Caring about the future of our community
in Thornbury and the surrounding villages

ST Bulletin

Contents

This Bulletin includes news about:

• The EcoFair;
• A Creative Recycling competition;
• Updates to the Reuse and Recycling directory;
• Thornbury Community Plan meeting;
• Wind Turbine visits;
• The Community Orchard;
• The AGM;
• A grant from Ethical Solar;
• The new Give-It-Away Take-It-Away website;
• Reuse at the Thornbury Sort-It site;
• Forthcoming dates.

EcoFair, Saturday 19 May 2012

Our EcoFair on 19th May at The Chantry in Thornbury is now beginning to take shape. We have lots of stalls covering a wide range of topics including energy saving and energy generation, electric and 'really useful' bikes of all shapes and sizes, and stalls helping to reuse and recycle lots of stuff. We are planning a fun event just like last time, so there will be family activities and a performance stage for local talent. There will be a gardener's question time and an energy forum. Please keep this date free, and tell your friends.

All this will need quite a lot of help on the day, so we hope everyone will lend a hand. Margaret Pinder will be contacting those who helped last time, to book their services (we hope!). Everyone who helped last time had a really enjoyable day, so if you missed out and could give any time at all on Saturday 19th or the evening of Friday 18th please give Margaret a ring on 01454 416778 or email ecofair@sustainablethornbury.org to let her know.

Creative Recycling competition

We are running a Creative Recycling Competition alongside the EcoFair with prizes awarded on the day. Can you have fun and save money? Can you make something useful from stuff that would be thrown away? Put on your thinking caps and get creative. Our creative recycling competition is open to all with age-appropriate prizes for everyone from under 5s to adults. What about a storage or bug box? a toy? a garment? a garden creation? - the choice is only limited by your imagination and ingenuity. We will be putting an entry form on the website shortly. The closing date is 17th May so you have time to start planning your entry. Winners will be announced at 1pm at the Ecofair. So let's see what all our artistic and engineering members can come up with!

Reuse and Recycling directory updated

Have you ever wondered what to do with your unwanted things so they don't end up in a landfill hole in the ground? Then see our Reuse and Recycle Directory, with lots of contacts, help and tips on disposing of the things you no longer want. The online version of the directory has been updated since the last Bulletin to include:

• a collection point for recycling Brita water filters at Wildings and
• a shoe collection point at The Chantry.

The ST waste group has put this directory together. It can be seen on the ST website, or a paper copy can be seen at the library. If you have any suggestions, corrections or updates then please contact the waste group.

Thornbury Community Plan public meeting

Thornbury Town Council is drawing up a Community Plan for Thornbury. They are holding a public meeting at 7:30pm on Thursday 15th March at the Cossham Hall to discuss the plan. ST is encouraging members to go to the meeting to make sure the plan is sustainable.

Visits to Wind Farms and Tower Factory

Wind farm developers REG Windpower wants to build three wind turbines near Olveston between the M4 and the M48. For more details see the M48 Windfarm website. They are offering trips to the wind turbine tower factory near Chepstow, and to see windfarms. If you would like to go on one of these trips please contact Alan on 416778.

Thornbury Community Orchard

The community orchard really needs regular maintenance, so we want to start regular work parties there. If you would be interested in joining in, please contact the orchard group.

Annual General Meeting

ST will be holding its Annual General Meeting on Wed 23 May. All members are welcome. If you want to stand for office, or nominate someone, then please contact us.

Thanks to Ethical Solar for grants

We are extremely grateful to solar panel installer Ethical Solar for donating £1000 to Sustainable Thornbury. We support the fitting of solar panels, although we do not endorse any particular supplier. Ethical Solar claims to be more ethical and environmental than most installers.

Give-It-Away Take-it-Away website

The Sustainable Thornbury waste group is working with the MyThornbury website people to create a local Give-It-Away Take-it-Away website for finding new homes for useful but unwanted free items. It will be a bit like the Freecycle or Freegle, but covering only the Thornbury area. This means less travelling to collect things, so if you want you can put on items that are bulky or of low value but usable. We are hoping to launch the website at the EcoFair. Watch this space!

We are looking for a snappy name for the website. If you have any ideas, please contact the waste group.

Reuse at the Thornbury Sort-It site

Following the success of the Give-It-Away Take-It-Away days, the ST waste group has been looking for ways of reusing things that don't need quite so much effort from us. One is the Give-It-Away website (see above). We have also pursuaded the Council to have a reuse section at the Sort-It site in Thornbury. The idea is that items left there are sent to the third world by a charity. This is not quite what we wanted, but it is a step forward. There have been lots of other improvements at the Sort-It site, all given in the ST reuse directory.

Facebook

We have a Facebook group and a Facebook page. If you are on Facebook, do have a look, join the group, like the page and share with your friends. If you are not on Facebook, you can still see the Facebook page.

Discussions and planning

We have discussions and plan what we are doing at meetings on the fourth Wednesday of most months at 7:30pm at The Chantry. The first hour or so is a talk or general discussion called Sustainability Forum. Then we have a tea break and talk about what the project groups are doing. All are welcome.

The next three meetings are more practical than usual and don't have a Sustainability Forum. The dates are Wed 28 March (planning our next project), Wed 25 April (preparation for the EcoFair), and Wed 23 May (the AGM).

Grow Your Own Food

The Grow Your Own Food group has a meeting most months, usually on a Thursday at 7:30pm. The next meeting is Thursday 8 March, looking at root vegetable storage. Please ring 412165 for more details. Click here for meetings after that or ring 01454-412165. The Grow Your Own Food group also has an email group; to subscribe email gyof-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Dates

Thu 8 March: Grow Your Own Food Root vegetable storage, 7:30pm. Combermere.

Thu 15 March: Thornbury Town Council public meeting at the Cossham Hall, Thornbury, 7:30pm to discuss the Thornbury Community Plan.

Wed 28 March: Monthly ST meeting, 7:30pm, The Chantry. Forum: ST's next projects.

Thu 5 April: Grow Your Own Food Seed sowing for the EcoFair, 7pm.

Wed 25 April: Monthly ST meeting, 7:30pm, The Chantry. Forum: Planning the EcoFair.

Thu 10 May: Grow Your Own Food Potting on for the EcoFair, 7:30pm.

Fri 18 May 2012: EcoFair preparation in the evening, at The Chantry

Sat 19 May 2012: EcoFair, all day, at The Chantry

Wed 23 May: ST Annual General Meeting, 7:30pm, The Chantry.

This email was sent by info@sustainablethornbury.org, telephone 01454-416604. To unsubscribe, email info@sustainablethornbury.org.