Newsletter February 2010
Sustainable Ottery: Ottery St Mary’s response to climate change, carbon footprints and peak oil.
Welcome to the February 2010 edition of
Sustainable Ottery’s monthly newsletter
We hope that you have survived the recent cold snap without too much inconvenience. With large utility bills likely to land on the mat soon, not wasting any heat from our homes has never been so important. The Energy Savings Trust has some plenty of very useful tips to help you conserve as much heat in your home as possible plus information about how to apply for grants to help towards the cost of putting insulation in the loft, cavity-fill insulation etc. Regulations has changed over the years and the insulation should now be 270mm (10.5inches) thick. When did you last look in your loft to check? Lagging pipes is also a very important job that should be done to prevent pipes from freezing. Foam covers are quite cheap and cheerful and can be bought locally. See www.energysavingtrust.org.uk for more information on this and dozens of really useful things you can do to keep you energy bills down. Locally, the Affordable Warmth Group, part of the Vision for Sidmouth Group, is available for a chat about keeping warm and cold weather payments for the over 60’s. Tel 01395 513489.
Also, if you were thinking about it, now is probably a great time to start generating your own energy at home as the Government has published it’s ‘feed-in’ tariffs for those who can supply electricity back to the grid; so for example with a photo-voltaic system, you could get paid 41p for every kW sent back to the National Grid. This now reduces significantly the payback on such schemes and make the whole idea of generating your own electricity much more viable. There are also grants available to help but only up until April 2010. With energy prices threatening to increase by 25% (recent news from Ofgen) it’s another good argument to generate your own electricity. See www.yougen.co.uk a website created by a member of Sustainable Ottery, for independent information on energy-generation.
Sustainable Ottery Food Group Rearranged Meeting – 9th February 7.30
Over the last two or three years you may have been one of the many people who have come to Sustainable Ottery and shown an interest in getting involved in growing more food locally. We have not found it easy to turn this interest into action, and you may have drifted away. But we would really like you to come back and start developing opportunities to grow more food here in Ottery and district.
Now there is an organisation that exists to help people like us to do just that, it is called HogCo. On their website they describe themselves in this way -“Home Grown - Community Owned (HogCO) is a 5 year programme working with rural communities across Devon to support local food projects. We help groups to join together to develop skills and seek opportunities to grow their own food.
Why we do it?
Some of the main challenges facing rural communities are the prospect of ever rising fuel and food costs and the lack of community cohesion. By working together, groups can improve their well being, community involvement and the environment. Being involved in a community garden can improve health and happiness, helps you develop new skills, make new friends and above all its fun!”
We have invited Joanne Winterburn (HogCo co-ordinator) to come and talk to us about this new project that could be a great help in getting food growing projects under way in Ottery, and we need your involvement now! Sustainable Ottery tried to organise this meeting in early January but the icy weather put an end to that idea. Now is the time for action!
Tuesday 9th February 2010 (7.30pm in the back room of the bar at the
London Inn, Gold Street, Ottery)
To find out more about HogCo visit
www.hogco-devonrcc.org.uk/index.asp?todo=done& or call 01392 383423
Reskilling Day: 10 – 4 Saturday March 20th The Institute, Ottery St Mary
Ever fancied a spot of home brewing or bread making? Ever wondered how to put in a zip, make a bag, knit or darn, or wondered about some basic DIY or when to start growing seedlings, how to preserve or make jam? If the answer to any of these is yes than come along to our Re-skilling day at the Institute on March 20th. It’s a free event and you can drop in at any time or why not stay for the duration and become a real know-it-all! Get nifty and thrifty!
If you have a skill that you would like to share with everyone else then please let us know either via . info@sustainableottery.org.uk or 01404 811067.
Latest on the Supermarket applications
It appears that the meeting to discuss the two supermarket applications is likely to be on March 9th somewhere in Ottery but this is yet to be confirmed. You can ask permission to speak at this meeting (probably limited to a few minutes as in previous council meetings) and we strongly encourage you to register when the details become available. We must let the planners know just how unpopular and disastrous for Ottery both of these supermarkets will be. We will e-mail you with the exact details when they become available.
Footbridge and Cyclepath Campaign.
Where to start? Firstly well done to all those who responded to our urgent plea and reminded the local councillors just how important we think the Land of Canaan footbridge/cyclepath scheme is - because as some of you might have seen in the local papers recently, E.D.D.C. has promised another £100,000 towards the cost of the footbridge, and so have D.C.C. The need for additional funds arose when it became clear that the budget would not stretch to a bridge that would satisfy the requirements of the Environment Agency, taking into account the risk of flooding. However, there still appears to be a shortfall in the budget and this is where an ugly spectre appears on the horizon as the footbridge and supermarket campaigns start to merge. Two weeks ago, the Ottery Herald suggested that EDDC might link the granting of planning permission to one of the supermarkets and ask one of them to commit to contributing funds to the footbridge/cyclepath as a planning condition.
To further complicate things, Churchill Properties own the land on the Mill side where the footbridge is planned to touch down. Currently there is a building at this exact spot which will need to be demolished. It appears that Churchill have given a verbal agreement that this bit of land can be used for the footbridge. Let’s hope Churchill honour this agreement – whatever happens to the Churchill/Tesco planning application. To move the bridge further east and away from Churchill Properties’ land would mean a longer span and obviously this will increase the costs significantly.
In Sustainable Ottery’s opinion, each of the supermarket developments and the footbridge/cyclepath should be judged on their individual merits. The footbridge/cyclepath is a development which residents have been promised and have fought for over many years and needs to be built as a matter of urgency. We should not be `blackmailed’ into supporting either Tesco’s or Sainsbury’s applications because of a relatively small shortfall in the footbridge/cyclepath budget or in order to ease footbridge negotiations with Churchill. The arguments against the Tesco/Churchill application have been made many times by us and by many Ottery residents on the EDDC website (176 out of 182 comments or 96.7% were against the Tesco store). The scheme was also rejected by Ottery St. Mary Town Council.
So what can we do about this situation? Well be sure to let the local district councillors know how you feel about this and tell them loud and clear that a) funding for the footbridge should not come from either of the supermarkets hoping to move into Ottery and should be sought from elsewhere; and b) EDDC should do everything possible to secure this additional funding as quickly as possible and ensure that construction work starts in the near future – before the other funding is lost due to delays or, worse still, before a pedestrian suffers a major accident on the busy road into Ottery.
African Drumming Comes to Ottery – 2-5 p.m. 20th February URC Hall
The sound of Africa is coming to Ottery St Mary with the first in a proposed series of drumming workshop being held on 20th February. The workshops, called Good 2 Drum, are open for beginners and more experienced drummers, and are described “as a great way to learn multi-part rhythms to create exciting dynamic music” by workshop leader Nick Bore from Lyme Regis. “Drumming can get those endorphins flowing, it is great fun!” he continued.
Nick has been drumming for 35 years and teaching for the last 11, and welcomes all to the new workshop which is being run under the banner of Sustainable Ottery. Clive Essame, of Sustainable Ottery, explains. “One of the basic aims of Sustainable Ottery is to develop arts and cultural activities. We aim to increase access to a diverse range of cultural events, and opportunities to participate in different arts. We know that there are many excellent cultural activities in Ottery, but this is something new and exciting. People who want to do this kind of drumming have had to travel to Exeter or further to do it, but now there is this opportunity which we think will be very popular.”
The cost for the workshop will be between £12 - £15 per person, the exact fee will depend on the number of people attending. The workshop will start at 2pm and finish at about 5pm on 20th February with further dates being arranged. The venue is the United Reformed Church Hall, in Jesu Street, please call 01404 814217 to book your place.
Workshop leader Nick can supply drums if needed, or people can bring their own, he will be using djembes and other traditional percussion instruments.
For more information please call 01404 814217.
Community Market – 27th February 9.30 – 12.30 The Institute.
Normal Service Resumes at Sustainable Ottery's Community Market
After the excitement of Christmas and the disruption of the snow, things are back to normal at this month's Community Market. There will be a full house of stalls on the 27th February. These will include fresh local produce, fabulous cakes, apple juice produced in Whimple, soap hand-made here in Ottery, unique, home made cards, interesting fashions and one-of-a-kind gifts. The Parish Church returns with their second-hand books and delicious goodies. New stalls this month include organic beef and lamb, and hand dyed yarns. Everyone is welcome to come and browse, and to meet up with friends over refreshments provided by the WI. The market is on Saturday 27th February, 9.30-12.30 at the Institute in Yonder Street.
Energy-Saving Review by our resident Gadget Man
After getting an energy monitor for Christmas and noticing the huge spike in electricity use when the electric kettle was switched on, we switched to a whistling gas kettle, this works fine and costs about 20% of the cost of using electric to boil water, but it’s slower than the electric one. When I saw an advert for rings to make your gas hob more efficient I jumped at the chance. They cost £6.99 and so it’s highly unlikely that you will save enough to cover the cost in the foreseeable future unless a) they work; and b) you are using them all day; however I love gadgets and wanted to speed up boiling the kettle. When they arrived (I bought two) I tried them immediately, they glow and look just like the picture, it seemed I was on to a winner. I was disappointed however that they didn’t seem to have any effect on my kettle. In fact it seemed to take longer to boil with the gadget than without it, so I did an experiment with measured amounts of water at the same initial temperature in the same container and found it takes a few seconds longer to boil water with the device than without it. I would not buy this gadget again. More reviews of energy saving devices to follow next edition. Nigel’s store looks interesting, http://www.nigelsecostore.com/acatalog/Energy_saving_devices.html
but there are some questionable devices there (see above) Don’t forget Kaiteur in Sidmouth too. www.kaieteur.uk.com
Upcoming events-
Ellingtonia Concert in Ottery
Following the success of last year’s “Ellingtonia” concert, there will be another "Ellingtonia" jazz concert on the 12th February (Friday) Ottery Parish Church, 8pm, tickets £10 from T.I.C., Roberts, or Church Office, or 01404 813964.
Any profits will be shared with the Melanesian Brothers who were badly flooded last year, (Climate Change?) and need all the help they can get.
Climate Change Conference – “Beyond Copenhagen and What Happens Next?’’. Saturday 20th February 1.30 Jury’s Inn, Western Way, Exeter.
Free Admission. Speakers – Dr, Jeff Ridgely (The Met. Office Hadley Centre), Dr. Duncan Russel and Dr. Stewart Barr (University of Exeter). Tel, 01392 256559.
‘HOME’ – Film and Sidmouth Carbon Challenge
Friday 26th February at 7pm ,All Saint’s Hall, Sidmouth. Free Entry
7-8pm Introduction: An extract from the film 'Home' (2009)... an aerial view of the planet and how we are using it now, with a look at some positive ways we could adopt in the future. Also a presentation from Sidmouth College students on their Sidmouth Carbon Challenge campaign, and stands on the theme of ‘use less energy, create less waste’ plus an
Green Christian Gathering Saturday 20th March 10.30-4.00
But only if you can’t make our re-skilling day! Speakers Prof. Tim Gorringe and Clare Bryden (of Transition Exeter) Tavistock Methodist Church. Further details from Joan Harris (Tel: 01392-294940) or e-mail: joanie@exeter.anglican.org
And finally…
Farewell to Sara
We are sad to have to say adieu to Sara Drew, one of the founder members of Sustainable Ottery. Work and family commitments mean that Sara has had to bow out from her prominent role within the Group. We shall miss her enthusiasm and pragmatism plus her positive and nurturing approach to everything and everyone. Her public-speaking skills shall also be sorely missed. We wish you well Sara in the future but we know that you will continue to be a very enthusiastic supporter of Sustainable Ottery and all that we endeavour to do.
The next SO monthly Steering Group meeting is on Thursday 18th February 7.30pm, URC Hall, Yonder St (the hall directly behind the URC church opposite the Co-op).
Please pass on this newsletter to any contacts you have. If you have been sent this by a friend, please e-mail info@sustainableottery.org.uk adding `subscribe’ to the subject line. If you would like to be removed from the mailing list, please let us know. And if you currently receive a paper copy of this newsletter but could receive it electronically (which is cheaper and more environmentally friendly), please send us your e-mail address.
See www.sustainableottery.org.uk for further details of our events and activities.
Skills Audit Database
To enable Sustainable Ottery to communicate better with its supporters we wish to enhance our database. If happy to do so, please could you fill in the requested details below and return, so that in future Sustainable Ottery can make better use of its hidden talents.
Experiences and skills.- don’t hide yours under a bushel, we all have something to offer. Here are a few suggestions:
Name: Post Code:
E-mail: Telephone:
EXPERIENCES & SKILLS:
Delivering leaflets Accountancy/bookkeeping
Food preservation Campaigning
Garden share, land availableOrganising events
Livestock rearing Poster design
Permaculture Public speaking
Putting up posters Running meetings
Seasonal cooking Writing up minutes
Staffing stalls Town planning
Tree planting Fund raising
Vegetable growing Advertising
Catering Group Facilitation
Creative activities Renewable energy
Coaching & counselling
Please tick one or more boxes and return via this email address (newsletter@sustainableottery.org.uk) or via SkillsAudit@sustainableottery.org.uk . If we have omitted a skill that you are able to offer, feel free to write it in a space provided.
If returning this skills survey in paper form then please could you drop it into Roberts Hardware shop for collection.
