-functioning ecosystems.

Conservation groups and the government urges everyone to be vigilant for Asian Hornets and to report any suspected sightings to the relevant authorities. The Asian Hornet can be easily distinguished from the native European Hornet, a species that poses no threat to UK ecosystems or bees.  The British Bee Keepers Association provide information on how to identify the Asian Hornet and how to report it if seen so it can be dealt with including an handy app /identify-report-asian-hornet

Himalayan Balsam

Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) is a relative of the busy Lizzie, but reaches well over head height, and is a major weed problem, especially on riverbanks and waste land, but can also invade gardens. It grows rapidly and spreads quickly, smothering other vegetation as it goes.

Himalayan balsam is considered an invasive non-native plant and is listed on Schedule 9. Under the provisions made within Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it is an offence to plant or cause Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) to grow in the wild.

The main method of non chemical control, and usually the most appropriate, is pulling or cutting the plants before they flower and set seed. Conservation authorities regularly organise ‘balsam bashing’ work parties to clear the weed from marshland and riverbanks.

Ideas from the groups: Food

Next Food Group meeting Thursday 1 August, 6.30pm at Jenny’s. Social evening with shared potluck supper. Please contact Jenny to let her know you are coming & for address, contact Wendy for other group information

July Seasonal eating

Eating food in season (local as far as possible) can have substantial positive impact on climate breakdown by reducing high-energy input from artificial heating or lighting needed to produce crops out of the natural growing season.

Seasonal eating

how-to-eat-seasonally

July is a bumper month for local seasonal produce including artichoke, aubergine, basil, beetroot, bilberries, blackcurrants, blueberries, broad beans, broccoli, carrots, chard, chervil, chillies, cherries, chives, coriander, courgettes, dill, elderflower, fennel, french beans, garlic, gooseberries, greengages, jersey royal new potatoes, kohlrabi, lettuce & salad leaves, mangetout, mint, nasturtium, new potatoes, onions, oregano, pak choi, parsley, peas, radishes, rocket, rosemary, runner beans, sage, samphire, shallots, sorrel, spinach, spring onions, strawberries, tarragon, thyme, tomatoes, turnips, watercress and wild nettles!

This month’s seasonal recipe: Gooseberry Gin

recipes/gooseberry-gin

Foodshare: Now Premier Food Store as well as the Co-ops

Every night, every week Jenny Earle, joint Food Group lead, organises volunteers to collect surplus food from our local Co-op stores as well as the new Premier Food Store in Great Ayton. The food is then distributed locally to those in need, not only reducing food waste which produces carbon gases affecting our climate but also providing a huge benefit to the community.

New volunteers are always welcome, please contact.

Ideas from the groups: Waste

This month’s Waste group meeting Tuesday 9th July 7.00pm CASaV by zoom – contact Simon Gibbon for a link to join, (previous notes)

Plastic free July

Plastic Free July^® is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities. Plastic Free July provides resources and ideas to help you (and millions of others around the world) reduce single-use plastic waste everyday at home, work, school, and even at your local café.

More information here: plasticfreejuly

Locally, you can shop with less waste using local greengrocers and market stalls by reusing bags to put your fruit and vegetables in.
A number of local shops allow you to refill your own containers to reduce waste:
Roots Farm Shop & Café, East Rounton DL6 2LE;Fletchers Farm Shop, Woodhouse Farm Great Ayton TS9 6HZSpilman’s Farm Shop, Church Farm, Sessay, ThirskYO7 3NBFive Houses Farm Shop, Crathorne TS15 0AYEarth Unwrapped, Barkers Arcade, Northallerton DL7 8LNSweet Treats (refill section), 59 Market Pl, Thirsk YO7 1TFOff the Scale, 28 Church St, Castleton, YO21 2EQ

Guisborough Refill, Tony Gallagher Hairdressing, 12 Chaloner St, Guisborough TS14 6QD
And of course don’t forget your refillable water bottle, which you can find places to refill locally using the Refill app (https://www.refill.org.uk/).

Ideas from the groups: Transport

Holiday time? Ideas for lower carbon travel

Moorsbus 2024

Starting on June 29th and running on weekends and bank holidays throughout the summer and run by volunteers, the Moorsbus covers so much of the beautiful North York Moors, great walking and carrying bicycles as well. Plan a day out in nature! More information here moorsbus

The Man in Seat 61

Thinking of travelling further afield this summer? Have a look at The Man in Seat 61 website for detailed itineraries of how to travel across Europe and even worldwide without flying. Train travel can be a more rewarding alternative to flying which reduces our contribution to climate change and brings us closer to the countries we visit. This site explains how to travel comfortably & affordably by train or ferry, rediscovering the pleasure, romance & adventure of the journey. More information here: seat61

Signing off

If you have any news or any event / activity you would like promoting on next month’s (August) update please email Kate Gibbon by the end of July

Kate also helps promote activities via Facebook and Instagram so let her know if there is anything that you would like shared via our Facebook page and Instagram if you are not a Facebook / Instagram user.

Hope to see you at the CASaV AGM and shared picnic supper on Tuesday 16th July  at Howard’s Court, Great Ayton

Kate Gibbon,

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

Bridget Holmstrom, Caryn Loftus, Ron Kirk and Simon Gibbon

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

Thank you for your role in taking urgent action globally and locally on climate breakdown and biodiversity loss.

Wildflowers in the floodplain meadow, Great Ayton

Diary dates

(details of all events below in Newsletter section)

Tuesday  18th June 7.30-9pm Whole group meeting, the Globe, Stokesley

Great Big Green Week dates 8th – 16th June

• Saturday 8th June 10-12 Repair Cafe & ‘Mend in Public’ event, the Globe & town centre, Stokesley
• Saturday 8th June 9.30 & 11.30 Flower Field Tour, Ingelby Greenhow
• Saturday 8th June 1.00-4.00pm CASaV stall at the Village Fair, Great Ayton
• Saturday 8th – Saturday 15th June Interactive Environment / Climate Action Displays at the Globe Stokesley, the Discovery Centre Great Ayton, the Hub Hutton Rudby, Labman Seamer

Other June / July diary dates

• Monday 3rd June “A Rubbish Talk”, Osmotherley Village Hall
• Tuesday 11th June 7.00pm CASaV Waste group meeting by zoom (link below)
• Saturday 15th – Sunday 16th June Great Yorkshire Creature Count
• Sunday June 16th World Refill Day
• Saturday June 22nd Restore Nature Now march, central London
• Thursday June 20th 3.30pm CASaV Nature Group meeting, Stokesley
• Thursday June 20th 6.30pm CASaV Food Group meeting, Great Ayton
• Sunday 30th June Wildflower and Poetry Walk, Great Ayton
• Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th July 10-4 Roots Celebration of Nature Exhibition, East Rounton
• Tuesday 17th July 7.30pm CASaV AGM, venue tbc

Newsletter

Our online newsletter / magazine focuses on our group’s values and purpose, summed up by our motto ‘Think global, act local’, beginning with global / national / county issues including ways in which you can influence policy, followed by local news and activities you can participate in that develop our relationship with the environment and fight climate change and biodiversity loss.  

“Think global”

National and global climate action news and campaigns

General election July 4th: Vote Climate

Climate Action Stokesley & Villages aims to be politically non aligned and we are delighted to be supported by voters of a range of ideologies who put the climate and biodiversity above their political allegiances. The coming election, more than those before, is an opportunity to cast your vote according to which party is promising to do the best by our environment by having clear actions to reduce climate change and biodiversity loss.

There are different organisations which aim to help the voters be aware of all parties views and actions already taken in support of or against reducing climate change and diversity loss.

Friends of the Earth

FOE report that they have carried out a rapid assessment of where the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green parties stand currently on climate, energy, nature and the environment, and where they’re strongest and weakest. Parties have been scored out of 10 on the 10 biggest green challenges for the next government, and FOE will be using this to encourage the parties to strengthen the areas where policy is weak or lacking, and even to firm up areas where they’re currently strong.

More info here friendsoftheearth.uk/system-change

Greenpeace

Greenpeace aims to sign up as many individuals as possible to be ‘Climate Voters’, with a focus on places that could decide the next election. Climate Voters commit to prioritise climate change – both now and when they cast their vote. The overall aim is to highlight to politicians of all parties the weight of numbers of people speaking up for climate action, in order to urge the politicians to take the issue seriously.

More info here: greenpeace.org.uk/take-action/project-climate-vote/

Vote Climate

This organisation reports that, leading up to the general election, based on expert analysis, they will rank the political parties’ manifestos according to which, if fully implemented over 5 years, will lead to the greatest long-term reduction in UK climate emissions. Vote Climate will then tell individuals who have joined their organisation which party to vote for to have the strongest influence on the climate policies of the next government.

More info here voteclimate

Saturday 22nd June Restore Nature march & rally, central London 12 noon onwards

Our rivers and sea are being poisoned by increasing amounts of pollution, wildlife numbers continue to decrease with 1 in 6 British species at risk of extinction, and floods and droughts are becoming more extreme as we see the escalating effects of the climate emergency.

To counter this, a wide-range of groups, from leading nature charities like the RSPB and the National Trust to environmental activists like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, have gathered together to encourage everyone who cares for nature to march through London on Saturday 22 June, with a simple demand to all political parties: Restore Nature Now.

The plan is for groups and individuals to gather at Park Lane, London, W1K, between midday and 1pm on Saturday 22 June 2024. From there the march will take a predetermined route through the city before ending in Parliament Square. There will be family friendly performance art, sculptures, singing and more for added entertainment for our marchers. The march will be wheelchair accessible and BSL interpreted.

The culmination of the march will see a central ‘rally’ in Parliament Square at around 2.30pm with well-known names and faces speaking to marchers about the political and policy changes needed to see to finally turn the tide for the environment and Restore Nature Now.

More information here restorenaturenow

Organisations in Yorkshire such as Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and York Extinction Rebellion are planning to organise coach travel but no details yet. Check on these organisations social media / websites for updates.

Citizen Science: local, national and global environmental monitoring

Citizen Science, also known as Community Science, is a way anyone can help gather scientific information in their local surroundings or the comfort of their own home.  Citizen Science initiatives focusing on the environment are becoming more common – such as the loved Big Garden Birdwatch – and with technological innovations increasing the ways in which individuals can participate, projects can even become global in scale, long-term, and engage hundreds of thousands of volunteers. The information Citizen Scientists gather is hugely valuable for furthering our understanding of the impact of climate change on biodiversity for example. People taking part as Citizen Scientists feel closer to nature and get great satisfaction of doing something valuable and purposeful.

Some Citizen Science environmental information gathering you can take part in now:

Great Yorkshire Creature Count 15th – 16th June

info here: GYCC

Bugs Matter May – September 2024

info here: bugs-matter

Great UK Water Blitz 7th – 10th June

info here: freshwater-watch-in-the-uk

Other projects

Kew Gardens also has a list of 10 different projects you could get involved in kew.org/blog/10-ways-get-involved-citizen-science and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has even more projects you could get involved in, based around apps – citizen-science/citizen-science-apps

“Act Local”

This month’s local activities and ideas from our focus groups (Nature, Food, Waste, Energy, Transport) to address biodiversity loss and fight climate breakdown

CASaV Monthly Meeting at the Globe Community Library, Stokesley

Tuesday 18th June 7.30-9pm

Our next whole group meeting will be on Tuesday 18th June, in The Globe Community Library, North Road, Stokesley, from 7:30 – 9:00 pm. As well as hearing updates from the various sub-groups we will have a discussion about the coming general election and how to make the climate our candidates’s priority.

We’re a friendly bunch and we welcome everyone!

This is the link to last month’s meeting’s minutes to give a flavour of what we discuss casav-monthly-meeting-21st-may-2024

Also heads up that July’s meeting Tuesday 16th July 7.30pm will be our AGM so put the date in your diary now! Venue to be confirmed.

Great Big Green Week Saturday 8th – Sunday 16th June

The Great Big Green Week is an annual celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature with events and activities across the UK. This year’s theme is making swaps in our behaviour and lifestyles which will address climate change and biodiversity loss.

GBGW link for more info

Locally we are celebrating the week with the following:

Saturday 8th June 10-12 noon Repair Cafe, Bike Health Checks at the Globe Community Library, Stokesley plus “Mend in Public” out and about in Stokesley market area and High Street.

Our monthly Repair Cafe will be at The Globe Community Library, Stokesley on Saturday 8th June 10-12

Alongside our pink T shirted repair volunteers fixing your household items – electrical appliances, wooden furniture, toys & bikes, laptops & mobile phones, blades needing sharpening – the sewing team will also be out and about in Stokesley town centre, around the market area and High Street taking part in ‘Mend in Public’ , a creative initiative showing mending skills to anyone and everyone passing by, to encourage us all to extend the life of things we own by mending them when they get damaged or wear out, saving money from not buying new, saving resources used to make new and also reducing carbon emissions in manufacturing.

Bring along any item of clothing – socks, jumpers, jeans, shirts – and learn creative repair skills from our ‘Menders in Public’!

Bicycle Health Expert Andy from Sustrans is joining us again this month to provide free bicycle ‘health checks’ – a thorough check over of your bike to check it’s road worthiness plus small repairs and advice.

As usual, through coming to the Repair Cafe you can save yourself money, the earth’s resources and prevent climate damaging gases from waste going to incineration or landfill. On average, we manage to fix 70% of items, give advice on possible repair steps for 20% and how best to recycle the 10% that are sadly beyond repair (statistics). But 100% of attendees are offered free refreshments of tea, coffee or juice as well as cakes and biscuits and a great opportunity to chat with friendly, like minded people.

This month’s free refreshments include Fair Trade beverages and home made sweet treats made with Fair Trade ingredients, kindly donated by Stokesley Co-op, facilitated by Eileen Driver.

New repair and reception volunteers always welcome – come along, have a cuppa and a chat or email Simon Gibbon.

Saturday 8th June 9.30 & 11.30 Flower Field Tour, Ingelby Greenhow

Join a guided tour around a field of flowers and enjoy the colours and fragrance! This fantastic event is limited to 10 people only so booking is essential. Please contact songmeadow@yahoo.com to book a place.

Saturday 8th June 1.00-4.00pm CASaV stall at the Village Fair, Great Ayton

CASaV will have a stall at the popular Great Ayton Village fete presenting information on all the environmental initiatives currently supported in the village including the BUG trail, flood meadows development and the community gardens at Yatton House.

Saturday 8th – Saturday 15th June Climate & Biodiversity Action Displays at the Globe Stokesley, the Discovery Centre Great Ayton, the Hub Hutton Rudby, Labman Seamer

Information displays and leaflets on Dark Skies, Reducing Plastic Pollution and Environmental Citizen Science Projects rotate around the venues to reach as many people as possible during the GBGW together with a ‘Pledgehog’ at each venue for people to make their own pledges for the health of the planet will rotate between the venues over Great Big Green Week.

Additional events in June / early July

Monday 3rd June 7.30pm ‘A Rubbish Talk’, Osmotherley Village Hall

Environment & Climate Osmotherley (ECO) Group (see below) have organised ‘A Rubbish Talk’ by Tracey Flint, Recycling Officer at North Yorkshire Council on Monday 3rd June at 7:30 pm in Osmotherley Village Hall. A free event where Tracey will cover household recycling, what you can recycle via your kerbside bins and also via other council recycling facilities as well as how the rest of your waste is used.  

Sunday 30th June 2pm Wildflower and Poetry Walk, Waterfall Park, Great Ayton

CASaV are organising a walk round the floodplain meadow in Great Ayton to see the difference that mowing only once a year has made on the biodiversity of the area.

Meet at 2pm in Waterfall Park, just off the High Street in Great Ayton.

“The world has all its beauty still: just take a look around –

The seasons’ changing loveliness; the natural world abounds”

The Margaret K. Mawston Environmental Trust funded work in the meadow so we will share some of Margaret Mawston’s poetry to help explore the area.

Find out more: nature/floodplain-meadow

Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th July 10am – 4pm Roots Celebration of Nature Exhibition, East Rounton Village Hall

 

Issues / ideas from the groups:

Environment & Climate Osmotherley (ECO) Group

CASaV is delighted to have been joined by Environment & Climate Osmotherley (ECO) which is a group of like-minded villagers with shared concerns around our environment & climate change. Their lead, Rebecca Wright notes “We meet once a month & also have four sub-groups exploring Decarbonisation, Sustainability, Flora & Fauna who meet regularly. We hope to encourage other residents & visitors to our village to adopt a more thoughtful & sustainable approach to our environment, and also work with the relevant local authorities to promote sustainable living.”

Contact for more information

Issues / ideas from the groups: Nature

This month’s Nature Group meeting is at 15.30, Thursday 20th June at the Globe Library In Stokesley. Please join us there.

Contact  Bridget Holmstrom for information

The Nature group supported successful ‘No Mow May’ in local parish areas and  is planning more activities such as wildflower and nature walks to enable people to feel more connected to nature and by doing so make changes in their lives to protect it. Coming up later in the summer will be a ‘Bat Night’ which will feature an evening talk on these fascinating and endangered mammals and then after sunset a ‘bat hunt’ with bat detectors. Details soon.

Ideas from the groups: Food

This month’s Food Group meeting is on Thursday 20th June at 6.30pm and will take place al fresco in Jenny’s lovely garden in Great Ayton (weather permitting!)

contact Wendy for information & address

June Seasonal eating

Eating food in season (local as far as possible) can have substantial positive impact on climate breakdown by reducing high-energy input from artificial heating or lighting needed to produce crops out of the natural growing season.

Seasonal eating

how-to-eat-seasonally

This month we focus on what is currently growing outside in our hedgerows – elderflowers!

Elderflowers make delicious wine, cordial or fritters. Start by gathering flowers from hedgerows away from roads, for safety and pollution reasons. As with all foraging, only take small amounts and make sure you leave plenty for other people as well as wildlife. Whichever recipe you use, try to ensure not too much stalk is included as the woody part does not have a pleasant taste.

Elderflower cordial

homemade-elderflower-cordial

Elderflower wine

elderflower-wine

Elderflower fritters

elderflower-fritters-honey

The Bus Stop Garden, Stokesley

Did you know there is a petite community garden in Stokesley by the bus stop, tended by Wendy, where people can take any produce that grows. Currently there are lots of herbs growing and three tomato plants have been added (although one has sadly just gone awol).

Foodshare: Now Premier Food Store as well as the Co-ops

Every night, every week Jenny Earle, joint Food Group lead, organises volunteers to collect surplus food from our local Co-op stores as well as the new Premier Food Store in Great Ayton. The food is then distributed locally to those in need, not only reducing food waste which produces carbon gases affecting our climate but also providing a huge benefit to the community.

New volunteers are always welcome, please contact.

Ideas from the groups: Waste

This month’s Waste group meeting Wednesday  7.00pm by zoom – contact Simon Gibbon for a link to join, (previous notes)

Sunday June 16th World Refill Day

Our throwaway culture is polluting our planet and we need to turn off the tap when it comes to single-use plastic. Globally, we use millions of tonnes every year and it’s becoming clear that we can’t recycle our way out of our plastic problem. Plastic is not only polluting our planet, impacting communities around the world, and contributing to the climate crisis, but it’s making its way into our bodies through the air we breathe and the food we eat.

We urgently need to shift from our disposable, single-use culture to a more sustainable, circular future, with reuse & refill at the centre.

World Refill Day is a global campaign to prevent plastic pollution and help people live with less waste. A day of action uniting our global community every year on 16th June, the campaign is designed to create an alternative vision of the future and accelerate the transition away from single-use plastic towards refill & reuse systems.  

We have produced an information display of simple ways you can reduce your consumption of single use plastic, including refilling existing containers which will be available to see at the Globe and the Discovery Centre during Great Big Green Week.

More info here world-refill-day.

Locally, you can shop with less waste using local greengrocers and reusing bags to put your fruit and vegetables in. A number of local shops allow you to refill to reduce waste:Roots Farm Shop & Café, East Rounton DL6 2LE;Fletchers Farm Shop, Woodhouse Farm Great Ayton TS9 6HZ;Spilman’s Farm Shop, Church Farm, Sessay, ThirskYO7 3NB;  Five Houses Farm Shop, Crathorne TS15 0AY;Earth Unwrapped, Northallerton;Sweet Treats (refill section), Thirsk;Off the Scale, Castleton.  
And of course don’t forget your refillable water bottle, which you can find places to refill locally using the Refill app (https://www.refill.org.uk/).

Signing off

If you have any news or any event / activity you would like promoting on next month’s (June) update please email Kate Gibbon by the end of June

Kate also helps promote activities via Facebook and Instagram so let her know if there is anything that you would like shared via our Facebook page and Instagram if you are not a Facebook / Instagram user.

Hope to see you at the CASaV whole group gathering on Tuesday 18th June at the Globe Community Library, Stokesley

Kate Gibbon,

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

Bridget Holmstrom, Caryn Loftus, Jack Turton, Ron Kirk and Simon Gibbon

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

Thank you for your role in taking urgent action globally and locally on climate breakdown and biodiversity loss.

Diary dates

(event details below)

• Tuesday 21st May 7.30-9pm Whole group meeting, the Globe, Stokesley
• 1st – 31st May ‘No Mow May’
• Saturday 6th – Sunday 12th May National Hedgerow Week
• Tuesday 14th May 1.30-3pm Yatton House Community Garden Working Party, Great Ayton
• Tuesday 14th May 7.00pm Waste group meeting by zoom (details below)
• Thursday 16th May 3.30pm Nature group meeting, the Globe, Stokesley
• Saturday 18th May 10.00-12.00 May Repair Cafe, Bike Health Checks & #Mend It May, Swainby Village Hall
• Wednesday 22nd May 6.00-7.30pm ‘The Energy Source Challenge in Rural Britain’ Talk, Chapelgarth, Great Broughton
• Tuesday 28th May 6.30pm Local Energy Advice Demonstrator (LEAD) Presentation, Stokesley Town Hall
• Thursday 30th May 7.00pm Food group meeting by zoom (details below)
• Monday 3rd June 7.30pm ‘A Rubbish Talk’, Osmotherley Village Hall

Coming Soon:

Great Big Green Week 8th – 16th June

Great Big Green Week 2024

• Saturday 8th June 10-12 Repair Cafe & ‘Mend in Public’ event, the Globe & town centre, Stokesley
• Saturday 8th June 9.30 & 11.30 Flower Field Tour, Ingelby Greenhow
• Saturday 8th June 1.00-4.00pm CASaV stall at the Village Fair, Great Ayton
• Saturday 8th – Saturday 15th June Environment / Climate Action Displays at the Globe Stokesley, the Discovery Centre Great Ayton, the Hub Hutton Rudby, Labman Seamer
• Wednesday 12th June 6.30pm Local Energy Advice Demonstrator (LEAD) Presentation, Discovery Centre, Great Ayton
• Friday 14th June 9-12 CASaV Information Stall including LEAD promotion, Stokesley Market

Later in June:

Saturday 22nd June 12.00 Restore Nature Now Gathering, Central London

More information here restorenaturenow

Newsletter

Our online newsletter / magazine focuses on our group’s values and purpose, summed up by our motto ‘Think global, act local’, beginning with global / national / county issues including ways in which you can influence policy, followed by local news and activities you can participate in that develop our relationship with the environment and fight climate change and biodiversity loss.  

Currently we have over 500 people who have joined our Facebook group and nearly 400 people have signed up to our regular emails which is brilliant as this tells us that a lot of local people are interested in what we stand for and what we do as a group. We aim to arrange a wide range of local events and activities each month to inform anyone and everyone about the impact of climate breakdown and diversity loss and importantly engage people in ways that they can individually and as a community act to bring about change.

We have a strong core of active members who arrange these events and activities alongside promoting and communicating how we think globally and act locally but we need more to join us! Please get in touch if you have an interest in being active in supporting our aims if you have:

Organisational skills – join one of our subgroups to help plan events

Repair / people / event skills – volunteering at our Repair Cafes – we welcome fixers of anything and everything plus people who like people and have event running skills

Media / communication skills – help us promote what we do through all forms of communication – online and face to face at our events such as our market stalls and Repair Cafes

Care about food waste and / or want to help those in food poverty – join our rota for collecting surplus food and distributing to those in need

Creative skills – help us design our leaflets and promotional materials

Networking skills – help us reach out to local community groups including schools and businesses to spread our aims

“Think global”

National and global climate action news and campaigns

1st – 31st May ‘No Mow May’

Why do we need No Mow May?

According to the environmental charity Plantlife we’ve lost approximately 97% of flower-rich meadows since the 1930’s and with them gone are vital food needed by pollinators, like bees and butterflies.

But your lawn can help! A healthy lawn with some long grass and wildflowers benefits wildlife, tackles pollution and can even lock away carbon below ground. With over 20 million gardens in the UK, even the smallest grassy patches add up to a significant proportion of our land which, if managed properly, can deliver enormous gains for nature, communities and the climate.

This is why Plantlife calls for people to get involved with #NoMowMay every year, and let wild plants get a head start on the summer.

Best of all, to reap these benefits all you have to do is not mow your lawn in May and beyond!

How to take part

• Register your lawn or green space. Click here – this helps us to better understand the total number and size of lawns the UK is letting grow for nature.
• Do nothing and let your lawn grow this May… and beyond.

CASaV members have also been active in Hutton Rudby, Stokesley and Great Ayton liaising with the town councils to facilitate some areas of land managed by the councils to remain unmowed this year.

In previous years biodiversity in the unmown council managed areas has significantly increased, for example in 2022, following only cutting the Great Ayton floodplain meadow once in late summer of 2021, it was amazing how many wild flowers flowered that year. Having surveyed the meadow over that summer 136 different species of plants were identified by local expert botanist Martin Allen.

“When I visited in July there were bees on the thistle flowers, hoverflies on the white hogweed, with butterflies flitting in between, and when I walked through the long grass small clouds of a white micro-moth took to the air – this year has been a big pollinator success story for the Floodplain Meadow.” Martin Allen

Visit our website Floodplain meadow – Climate Action Stokesley and Villages to find out more about the work to manage the floodplain meadow to increase biodiversity.

For more information have a look at our Darlington and Stockton Times Climate Column The environmental benefits of taking part in No Mow May article

Saturday 6th – Sunday 12th May National Hedgerow Week

Hedgerows are the often-unsung heroes of the British countryside, yet they form the UK’s largest wildlife habitat, are a major part of our landscape and cultural heritage, and are crucial to halting biodiversity decline and tackling climate change.

Hedge Talks is a series of webinars run by the environmental charity Hedgelink celebrating all that our unsung hedgerow heroes do for us and the environment. They have collected some of the brightest minds in the world of hedges to speak about everything hedgerow!

Also National Hedgerow Week coincides with National Plant Health Week. We all need to do our bit to support hedgerow health, and sometimes that just involves knowing what to look for, and then letting others know! Observatree hosts lots of handy guides and if you do discover any pests and diseases, report them using Forest Research’s  Tree Alert

“Act Local”

This month’s local activities and ideas from our focus groups (Nature, Food, Waste, Energy, Transport) to address biodiversity loss and fight climate breakdown

CASaV Monthly Meeting at the Globe Community Library, Stokesley

Tuesday 21st May 7.30-9pm

Our next whole group meeting will be on Tuesday 21st May, in The Globe Community Library, North Road, Stokesley, from 7:30 – 9:00 pm. As well as hearing updates from the various sub-groups we will have a discussion about the effect of recent weather on food production in the UK and the possible/probable consequences on food prices and food security.planning as well as activities for Great Big Green Week. All welcome!

This is the link to last month’s meeting’s minutes to give a flavour of what we discuss https://climateactionstokesleyandvillages.org/2024/04/03/casav-monthly-meeting-tuesday-16th-april-2024/

Tuesday 14th May, 1:30-3:00pm Gardening working party, Yatton House Community Garden, Great Ayton

There will be a working party on Tuesday 14th May from 1:30-3:00 pm in the Yatton House Community Garden, Guisborough Road, Great Ayton. This is the session rescheduled after inclement weather in April. We will be planting out a selection of perennial vegetable plants. The plants were provided by CASaV members by splitting plants they have in their gardens/allotments. All welcome to come and help with the planting or to have a look around.

Saturday 18th May 10-12 noon Repair Cafe, Bike Health Checks plus free #Mend It May skills workshops, Swainby Village Hall

Our monthly Repair Cafe will be at Swainby Village Hall on Saturday 18th May 10-12.

Alongside our pink T shirted repair volunteers fixing your household items – electrical appliances, wooden furniture, toys & bikes, laptops & mobile phones, blades needing sharpening – the sewing team will also be sharing their skills in darning and visible mending as part of Mend It May, an anti fast fashion initiative encouraging us all to dress sustainably by taking care of our existing clothing and mend rips and tears to extend the life of our wardrobe. Bring along any item of clothing – socks, jumpers, jeans, shirts – and learn creative repair skills. You will be encouraged to post pictures of your creations to social media to spread the word!

Sadly Sustrans couldn’t make it to our April Repair Cafe, but Bicycle Health Expert Andy from Sustrans is joining us to provide free bicycle ‘health checks’ – a thorough check over of your bike to check it’s road worthiness plus small repairs and advice where needed.

May is also BigFix month an initiative that Recycle Devon started a decade ago as a single day and is now a national month. So May’s Repair Cafe will be reporting its repairs to BigFix to add to the national total of repairs carried out in BigFix month – https://www.recycledevon.org/blog/the-big-fix-2024/

As usual, through coming to the Repair Cafe you can save yourself money, the earth’s resources and prevent climate damaging gases from waste going to incineration or landfill. On average, we manage to fix 70% of items, give advice on possible repair steps for 20% and how best to recycle the 10% that are sadly beyond repair (statistics). But 100% of attendees are offered free refreshments of tea, coffee or juice as well as cakes and biscuits!

This month’s free refreshments include Fair Trade beverages and home made sweet treats made with Fair Trade ingredients, kindly donated by Stokesley Co-op, facilitated by Eileen Driver.

New repair and reception volunteers always welcome – come along, have a cuppa and a chat or email Simon Gibbon.

Wednesday 22nd May 18.00-19.30 ‘The Energy Source Challenge in Rural Britain’ Talk, Chapelgarth, Great Broughton

Part of the Global Tees Short Talks three fascinating illustrated talks on the ‘Energy Source Challenge in Rural Britain’ will take place at the beautiful surroundings of the Writers Retreat, Chapel Garth in Great Broughton.  

Chaired by Dr Marcella Sutcliffe, talks will be given by Professor Aimee Ambrose on Decarbonising Off Grid Homes, Dr Rokia Raslan on The Challenge to Decarbonise and Emily Dowd on Methane Leaks detected from Outer Space.A number of members of CASaV have been interviewed by Prof Ambrose’s team as part of her project on improving understanding of how to decarbonise off grid homes funded by Northern Power Grid and Northern Gas Network. So hopefully we will get some early insights into what the team have learned as part of this ongoing project. https://www.shu.ac.uk/centre-regional-economic-social-research/projects/all-projects/decarbonisation-solutions-for-off-grid-communities

All welcome to this free event with donations welcomed towards Actions Around Bethlehem Children (ABCD) Charity. More information here chapelgarth

Tuesday 28th May 6.30pm Local Energy Advice Demonstrator (LEAD) Presentation, Stokesley Town Hall

LEAD is a £1.2M scheme to stimulate demand for energy efficiency measures in homes across North Yorkshire. The funding has been received from the Department of Energy Security and NET Zero and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and will be focusing around retrofitting homes to reduce energy consumption. The project will be piloted in seven neighbourhoods around Stokesley and other towns across North Yorkshire.

Led by North Yorkshire Council, the scheme will be focused on specific streets, villages and neighbourhoods where studies have highlighted priority areas and where interest in tackling climate change through retrofitted schemes has been shown. Households in these pilot areas will be offered a free ‘whole house plan’ – a survey of their homes with advice on what would be needed to make them more energy efficient such as new windows and doors, or cavity wall and loft insulation.

A SERIES OF FREE PRESENTATIONS ABOUT THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN ORGANISED STARTING ON MONDAY 28TH MAY AT 6.30PM IN STOKESLEY TOWN HALL. FURTHER PRESENTATIONS WILL BE ON WEDNESDAY 12TH JUNE 6.30PM AT THE DISCOVERY CENTRE, GREAT AYTON AND ALSO AT POTTO VILLAGE HALL DATE TBC AS WELL AS AN INFORMATION STALL AT STOKESLEY MARKET ON 14TH JUNE.

ALL WELCOME.

CASaV is actively involved in facilitating this project led by Mark Lewis, one of our CASaV members interested in Energy.

If you are interested in having an audit of your house, please contact us and we will send you information now.

Monday 3rd June 7.30pm ‘A Rubbish Talk’, Osmotherley Village Hall

Environment & Climate Osmotherley (ECO) Group (see below) have organised ‘A Rubbish Talk’ by Tracey Flint, Recycling Officer at North Yorkshire Council on Monday 3rd June at 7:30 pm in Osmotherley Village Hall. A free event where Tracey will cover household recycling, what you can recycle via your kerbside bins and also via other council recycling facilities as well as how the rest of your waste is used.  

Issues / ideas from the groups: Environment & Climate Osmotherley (ECO) Group

CASaV is delighted to have been joined by Environment & Climate Osmotherley (ECO) which is a group of like-minded villagers with shared concerns around our environment & climate change. Their lead, Rebecca Wright notes “We meet once a month & also have four sub-groups exploring Decarbonisation, Sustainability, Flora & Fauna who meet regularly. We hope to encourage other residents & visitors to our village to adopt a more thoughtful & sustainable approach to our environment, and also work with the relevant local authorities to promote sustainable living.”

Contact for more information

Issues / ideas from the groups: Nature

This month’s Nature Group meeting is at 15.30, Thursday 23rd May at the Globe Library In Stokesley. Please join us there.

Contact  Bridget Holmstrom for information

Yorkshire Peat Partnership needs your help!

Did you know that northern Yorkshire’s peatlands currently store 27,410,845 tonnes of carbon?

York Peat Partnership covers an operational area containing 92,946 ha hectares of blanket bog, of which the majority is sadly damaged and leaking carbon back to the atmosphere. 27% of England’s blanket bog is in North Yorkshire, making this a landscape deserving of protection.

Yorkshire Peat Partnership (YPP) is looking for volunteers to help monitor the peat moorlands as part of their restoration work. If anyone is interested in finding out more please contact Bridget Holmstrom.

There are a couple of different opportunities.

1. Nature for Climate (NFC) monitoring campaigns (July-August + October-November – various sites in the North Yorkshire Moors/Yorkshire Dales)

Vegetation monitoring will be carried out during July/August this year on a number of the restoration sites in the North York Moors – the dates/invitations for these days will come out via email later this year to those who contact YPP.

Volunteers can sign up to any days they are available to help and the day will involve visiting plots to conduct vegetation surveys with assistance with a YPP member of staff.

Dipwell monitoring campaign will also be carried out during October-November this year, each of our sites will be visited every 2 weeks during the 12 week period to collect dipwell data with volunteers.

The emails will be sent later in the year to ask if any volunteers can assist on the dates they plan to visit sites.

2. Eyes on the Bog monitoring plots (2-4 times a year on assigned plots usually 1 location)

The long term monitoring programme will be rolled out across the North York Moors and this is where volunteers are responsible for monitoring their own plots 2-4 times a year and sending YPP the data. YPP will arrange plots to be installed on sites accessible for the volunteers and provide training/support/equipment.

If interested, contact YPP (see above) who will be sending a save the date invitation out in the next week or so. This event is not essential to attend for volunteers and other training days in the North York Moors will be arranged once it is confirmed which sites they will be installing plots.

Ideas from the groups: Food

This month’s Food Group meeting is on Thursday 23rd May 19.00

by zoom – contact Wendy for a link to join

May Seasonal eating

Eating food in season (local as far as possible) can have substantial positive impact on climate breakdown by reducing high-energy input from artificial heating or lighting needed to produce crops out of the natural growing season. In May’s section we will look at what foods are in season right now together with a seasonal recipe.

Right now the following are freshly in season: asparagus, basil, broccoli, carrots, chervil, chives, coriander, dill, jersey royal and new potatoes, lettuce and salad leaves, mint, nasturtium, new potatoes, parsley, oregano, peas, radishes, rhubarb, rocket, rosemary, sage, samphire, sorrel, spinach, spring onions, tarragon, watercress, wild nettles, wild garlic

Growing Your Own: May tips

Home-grown food does not need to be transported from source to market. This reduces air pollution as planes, ships, trucks and cars are not used to bring the food to your plate. It’s also been shown that growing your own leads to less food waste and you can ensure that it is grown without artificial fertilisers, pesticdes and herbicdes. This year, why not try one new vegetable, such as salsify sometimes called the vegetable oyster! Grows like a parsnip. Or Golden beetroot or Romanesco calabrese (produces the beautiful green heads you only occasionally see in a greengrocer. Mathematicians may notice the fractal design of the florets!)

Recipe of the month: Asparagus & new potato frittata

Recipe here

More information here:

Seasonal eating

how-to-eat-seasonally

Foodshare: Now Premier Food Store as well as the Co-ops

Every night, every week Jenny Earle, joint Food Group lead, organises volunteers to collect surplus food from our local Co-op stores as well as the new Premier Food Store in Great Ayton. The food is then distributed locally to those in need, not only reducing food waste which produces carbon gases affecting our climate but also providing a huge benefit to the community.

New volunteers are always welcome, please contact.

Ideas from the groups: Waste

This month’s Waste group meeting Wednesday 14th May 7.00pm by zoom – contact Simon Gibbon for a link to join, (previous notes)

Not-so-local Repair Cafes –  Middlesbrough (11th May)

The Stokesley and Villages Repair Cafe (next one 18th May Swainby Village Hall) has been helping other areas to start repair cafes.  Saltburn Repair Cafe held its second cafe on 6th April in the Community Hall (Facebook) and another will take place on Saturday July 6th and Middlesbrough Friends of the Earth has plans for its first repair cafe on 11th May in the Friends Meeting House on Cambridge Road – (Facebook). If you know people in Saltburn or Middlesbrough suggest they volunteer to get these off the ground, so much to repair so little time, so more hands make lighter work.  The contacts are Rob Tucker to volunteer for Middlesbrough (also volunteer meeting at 7pm on 18th April at Meeting House) or Rowan to volunteer for Saltburn.

Reduce – Reuse – Recycle: current local actions you can take to prevent / reduce waste

Whether household waste goes to landfill or incineration climate damaging carbon gases are produced. Here are some current local options for reducing waste at source and for reusing / recycling your unwanted or waste items that will not only cut carbon emissions but in some cases benefit those in our local community. It’s a big win / win.

Shop local – less travel, less packaging

Food at your local farm shop, farmers market or small high street shop is usually locally grown or reared so less carbon emissions and often sold without the layers of plastic packaging so reducing waste. You can usually choose the exact quantity you want so less food waste too. We have some good farm shops nearby including:

Roots Farm Shop & Café, East Rounton DL6 2LE

Fletchers Farm Shop, Woodhouse Farm Great Ayton TS9 6HZ

Spilman’s Farm Shop, Church Farm, Sessay, ThirskYO7 3NB

Five Houses Farm Shop, Crathorne TS15 0AY

Shop in bulk – costs less & less packaging too!

You can also reduce packaging by buying in bulk, particularly through organisations like Zero Waste Bulk Foods. Very simply, you order the food you want then they send food in reusable bags. Once you’ve decanted your food from them, simply return them via pre-paid post. They then take them to a local dry cleaner who washes them to a food safe standard, ready for the next customer.

https://zerowastebulkfoods.co.uk/

Agonising about waste? Waste Agony Aunt is here for you!

Kate from the Waste subgroup is always delighted to receive your queries about how you can reduce / reuse / repurpose / recycle (almost!) any item. Here are some queries she’s received recently:

Q “I’ve been having a garden shed sort out and I’ve got loads of plastic plant pots I can’t use”

A “All Strikes Garden Centres have a reuse / recycling facility”

Klondyke & Strikes Garden Centres say: We are providing our customers with a pot recycling facility through all our garden centres. This will make it easier than ever to reduce unnecessary plastic waste in the garden and prevent further plastic waste ending up in landfill. We can take all shapes, sizes and colours of pot or tray, as long as they’re plastic and not polystyrene. Please wash them before you bring them to us. We will also be offering to recycle your used plastic compost bags.

Q “I’ve got a drawer full of old pens – how can they be recycled?”

A “Rymans have a pen recycling facility”

Rymans offer pen recycling in all of their stores, nearest Northallerton and Darlington. They’ve collected over 1,900,000 pens which they convert into charity donations.

Also ink and toner cartridge recycling is available in all stores and they provide customers with a 50p discount for each cartridge returned (discount is only available when making a subsequent purchase of ink / toner in store on the day of making the return and is for a maximum of 5 cartridges per transaction).

Under the Waste Battery Regulations, they offer a take-back scheme for all portable waste batteries. Recycling boxes can be found in all of their stores, alternatively, you can find your local waste portable battery recycling facility at http://www.recyclenow.co.uk. Most supermarkets and shops that sell batteries will have collection bins for used batteries, and some town halls, libraries or schools may also set up collection points.

Q “I’ve got an old pallet and want ideas how to use it in the garden”

A “Try upcycling a pallet into a herb garden”

How to do it here

Issues / ideas from the groups: Transport

Development of Local Transport Strategy

Barry Warrington, CASaV lead for Transport summarises the Development of the Local Transport Strategy:

During 2023 North Yorkshire County Council initiated a consultative process under the banner of ‘Let’s Talk Transport’. This was in response to the fact that in 2022 the Dept for Transport announced that they expected all local transport authorities to have in place a fit for purpose Local Transport Plan (LTP) which sets out a strategic vision and a case for investment in transport in their area. (Although the government as yet has not provided any guidance as to the nature of such a strategy.)

This consultative exercise has involved an online survey and paper based survey activity, numerous public meetings. Almost 5000 people responded. Subsequently a stakeholder questionnaire was issued to over 700 groups including businesses, charities and interest groups. A total of 100 responses were received. The Council then set in train a process for organisations who had expressed an interest in a more detailed discussion. This is in addition to ongoing liaison with key partners and stakeholders. CASaV have contributed to this process in the form of a document covering 20’s Plenty, Active Travel, Bicycle Bus, Wheels to Work, Public Transport, Charging Points.

In addition Barry Warrington Transport Lead for CASV attended a Zoom meeting on the 20th Oct with related organisation from throughout the County. The meeting attended by the Assistant Director for the Environment and Paul Haslam the lead Councillor for Climate Change provided little more than an insight into the consultative process and an account of the situation to date. It was not a meeting to have any real discussion of possible ‘deliverable’.

An update was provided in a report published by North Yorkshire Council on the 18th December entitled ‘Update on the Development of the New Local Transport Plan – approval to publish public engagement findings’ – 18th December 2023 Update / 4th February 2024 Update.

In terms of Climate Change this document indicated that proposed changes and development were required to take into account ‘How will this proposal impact on the environment’ and that ‘One of the requirements of the new LTP process is to develop a quantitative carbon reduction plan’ ‘One of the governments three policy objectives for the LTP is to reduce impact of transport on the environment’

Read Barry’s full report here: local-transport-strategy-consultative-process/

Signing off

If you have any news or any event / activity you would like promoting on next month’s (June) update please email Kate Gibbon by the end of May.

Kate also helps promote activities via Facebook and Instagram so let her know if there is anything that you would like shared via our Facebook page and Instagram if you are not a Facebook / Instagram user.

Hope to see you at the CASaV whole group gathering on Tuesday 18th May at the Globe Community Library, Stokesley

Kate Gibbon,

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

Bridget Holmstrom, Caryn Loftus, Jack Turton, Ron Kirk and Simon Gibbon

Welcome to April’s Update

from Climate Action Stokesley & Villages

Thank you for your role in taking urgent action globally and locally on climate breakdown and biodiversity loss.

Diary dates

(event details below)

Monday 8th April 18.30-20.00 York and North Yorkshire Mayoral Election Transport Hustings, Friargate Meeting House, York

Tuesday 9th April 13.30-15.00 Gardening working party, Yatton House Community Garden, Great Ayton

Tuesday 9th April 19.00 Waste (& Repair Cafe) subgroup zoom meeting

Saturday 13th April 10.00-12.00 Repair Cafe & Bicycle Event at the Globe, Stokesley

Saturday 13th April 10.00 – 13.00 Coffee & Cake morning with Osmotherley Environment & Climate Group, Osmotherley

Tuesday 16th April 19.30 – 21.00 CASaV whole group meeting, the Globe, Stokesley

Thursday April 16th 19.30 Food subgroup zoom meeting

Thursday April 18th 15.30 Nature subgroup meeting, the Globe, Stokesley

Monday 22nd April 19.00 York & North Yorkshire Mayoral Election Climate & Nature Hustings, online

Monday 22nd April Earth Day – international day of care for the environment

Saturday 27th April Coffee & Cake Morning with Osmotherley Environment & Climate Group, Osmotherley

Wednesday 1st May 10.30 Wildflower Walk, Ingelby Bank Foot

Save the Date! Wednesday 22nd May 18.00-19.30 ‘The Energy Source Challenge in Rural Britain’ Talk, Chapelgarth, Great Broughton (more info next update)

Newsletter

Our online newsletter / magazine focuses on our group’s values and purpose, summed up by our motto ‘Think global, act local’, beginning with global / national / county issues including ways in which you can influence policy, followed by local news and activities you can participate in that develop our relationship with the environment and fight climate change and biodiversity loss.  

Currently we have over 500 people who have joined our Facebook group and nearly 400 people have signed up to our regular emails which is brilliant as this tells us that a lot of local people are interested in what we stand for and what we do as a group. We aim to arrange a good range of local events and activities each month to inform anyone and everyone about the impact of climate breakdown and diversity loss and importantly engage people in ways that they can individually and as a community bring about change.

We have a strong core of activists who arrange these events and activities alongside promoting and communicating how we think globally and act locally but we need more to join us! Please get in touch if you have an interest in being active in supporting our aims if you have:

Organisational skills – join one of our subgroups to help plan events

Repair / people / event skills – volunteering at our Repair Cafes – we welcome fixers of anything and everything plus people who like people and have event running skills

Media / communication skills – help us promote what we do through all forms of communication – online and face to face at our events such as our market stalls and Repair Cafes

Care about food waste and / or want to help those in food poverty – join our rota for collecting surplus food and distributing to those in need

Creative skills – help us design our leaflets and promotional materials

Networking skills – help us reach out to local community groups including schools and businesses to spread our aims

“Think global”

National and global climate action news and campaigns

York & North Yorkshire Mayoral Election

The election for the first York and North Yorkshire Mayor will take place on Thursday 2 May 2024. In the build up to the election different organisations have arranged opportunities for the public to directly question candidates on their plans for a range of issues. Here we are promoting opportunities to question candidates on issues related to climate change.

Monday 8th April 18.30-20.00 York and North Yorkshire Mayoral Election Transport Hustings, Friargate Meeting House, York

The mayor will have powers and funds to improve transport through a consolidated, devolved, multi-year transport settlement, as well as powers for housing and infrastructure, and responsibilities for community safety and other roles currently held by the county’s police, fire and crime commissioner.

York Cycle Campaign and York Civic Trust are heading a list of organisations that are sponsoring an election hustings at Friargate Meeting House in central York on April 8th 18.30-20.00 which will concentrate on transport issues.

Felicity Cunliffe-Lister for the Lib Dems, Keane Duncan for the Conservatives, Kevin Foster of the Green Pary, David Skaith of the Labour party and Independents Paul Haslam and Keith Tordoff are all expected to attend.

Elly Fiorentini of BBC Radio York will moderate a BBC Question Time style question and answer session with the candidates. Everyone is invited to attend.

This meeting follows a York & North Yorkshire Mayoral Transport Hustings Meeting (online) held 19th March 2024 which was attended by Barry Warrington, CASaV Lead for Transport see his full report on our website here: meeting-mayoral-hustings-transport

The York & North Yorkshire (YNY) mayoral candidates views on environmental matters

Community-based environmental groups in the YNY region such as North Yorkshire Climate Coalition (CASaV is part of this), Thirsk Friends of the Earth and York Friends of the Earth are particularly interested to hear how each of the candidates would use the considerable powers available to the new mayor to drive YNY’s transition to become net zero carbon by 2034 and carbon negative by 2040 (routemap). In the run-up to the election, to ensure that voters have the information they need,  NY Climate Coalition wants to highlight where the candidates stand on both local and wider environmental issues (e.g. energy-efficiency and energy infrastructure, rooftop solar, river and marine water quality, restoring nature, ‘green economy’ skills, public transport, active travel, net zero support for business) and have offered them an opportunity to outline their views through a survey.

The results of this survey can be seen via the link below as the candidates respond

nyclimatecoalition.org/mayoral-election-info

Monday 22nd April 19.00 York & North Yorkshire Mayoral Election Climate & Nature Hustings, online (link to register below) – your chance to question the candidates directly

How will the candidates use their powers to tackle the climate and nature emergency? How will this impact our quality of life? Don’t miss an opportunity to find out where the candidates stand at a special online hustings event with candidates on Monday 22 April at 19.00 organised by the NY Climate Coalition.

The following candidates have confirmed their participation:

David Skaith (Labour), Felicity Cunliffe-Lister (Liberal Democrats), Keith Tordoff MBE (Independent), Paul Haslam (Independent), Keane Duncan (Conservative) declined our invitation due to other commitments, Kevin Foster (Green Party) initially accepted our invitation but has withdrawn due to other commitments.

This is your chance to question the mayoral candidates directly on how they will use their considerable power to address climate breakdown and biodiversity loss. The more of us who attend this online meeting, the more impact we can make. This takes place on International Earth Day – attending the online meeting is an important way to demonstrate your care for our environment and everyone’s future

To find out more and register to attend use this link

nyclimatecoalition.org/climate-nature-hustings

Factory Farming, Climate Breakdown & Biodiversity Loss

North Yorkshire has been ranked as the sixth worst county for shocking numbers of animals confined in factory farms according to a recent investigation commissioned by Compassion in World Farming reveals a staggering increase in the numbers of livestock permanently housed indoors or without access to pasture. The full picture of all the UK factory farm data has been pulled together into an interactive map, launched on 13th February

ciwf.org.uk/our-campaigns/factory-farming-map

The map shows ‘hotspot’ counties where large numbers of dairy cows, laying hens, broiler chickens and pigs are permanently housed indoors or without access to pasture, as well as overall numbers of confined livestock per region.

As well as an animal welfare concern, factory farming is a major contributor to the climate change challenge, releasing vast volumes of greenhouse gases.

Factory farming produces greenhouse gases throughout the ‘supply chain’. For example, forest clearance to grow the crops and rear the animals reduces vital carbon ‘sinks’ and releases gases previously stored in the soil and vegetation.

Factory farming also requires large amounts of energy in order to function. This isn’t just to rear the animals, but also to grow the vast amounts of feed they need. According to a study published by The Royal Society, feed is the dominant energy user, taking around 75% of the total energy required. The rest is needed for factors such as heating, lighting and ventilation.

In addition, waste from factory farming is polluting our rivers and leading to biodiversity devastation.

If you want to act on this you can contact Compassion in World Farming to know more and support their campaigns here action.ciwf

Also the Soil Association currently has a petition asking the UK Governments to implement a ban on new intensive poultry units, support farmers to exit this damaging industry, and take action to reduce chicken consumption to more sustainable levels.  

soilassociation.org/stop-killing-our-rivers

Monday 22nd April Earth Day

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970 it is now an international day of promoting care for our environment. This year’s focus is to advocate for widespread awareness on the health risk of microplastics, rapidly phase out all single use plastics, urgently push for a strong UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution, and demand an end to fast fashion. More information here

earthday.org/earth-day-2024/

Last month our Waste group produced a display at the Globe, Stokesley to show highlight the perils of micropastics and how we can all make simple swaps in our household items to reduce single use plastics. The display will return to the Globe this month together with our information leaflet Fight the Plastic Peril, also available from our website

Fight the Plastic Peril

Use your voice to tell co-op stores to take more action on climate change and the environment

The Co-op has become the first UK convenience retailer to have its net zero targets validated by the globally recognised Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). More info here

co-op-net-zero-targets-validated-by-science-based-targets-initiative

But there could be even more done if Co-op members let the company know action on climate change is important to them. If you are a member of Co-op you own a business that is run for and by its members. The Co-op are currently seeking your views and priorities on key issues and what you care about such as climate change, waste, packaging etc. The survey below allows you to express your views, and what you think your Co-op should take action upon.

coop survey

“Act Local”

This month’s local activities and ideas from our focus groups (Nature, Food, Waste, Energy, Transport) to address biodiversity loss and fight climate breakdown

CASaV Monthly Meeting at the Globe Community Library, Stokesley

Tuesday 16th April 7.30-9pm

Our next whole group meeting will be on Tuesday 16th April, in The Globe Community Library, North Road, Stokesley, from 7:30 – 9:00 pm. As well as hearing updates from the various sub-groups we will focus on planning activities for Great Big Green Week. All welcome!

This is the link to last month’s meeting’s minutes to give a flavour of what we discuss – March Meeting Notes.

Tuesday 9th April 13.30-15.00 Gardening working party, Yatton House Community Garden, Great Ayton

There will be a working party next Tuesday 9th April from 1:30-3:00 pm in the Yatton House Community Garden, Guisborough Road, Great Ayton. We will be planting out a selection of perennial vegetable plants. The plants were provided by CASaV members by splitting plants they have in their gardens/allotments. All welcome to come and help with the planting or to have a look around.

Saturday 13th April 10-12 noon Repair Cafe plus Bicycle Event,

The Globe Library, Stokesley

Our monthly Repair Cafe will be at The Globe Library, Stokesley on Saturday 13th April  10-12, together with a Bicycle Health Expert from Sustrans

April is a great month for getting further into the great outdoors on your bike – the air is warmer and nature in springtime is beautiful! As well as bringing along your household items in need of repair- electrical appliances, toys, clothing & textiles, computers (laptops, tablets) & mobile phones, wooden furniture, clocks & watches, blades in need of sharpening – for fixing by our enthusiastic volunteers, we are having a special focus on bicycles. Our trusty bike repairer Pete will be joined by Andrew from Sustrans who will be providing free bicycle ‘health checks’ – making sure your bike is ready for the road and giving advice and simple repairs if it isn’t.

Through coming to the Repair Cafe you can save yourself money, the earth’s resources and prevent climate damaging gases from waste going to incineration or landfill. On average, we manage to fix 70% of items, give advice on possible repair steps for 20% and how best to recycle the 10% that are sadly beyond repair (statistics). But 100% of attendees are offered free refreshments of tea, coffee or juice as well as cakes and biscuits!

This month’s free refreshments include Fair Trade beverages and home made sweet treats made with Fair Trade ingredients, kindly donated by Stokesley Co-op, facilitated by Eileen Driver.

New repair and reception volunteers always welcome – come along, have a cuppa and a chat or email Simon Gibbon.

Saturday 13th & Saturday 27th April 10.00 – 13.00 Coffee & Cake Morning, Environment & Climate Group Osmotherley,

Osmotherley Methodist Chapel

Join Environment & Climate Osmotherley Group for a refreshing cuppa and a slice (or two!) of their delicious home made cakes (including vegan options) and a chat about their aims for addressing biodiversity loss locally and climate change matters more widely in the beautiful, historic Methodist Chapel, Osmotherley.

Wednesday 1st May 10.30 Wildflower Walk, Ingleby Bank Foot

The weather is getting warmer, the mornings and evenings are getting lighter – a great time to get outdoors and see nature’s beauty on our doorstep. To get a better appreciation of what’s growing wild around us the Nature subgroup has arranged for local expert botanist Ann Press (who developed Nature’s World in Middlesbrough) to take you on a wonderful Wildflower Walk, identifying all the local species including those which can be safely eaten and which have therapeutic value. Feeling closer to nature helps us want to preserve it, essential in these times of huge biodiversity loss. For more information please contact Bridget Holmstrom or just turn up on the day at Ingelby Bank Foot

Issues / ideas from the groups: Nature

This month’s Nature Group meeting is at 15.30, Thursday 18th April, at the Globe Library In Stokesley. Please join us there.

Contact  Bridget Holmstrom for information

Yorkshire Peat Partnership needs your help!

Did you know that northern Yorkshire’s peatlands currently store 27,410,845 tonnes of carbon?

York Peat Partnership covers an operational area containing 92,946 ha hectares of blanket bog, of which the majority is sadly damaged and leaking carbon back to the atmosphere. 27% of England’s blanket bog is in North Yorkshire, making this a landscape deserving of protection.

Yorkshire Peat Partnership (YPP) is looking for volunteers to help monitor the peat moorlands as part of their restoration work. If anyone is interested in finding out more please contact Bridget Holmstrom.

There are a couple of different opportunities.

1. Nature for Climate (NFC) monitoring campaigns (July-August + October-November – various sites in the North Yorkshire Moors/Yorkshire Dales)

Vegetation monitoring will be carried out during July/August this year on a number of the restoration sites in the North York Moors – the dates/invitations for these days will come out via email later this year to those who contact YPP.

Volunteers can sign up to any days they are available to help and the day will involve visiting plots to conduct vegetation surveys with assistance with a YPP member of staff.

Dipwell monitoring campaign will also be carried out during October-November this year, each of our sites will be visited every 2 weeks during the 12 week period to collect dipwell data with volunteers.

The emails will be sent later in the year to ask if any volunteers can assist on the dates they plan to visit sites.

2. Eyes on the Bog monitoring plots (2-4 times a year on assigned plots usually 1 location)

The long term monitoring programme will be rolled out across the North York Moors and this is where volunteers are responsible for monitoring their own plots 2-4 times a year and sending YPP the data. YPP will arrange plots to be installed on sites accessible for the volunteers and provide training/support/equipment. The plots can be arranged and set up on suitable sites at any point in the year, we do however have a training day/event coming up 23^rd or 24^th April (date not confirmed yet) which is designed to give an overview to Eyes on the Bog programme, meet other volunteers and provide training to volunteers who would like to be involved. The event will be held in Ilkley.

If interested, contact YPP (see above) who will be sending a save the date invitation out in the next week or so. This event is not essential to attend for volunteers and other training days in the North York Moors will be arranged once it is confirmed which sites they will be installing plots.

Ideas from the groups: Food

This month’s Food Group meeting is on Thursday 25th April 19.00

by zoom – contact Wendy for a link to join

April Seasonal eating

Eating food in season (local as far as possible) can have substantial positive impact on climate breakdown by reducing high-energy input from artificial heating or lighting needed to produce crops out of the natural growing season. In April’s section we will look at what foods are in season right now together with a seasonal recipe.

Tasty fruit and veggies available now include asparagus, basil, broccoli, chives, dill, jersey royal new potatoes, lettuce & salad leaves, new potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli, radishes, rhubarb, rocket, samphire, sorrel, spinach, spring onions, watercress, wild nettles, wild garlic

Try some seasonal young nettle tips in a tasty dish for flavour and freshness (and for free!)

Nettle pesto

Serve this vibrant vitamin packed sauce with your favourite pasta. Link to recipe here: Nettle Pesto Recipe

More information here:

Seasonal eating

how-to-eat-seasonally

Growing & gardening tips month by month: April

Top tip! When buying seed note that ones labelled as F1 may show hybrid vigour but their uniformity can mean all your cauliflowers are ready at the same time. So chose carefully!

Chit and plant out second early potatoes in the first half of the month, maincrop potatoes in the second half.

Sow seed outdoors for beetroot, carrots, Swiss chard, summer cauliflower, kohl rabi, lettuce, leeks, radish, turnip, spring and pickling onions, peas and perpetual spinach in well-prepared soil.

Try sowing unusual vegetables such as salsify (see pic above), Hamburg parsley, or scorzonera.

Foodshare: Now Premier Food Store as well as the Co-ops

Every night, every week Jenny Earle, joint Food Group lead, organises volunteers to collect surplus food from our local Co-op stores as well as the new Premier Food Store in Great Ayton. The food is then distributed locally to those in need, not only reducing food waste which produces carbon gases affecting our climate but also providing a huge benefit to the community.

New volunteers are always welcome, please contact.

Ideas from the groups: Waste

This month’s Waste group meeting Wednesday  9th April 7.00pm by zoom – contact Simon Gibbon for a link to join, (previous notes)

Not-so-local Repair Cafes – Saltburn (6th April), Middlesbrough (11th May)

The Stokesley and Villages Repair Cafe (next one 13th April Stokesley) has been helping other areas to start repair cafes.  Saltburn Repair Cafe will hold its second cafe on 6th April in the Community Hall (Facebook) and Middlesbrough Friends of the Earth has plans for its first repair cafe on 11th May in the Friends Meeting House on Cambridge Road – (Facebook). If you know people in Saltburn or Middlesbrough suggest they volunteer to get these off the ground, so much to repair so little time, so more hands make lighter work.  The contacts are Rob Tucker to volunteer for Middlesbrough (also volunteer meeting at 7pm on 18th April at Meeting House) or Rowan to volunteer for Saltburn.

Reduce – Reuse – Recycle: current local actions you can take to prevent / reduce waste

Whether household waste goes to landfill or incineration climate damaging carbon gases are produced. Here are some current local options for reducing waste at source and for reusing / recycling your unwanted or waste items that will not only cut carbon emissions but in some cases benefit those in our local community. It’s a big win / win.

Spotlight on our local zero waste shops

The best way of dealing with waste is to avoid creating any in the first place. Zero waste stores make use of containers you already have plus you only buy exactly the amount of food you need so this cuts down on food going to waste as well. Often it works out much cheaper as well for example cinnamon powder typically at a zero waste store is £2.40 for 100g whilst packaged at a supermarket is typically £3.00.

Roots Farmshop, East Rounton

As well as selling unwrapped fresh fruit and vegetables Roots provides several ways you can refill your own containers for a range of frozen fruit, vegetables and bakery goods as well as toiletries and household cleaning products.

What Planet Are You On, Guisborough

As well as dried food goods (flour, sugar, rice, pasta, nuts, cereals, herbs & spices) and sweets this store will refill your olive and rapeseed oil containers. They stock a range of biodegradable, plastic free kitchen and bathroom items as well. You can order online to collect in store.

Earth Unwrapped, Northallerton

Bring your own containers to refill with dried foods such as pasta, rice, nuts, fruit and granolas alongside eco-friendly cleaning, household and bodycare products and plastic-free alternatives for everyday items.

Sweet Treats (refill section), Thirsk

This shop selling locally made chocolates and cakes has recently extended to include a zero waste section selling a range of dried food goods for your own containers.

Off the Scale, Castleton

As well as selling fresh bakery items and local bottled milk and juices Off the Scale has zero waste, fill your own containers with dried foods including rice, pasta, pulses, herbs and spices.

Agonising about waste? Waste Agony Aunt is here for you!

Kate from the Waste subgroup is always delighted to receive your queries about how you can reduce / reuse / repurpose / recycle (almost!) any item. Here are some queries she’s received recently:

Q “I’ve just bought a new sofa and I need to get rid of my old one”

A”Try the British Heart Foundation’s home furniture collection”

Did you know that the British Heart Foundation will collect your unwanted (but still usuable!) furniture and other large household goods like electrical appliances directly from your home? They then sell them in their furniture stores at an affordable price and funds go towards their life saving research. Click here for more information and to arrange a local collection British Heart Foundation local collection

Q “I’m fed up with all the fruit and veg single use plastic packaging from supermarkets”

A “Try your local farm shop or town market stall”

Buying your fruit and veg loose at your local farm shop, town market stall and high street greengrocers not only means less packaging (or no packaging if you bring your own bags!) but you also get to choose exactly the amount you want so saving food waste. By shopping locally you’re not only supporting local businesses but also saving carbon emissions in your travel.

For local farm shops look here farmshops in north-yorkshire

For local markets locations and dates look here markets

If you’re feeling creative you can even make your own string bag for your fresh produce shopping here

produce-bag-crochet-pattern/

Q”I hate throwing my medication blister packs into my black bin as they’re not accepted in my blue recycling bin – what can I do?”

A”It’s complicated….but there are some things you can do”

Medication blister packs are complex and expensive to recycle as the plastic and metal components are difficult to separate and potentially harmful as they may contain unused medication so not accepted in your kerbside recycling.

Currently Superdrug stores with pharmacies (nearest to us are Harrogate, Chester-le-Street and Bridlington) will take empty blister packs for no charge but only a ‘personal quantity’ which are given directly to the pharmacist.

Boots, which previously only had blister pack recycling in a few stores in the southeast of England, recently announced that they are planning to extend this to stores across the UK within the next year but only 15 packs at a time and although you can receive Advantage Card points you also need to buy £10 worth of goods in store. More information here: boots-launches-blister-pack-recycling-pilot

You can take action! Ideally the pharmaceutical companies who originally produce and package the medication should take ownership of recycling the packaging. You can act by signing this current petition demanding that one of the largest pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline provide recycling of medication blister packs.

Petition here: recycling-for-medication-blister-packaging

Q”I’ve got loads of old cookery books I don’t use which have lost some pages so no good for the charity shop”

A”Try the Upcycling Project of the Month”

Got a few old books that are too damaged to go to a charity shop AND need something to keep your sharp kitchen knives safe on your kitchen worktop? Try this simple idea which repurposes a few books into a useful kitchen item. Info here diy-knife-holder

And if your kitchen knives aren’t as sharp as they could be remember to come along to our next Repair Cafe where our Phil ‘Blades’ will skilfully sharpen them for free!

Issues / ideas from the groups: Transport

Development of Local Transport Strategy

Barry Warrington, CASaV lead for Transport summarises the Development of the Local Transport Strategy:

During 2023 North Yorkshire County Council initiated a consultative process under the banner of ‘Let’s Talk Transport’. This was in response to the fact that in 2022 the Dept for Transport announced that they expected all local transport authorities to have in place a fit for purpose Local Transport Plan (LTP) which sets out a strategic vision and a case for investment in transport in their area. (Although the government as yet has not provided any guidance as to the nature of such a strategy.)

This consultative exercise has involved an online survey and paper based survey activity, numerous public meetings. Almost 5000 people responded. Subsequently a stakeholder questionnaire was issued to over 700 groups including businesses, charities and interest groups. A total of 100 responses were received. The Council then set in train a process for organisations who had expressed an interest in a more detailed discussion. This is in addition to ongoing liaison with key partners and stakeholders.

CASaV have contributed to this process in the form of a document covering 20’s Plenty, Active Travel, Bicycle Bus, Wheels to Work, Public Transport, Charging Points.

In addition Barry Warrington Transport Lead for CASV attended a Zoom meeting on the 20th Oct with related organisation from throughout the County. The meeting attended by the Assistant Director for the Environment and Paul Haslam the lead Councillor for Climate Change provided little more than an insight into the consultative process and an account of the situation to date. It was not a meeting to have any real discussion of possible ‘deliverable’.

An update was provided in a report published by North Yorkshire Council on the 18th December entitled ‘Update on the Development of the New Local Transport Plan – approval to publish public engagement findings’ – 18th December 2023 Update / 4th February 2024 Update.

In terms of Climate Change this document indicated that proposed changes and development were required to take into account ‘How will this proposal impact on the environment’ and that ‘One of the requirements of the new LTP process is to develop a quantitative carbon reduction plan’ ‘One of the governments three policy objectives for the LTP is to reduce impact of transport on the environment’ Read Barry’s full report here: local-transport-strategy-consultative-process/

Round up of last month’s events

March was a busy month with lots of well attended events and activities, raising public awareness of the impact of climate breakdown and biodiversity loss as well as practical solutions we can all take to address this.

Middlesbrough Food Partnership held a Food Summit on 26th March 2024. Jenny, Food Group joint lead attended and reported that it was very well attended with a wide variety of excellent talks and workshops. The Middlesbrough Food Partnership acts as a central connecting network and hub for all things food related in Middlesbrough. Use this link for more info:

goodfoodmbro

Dark Skies Family Activity Event was held by the Nature Group at the Discovery Centre, Great Ayton on 9th March. Familes and individuals attended and enjoyed using the hands on computer simulations of the night’s sky and a well illustrated display explained the problems of light pollution and it’s impact on biodiversity with practical solutions to address the issue. A leaflet on Dark Skies produced for the event is available via our website  dark-skies-matter-to-wildlife-and-us/

An Open Spring Garden at 19, The Avenue, Stokesley was held on 11th March kindly by the owner with support from the Nature Group, with several people enjoying seeing a wealth of spring blooms and learning about how the garden is maintained without artificial chemicals and encourages wildlife.

The Gardening for Wildlife Talk given by Nature Group’s Helen and Bridget fascinated and inspired a packed Faceby Village Hall. A leaflet on Gardening to increase Biodiversity is available here  how-to-tackle-biodiversity-breakdown-in-your-garden/

The monthly Repair Cafe took place on 16th March at Swainby Village Hall where we celebrated our two year anniversary by repairing out 1000th item which was the very special Coat of Hopes, a moving and inspiring piece of collaborative art in the form of a patchwork coat covered with people’s fears and hopes related to climate change. You can read more about the Coat Hopes time in North Yorkshire in the Darlington and Stockton Times article – here.

Signing off

If you have any news or any event / activity you would like promoting on next month’s (May) update please email Kate Gibbon by the end of April.

Kate also helps promote activities via Facebook and Instagram so let her know if there is anything that you would like shared via our Facebook page and Instagram if you are not a Facebook / Instagram user.

Hope to see you at the CASaV whole group gathering on Tuesday 16th April at the Globe Community Library, Stokesley

Kate Gibbon,

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

Bridget Holmstrom, Caryn Loftus, Jack Turton, Ron Kirk and Simon Gibbon

Our whole group meeting was on Tuesday 16th April, in The Globe Community Library, North Road Stokesley, from 7:30 – 9:00 pm. As well as hearing updates from the various sub-groups we focused on planning activities for Great Big Green Week (8-16 June).

Energy

The Local Energy Area Demonstrator (LEAD) Programme

LEAD is launching after the Mayoral election. There will be launch meetings organised by the main project partner (Align Property Partners) on 28th May in Stokesley Town Hall at 6.30pm and on 12th June in the Discovery Centre, Great Ayton at 6.30pm. We are also looking into having a market stall in Stokesley on 24th June to generate further interest

CASaV’s role is to promote LEAD locally (i.e. find people who are interested in free energy advice) and promote the events. Posters should be available in mid-May, so looking for CASaV member volunteers to put up event posters local to them.

Mark and Joanna met with Susan Manson, Community Energy Development Officer at North East & Yorkshire Net Zero Hub, she is working on a number North East and Yorkshire LEAD projects. She suggested CASaV could look for ideas / approaches from Community Energy England (CEE), more locally Circular Malton & Norton and the North Yorkshire Council Climate Change Officer (Jos Holmes). There is a need to consider the level of ambition of energy saving we should be mainly focusing on so not total lifestyle changes (1 room living), rather making people’s homes more comfortable and energy efficient, so some whole house retrofits, with the main focus on simple measures that save some money and make there homes more comfy.

To find out more about retrofitting locally, NESTA have a “Visit a Heat Pump” project running until July 2024, to which a number of CASaV members have signed up and our website has a number of home energy case studies.

Food

The Premier shop in Ayton is now contributing to the food share which we distribute nightly.  Currently it provides more than all the Co-ops combined.

The group are have been in contact with Quorn with a view to doing some activity during Big Green Week, nothing has been agreed as yet. CASaV will have a presence at Great Ayton Fete on 9th June.

The Stokesley bus stop garden now has a selection of herbs.

Nature

It is planned to organise a number of visit to Anne Heard’s wildflower garden in Ingleby Greenhow.

A guided walk will take place at 10.30am on 1st May led by Anne Press, along Ingleby Bank Foot.

The Nature group are also becoming more involved in the Dark Skies initiative, with more activity to occur towards September as the nights get darker.

No Mow May is happening in Stokesley again.

The Nature Group has also been looking a producing some 10 point action plans for encourage people to take action for nature to complement the CASaV Leaflets.

Transport

Barry highlighted the absence of joined up thinking in the North Yorkshire Transport strategy.

The transport group activity engages with government in order to nudge them towards climate friendly actions. Barry Warrington attended the North Yorkshire Council’s Transport Strategy Consultative Process meeting on 20th October 2023, his notes are here (231020NYC Local Transport Strategy Consultative Process), our of this process will emerge a local transport plan which was tabled at the NYC Executive meeting on 18th December (Update on the development of the new Local Transport Plan approval to publish public engagement) since then NYC has produced further updates on the plan – (14th February 2024 -Update on the Development of the New Local Transport Plan.pdf).

Transport has also been a key part of the new York and North Yorkshire Mayor, with a transport hustings being held on 19th March 2024, which Barry attended, you can read Barry’s impressions here (Zoom Meeting 19th March 2024 Mayoral Hustings Meeting) .

Moorsbus will start on 29th June, with timetable / routes for 2024 still being finalised, but details will be similar to 2023. Please use it or loose it.

Waste

CASaV now has 2 Eco-banners (https://eco-banners.co.uk): the pop-up banners are made of fully recyclable materials, polyester which can be recycled with PET bottles and the frame is made of wood.

Repair Cafe: 76 items repaired on Saturday 13th April in Stokesley, where we joined by 3 people who are planning to help with Middlesbrough Repair Cafe, which we are supporting to get started.  Kate, Jane, Joanna and Sarah part of the Repair Cafe sewing team helped the Explorer scouts to convert old tents into new aprons and duffle bags.

Mend in Public – 20th April – https://www.fashionrevolution.org/frw-24-mend-in-public-day/ – while we can’t do an event on Saturday, we hope to do something as part of Great Big Green Week.

Books – The Climate Action Stokesley and Villages Book Bank is now up and running, you can find all the details on https://casav.uk/books.  Currently the books are moving around, we are looking into options of keeping the books possibly at the Globe.  There are also details of how you can share your books as part of the CASaV Book Bank. Simon will look into whether the books could be hosted by the library. Of course don’t forget to search our local libraries catalogues to see if they have a book you are interested in, while they don’t have a huge collection of physical books these are complemented by e-books, plus we can ask them to purchase books we think would be appropriate.

Environment and Climate Osmotherley

The newly formed Environment and Climate Osmotherley has decided to become a group of CASaV.

Saturday Coffee mornings in the Methodist Church in Osmotherley have proved to be successful with wide ranging discussions on climate issues and an opportunity to survey the villages views with a questionaire about grass cutting – so far with 14:1 in favour of longer grass and an opportunity to sign up 3 new members. The next planned coffee morning is on Saturday 27th April at 10am.

While there is interest in running a Repair Cafe in Osmotherley, there aren’t sufficient volunteers in Osmotherley, so the names will be passed to Stokesley and Villages Repair Cafes.

Next meeting Environment and Climate Osmotherley 1st May – plan for Great Big Green Week events and the new green Osmotherley show categories.

Great Big Green Week 8 – 16 June

During Great Big Green week CASaV is looking to both hold events and enable others to hold events, so please get in touch if you know of others who want to be involved. See what others did in 2023 – GBGW 2023 Highlights.

A number of events are already planned:

• 8th June – Repair Cafe in Stokesley with some of the repairing happening as a “Mending in Public”, sewers sat on the benches on the High Street, perhaps with the CASaV photoframe to allow all to capture the moment.
• 8th June – CASaV stall at the Great Ayton Fair
• 8th June – Nature Group trips to Ingleby Greenhow wildflower garden.
• Possibly 16th June – further opportunity to visit Ingleby Greenhow wildflower garden.
• All week rotating displays – Globe, Discovery Centre, Labman, Quorn, Station Coffee & Kitchen – LEAD, Plastic, Dark Skies, CASaV, Climate Justice

Guisborough Eco-Group (GEG)

GEG holds regular meetings at 4pm on the first or second Monday of the month in Guisborough Library which include talks on subjects of interest.

The last meeting has a talk from Stronger Shores where they heard how kelp, sea-grass and oysters capture carbon, help to reduce plastic waste and reduce coastal erosion.

Future talks are planned on bats and retrofitting.

Other Events of Interest

16th April Simon attended – Rivers Trust Conference: Embracing River Buffers – Agenda: Welcome and Opening Remarks, The Rivers Trust 20 Years On, Through the Keyhole: Around the nations, Breaking Down the Barriers, Empowering farmers and land managers for cleaner waterways, Beyond the Buffer: Piecing together mosaic habitats, Closing Remarks.

Recordings of Zoom sessions: Link may not work for others? will hopefully be on YouTube in due course.

The conference focused on river buffers, with a lot of talk of how difficult it was for farmers to deal with the changes that are required to protect rivers.  I was surprised that only some farmers realise that improved environmental condition of a farm was key to help with the agriculture too in the long term at least.  The River Trusts find it difficult to get their message across to many farmers, there are exceptions especially where groups of farmers have realised that they can apply for many catchment related grants.  It seems that River Trusts are largely only successful where the economics works for individual land owners, i.e. subsidies and grants drive action.