Newsletter March 2011

CANCELLED

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Sustainable Ottery has decided recently to concentrate its efforts mainly in the areas of local food and energy and this month sees two important initiatives which reflect this and we hope you will support. Posters advertising these events appear at the end of this newsletter if you could print out and display. Thank you.

CANCELLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A (nearly) free lunch from Sustainable Ottery! Saturday 12th March from 11a.m. in the Institute. CANCELLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In these days of rapidly increasing fuel costs where the price of petrol and diesel seems to go up every week, it is becoming more and more important for us to look at ways of getting what we need to survive locally, and food is one of the things we really can’t do without.
What can we do regarding local food in Ottery?
Sustainable Ottery, in cooperation with HogCO, are organising a fun event that will invite people to share their ideas for growing and producing more food locally, as well having the chance to use local produce, learn about growing vegetables organically, making soda bread, swapping and sowing seeds and sharing a local lunch.

HogCo is Home Grown - Community Owned - a 5 year programme working with rural communities across Devon to support local food projects. They help groups to join together to develop skills and seek opportunities to grow their own food. See http://www.hogco-devonrcc.org.uk/ or call 01392 383423.
The event, on Saturday March 12th at 11am in the Institute, will start with a short presentation from HogCO, and then there will be ample opportunity for people to bring their ideas forward for growing, making and cooking local foods. A hands-on cookery session will follow with a chance to help make a seasonal salad and soda bread to go with the local vegetable soup for lunch. Following lunch there will be information about food and cooking generally, sowing and growing vegetables including planting vegetable seeds which youngsters can then take home with them at the end of the day. A seed swap – bring your half used packets of seed and swap them for something new to grow – will also take place. This should enable you to grow new varieties without the cost of buying an expensive packet of seeds.

Families are welcome, and tickets costing only £1 per person will be available from the Tourist Information Centre and Roberts Hardware from the middle of February, there are only a limited number available. For more information call 01404 814217.

‘Save Energy, Save Money, Live Better’ - Thursday March 24th 7.30 p.m. The King’s School.
Are you finding it hard to pay the utility bills? Was keeping warm this winter a struggle? Well maybe we can help. As part of our commitment to reducing energy consumption, Sustainable Ottery has joined the Energy Savings Trust ‘Green Communities’ project. The aim is to try and establish a Carbon Footprint for the town and to identify areas where energy efficiencies can be made. We’re hoping that you will support this scheme by adding information about your energy use online (paper copies available too) into a secure Energy Savings Trust web location set up just for Ottery St. Mary, to estimate your own personal carbon footprint. Using the information that you have inputted it will also provide you with tailor-made suggestions as to how you can reduce your energy use in the future. All those who enter their details will be entered into a prize-draw with a suitable energy-efficient prize! From all the information gathered, we can make an estimate for the town and the more people that take part, then the better the estimate will be. This can be used as a benchmark to show any progress that the town has made in energy savings in the years ahead.
Please visit www.greencommunitiescc.org.uk/group/otterystmary  and follow the instructions. This scheme could result in extra grants to help with insulation, cavity–fill, double-glazing etc. energy-saving measures and possibly renewable- energy schemes for community buildings. A free energy audit of The Institute is already planned.

To get the ball-rolling we have organised a talk to coincide with ‘Climate Week’, on Thursday 24th March at 7.30 in The King’s School which will look at why it is imperative to become more energy-efficient from both an environmental and an economic stand-point. We are pleased to announce that taking part will be Derrick Ryall, Head of Climate Change at the Met. Office who will talk about climate change, its causes, the most up-to-date predictions and the implications for us in the future. Also speaking will be Sophie Phillips, an energy advisor from Energy Action Devon with help and tips on how we can reduce our energy consumption in the home, plus Alastair Mumford from Co-Cars (a local car-sharing scheme) and Lesley Smith from Travelwise (a local lift-sharing scheme). We are hoping that representatives of The King’s School ‘Green Team’ will have the opportunity to inform us of their own initiatives and plans.

There will be lots of information on hand to help you keep your bills down, what grants are available to help you make your home more energy-efficient, the car and lift-sharing scheme, renewable energy etc. If you bring along an idea of your annual gas and electricity usage (kW/h), then we may be able to calculate your carbon footprint on the night (wi-fi permitting!) With larger-than-ever energy bills dropping through letter boxes and petrol costing a day’s wage to fill-up the car, you can’t afford to miss this.

If you need any help with transport to this talk or if you are able to offer a lift, or if you might be able to help make drinks in the break then that would be appreciated. Please Jill Dixon on 01404 811067 or info@sustainableottery.org.uk. Parking is either near the basketball court next to the hospital or at Colin Tooze Sports Centre. For those with mobility issues, there is some (limited) parking within the school playgrounds, entrance opposite sports centre entrance.

Community Market 
The next SO Community Market will take place on Sat 26 March, 9.30am – 12.30pm in The Institute, Yonder St. Come and visit our thriving market, selling locally produced organic vegetables, free-range eggs and egg products, a huge selection of preserves and chutneys, apple juice and home-baked goods, plus greetings cards (Easter and Mother’s Day coming up soon) and local crafts and jewellery. There is also a Traidcraft stall selling those other essential staples, such as tea, coffee, rice and dried fruit which cannot be grown locally and are sold at a price and in a way that benefits producers in the developing world. (I bought the best homity pie I have ever tasted last month at the Community Market – Ed!)

African Drumming 
If your new year’s resolution is to do something fun, musical and cultural with others, why travel further afield? Our very popular African drumming workshops may be just what you’re looking for. The next drumming workshop will be held on Sat March 12th, beginners at 2pm, more advanced drummers at 3.30pm. The cost is £7.50 per session. It will take place at the Station Youth Club, Barrack Rd (ie main road out of Ottery to A30), on the Kings School side of the River Otter on the right hand side, a few metres from the bridge. For more information call 814217. Drums are available to borrow and everyone over 11 years old (accompanied by an adult up to 16) is welcome. Further African drumming workshops will take place at the same time in the same place on 9 April.

Update on the Cyclepath/Footbridge
After what seems to have been a very long time, it appears that work on our new bridge should start very soon. A contractor has been appointed and with just a few final crossing of t’s and dotting of i’s to be completed, everything seems on track for construction to start next month. If the weather is favourable and all goes to plan, it should be ready for use by the start of the new school year in September. Look out for more information in the local press in the weeks about how the construction work might affect the town, the Land of Canaan car-park in particular. Also, you may have noticed that some trees have had to be removed in anticipation of the scheme but developers have promised to replace these and introduce extra planting together with otter holts and bat boxes in the area. There is also to be (if funding becomes available) an exciting memorial to Samuel Coleridge near the new footpath at the Land of Canaan end, in the shape of ‘poetry stones’ . Coleridge’s famous Kubla Khan poem will be carved into granite blocks alongside the footpath and may become a record-breaker for the longest poem display!

More Transport News
We have been informed that Devon County Council is putting together the Devon bid for funding from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (Department for Transport). It is about packages of measures to promote walking, cycling, public transport etc. Its key focus is about "strengthening the economy and reducing carbon". We are keen to see a cycle way along the River Otter between Feniton and Sidmouth which would be of benefit to both walkers and cyclists and bring more people into the town. Sustainable Ottery has registered with those formulating the bid and will seek to promote this scheme. If you have any other ideas on this subject, then please let us know and we will include them too.

Street Lighting Campaign – Energy and Money Saving Measures
Devon County Council have recently agreed a 3 year rolling programme of switching out street lights between midnight and 05.30am (excluding A & B roads). More details are available at www.devon.gov.uk.

News from the Escot Walled Garden Project
Our Community Kitchen Garden at Escot Park has been reorganised to some extent for this coming year. We now have individual growing plots available for each member on a Family Membership basis. There are also some communal areas, namely the greenhouse and two small growing areas.
The greenhouse is available for propagation and growing more tender produce. Produce grown in the greenhouse is primarily for members, but surplus is sold to cover our overheads. The specific communal growing area is primarily for crops to sell, to cover our costs. Spare plots are either used for the same purpose, or sown with green manure, which can be dug in when the plot is taken over.
We have access to water, a storage facility and the Apple Shed, which is the ‘centre of operations’! There are plenty of tools on site, so these don’t have to be brought in. We’re a friendly group, in a lovely setting – a mixture of experienced and inexperienced growers. For anyone without the confidence to maintain their own plot, there is the opportunity to share, or to help in the communal areas. Our only downside is having to net our growing area, to protect it from the estate Peacocks!
If you would like to know more or come over to see what is happening, contact Christina Wilkins on 01404 814086 (cwilkins14@tiscali.co.uk ) or Justin Vernon on 01404 549925 (jvernon@topsham.devon.sch.uk)

A Future date for your Diary- September 24th 2011.
Satish Kumar will open the Recycling & Environment Exhibition in Ottery Parish Church. This is a rare opportunity to hear one of the World’s leading environmental thinkers and speakers live in our area. He is a guest of Sustainable Ottery.

Climate Survey
Scientists at the Met Office and Royal Meteorological Society are asking everyone in the country to take part in the OPAL Climate Survey. The OPAL survey is open to people of all ages and aims to provide scientists with data which will help them investigate ways in which we affect the climate and how the climate may affect us. By discovering how hot or cold people feel should help judge how adaptable we might be to future climate change. See www.opalexplorenature.org/ for more details.

Other Events in the Area
= Friday evenings in March a series of lectures on the environmental crisis organised by a group of individuals from churches in Exeter promoting an understanding of environmental issues from a Christian perspective. Mint Methodist Church Exeter from 7.30 to 9 p.m. First lecture on 4th March – ‘Climate Change - A lot of Hot Air or Creation in Crisis’ John Houghton (formerly Head of the Met. Office). Future talks ‘Where have all the tigers gone?’ (11th), ‘Fighting for Survival – how environmental problems impact on the world’s poorest’ (18th) and ‘Living it out – Christian living that doesn’t cost the Earth’ (25th)

= Growing Diverse & Delicious Gardens – 9th March 9.30 – 2.30 p.m., Embercombe, Haldon Hill Forest, Exeter. How to attract new volunteers. Organised by HogCo. email: info@hogco‐devonrcc.org.uk

= ‘The Great Transition: A High Well-Being, Low Carbon Economy‘ - 17 March 2011 19:30, Real Food Store, 11-13 Paris Street, Exeter, EX1 2JB by Tony Greenham, New Economics Foundation, Head of Finance and Business. What are the economic and financial policies needed to move to a resilient, low carbon economy. We will be asking, what role can local authorities and community groups play in developing these?

= ‘Earth, Wind and Sun. Saturday 19th March from 10.30 at Sidmouth College. A day of talks, demonstrations and exhibitions organised by Sidmouth Vision Group. For more details contact 01395 516655 or 01395 578689.

= Facing the realities today in Africa and Asia -21 March 2011 18:00 to 19:30, Exeter Central Library (Music room)
Hear about how communities are responding to the challenges that climate change is bringing in Bangladesh, Nepal and Ethiopia. With speakers from WaterAid, Exeter-Ethiopia Link and climatechangeslives.org. Refreshments available from 5:30pm.
RSVP: Becca Eastman (Climate SouthWest Project Officer): becca.eastman@environment-agency.gov.uk or tel: 01392 352230

= ‘Food Inc.’ – Saturday April 9th April. Doors open at 2 p.m. at Broadclyst Village Hall. An Oscar-nominated documentary about modern food and farming, followed by refreshments. Tickets £2 in advance or £3 on the door. View trailer at www.foodincmovie.com. More details from henry.gent@btinternet.com or 01392 469334

If you would like to attend any of the events advertised in this Newsletter but have no transport or if you are thinking of going and could offer a lift, then why not contact us and we can put both parties in touch with each other. Simples! info@sustainableottery.org.uk or tel. 01404 811067.

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.