SOW Discussion
Notes from SOW meeting, 28 June 2023
11 people present. Thank you Gerry for chairing.
We discussed what we would like to discuss, then voted on which topics to start on!
- What to do to alleviate climate anxiety
- How to maximise visibility of SOW
- Community actions eg planting hedges, communal meals, plastic free
- Get young people/children engaged
- National eco schemes eg plastic free
- Water – sustainable use
- Review SOW so far & direction
- What is the most effective thing small communities can do?
Hopefully the following notes will give a flavour of the discussions.
SOW review
SOW came out of the Net Zero Now course Paul did. This year he was a guest speaker on the course – SOW is seen as a successful outcome, one of several groups started locally.
Different categories of people turned up to the first SOW meeting, from those who wanted discussion to those who wanted XR-style action.
The talks we have had so far have been enjoyed – best were the workshops eg birdbox making – but the group hasn’t grown and the impact on the environment hasn’t been enormous? Would there be an appetite to do something bigger? Eg a village solar farm or something like the Histon Abbey Fields purchase. Best to go with the energy and strengths in the community. Or maybe better to start with small wins, actions with palpable, measurable results. The Local Nature Recovery Plan will have links to the wider area and national efforts.
Everyone: think through 3 reasonably achievable local actions and bring the suggestions to the next meeting.
A constitution and committee (chair, secretary, treasurer) would be needed if we want to apply for grants. District Council Zero Carbon grants are easily available. Recruitment is better via community activities than explicit recruitment drives. Discussions are not necessarily better with loads of people. From the Village Day surveys, cost of living is a barrier for many people, so activities which pull in people needing to save money would be good.
We should ‘follow the data” but don’t have it. We don’t really know what residents are doing or could do to live sustainably – discussion of a Facebook or door-to-door survey.
Sustainable Use of Water
A growing problem – some councils have a permanent hosepipe ban. Longstanton saw water table drop with Northstowe phases 1&2. Do our small actions (short showers) make a difference? Water doesn’t disappear but more and more ends up as salt water – very energy intensive to desalinate. The rare chalk stream habitats are endangered. Water shortage is a more imminent problem even than climate change but people don’t engage.
What could be done? Bulk buy water butts and offer to install? But plastic butts don’t last. Allotment holders have to bring water each night. Ems’s Nottingham allotment dug a borehole. All chip in and offer £100 prize in a Facebook competition for the best idea?
July meeting
Alice offered to chair. Bring suggestions for 3 actions. People to be invited (reminded each week?) to suggest in advance of meeting by Facebook/WhatsApp and email. Also bring ideas from the May meeting about the Nature Recovery Plan.
Also
- Green library – instead of a shelf in the phone box ( because none of the books were returned), bring books to the meeting to lend among SOW members.
- Jake has joined the Parish Council so let him know of any environmental issues you think he should be pushing.
- 25 SOW short surveys were completed at Village Day. Lucy will try to collate the responses.
- John Terry will lead the first stage of the SOW/EAG Nature Recovery Plan, starting with a meeting to discuss next steps.
Sustainable Oakington and Westwick 
I noticed in the survey only 46% recycle, do you think they misunderstood or do you think that 54% really do not use their blue bin. I know some villagers don’t but a campaign to “name and shame” would be rather divisive.
I am not really happy about the level of light pollution, not just because it stops us seeing the stars, but it also means we are using electicity at night when most people are in bed. Some people actually leave their outside house lights on and do not use a motion sensor. But I discovered recently there is at least one road, Holme Close, where the street lights go out at around midnight. Maybe we could investigate how this is organised and try and get a lot more streets in the village on the same system. As most people have an outside light which comes on as people pass, anyone out walking in the early hours would not be completely devoid of light.
I think it would be useful to make another trip to Amey to see how they operate, I missed the EAG trip and I think it might generate more ideas that we can develop.
I went on a course on hosting school groups in Community Orchards, it is a bit complicated with safety issues etc., but if one of the teachers at the school is a member of SOW and would like to pilot it with their class, I could meet them to discuss.
There are a number of old fruit trees dotted around the village, it would be nice to understand just how many there are. Potentialy the OCOP could offer a free maintenance service that they would carry out alongside the Community Orchard work. The other factor is that those people who have fruit trees generally have more fruit than they want, and it often gets put out on the kerb, but because everyone is doing it at the same time, probably very little of it gets taken. Perhaps in conjunction with blue barrel we could instigate a surplus fruit collection service.
The verges on the old Longstanton road are a bit of a mess, it has been suggested I think that we let the wildflowers grow and then cut them down at the end of the summer. The problem is that unless it is “managed” some species will dominate. It might be better to see if we could adopt them and plant them with perhaps fruit bushes – gooseberries? Or we could just do some “gorilla” planting and see what happens. Homes England did plant one patch with blackthorn.
Regards Graham
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Here are my ideas (originally posted on WhatsApp)
1) Write letters/tweets/etc – to MPs, supermarkets, whoever could be influenced. We could have a SOW target for number of letters… Share wording… Get our families to write too … Make sure that decision makers know that people are very concerned.
2) vegan cake/biscuit competition
3) cycle training & repair in the community, or 3a) giving training in using Google maps, train split etc to make using public transport easier
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And from Fredi:
1. Local green ideas….repair cafe for electronics/household items.
2. Best Cake / Pie … Veggie cooking/baking contest, get a local chef to judge. Combine with village fete or something else.
3. Comms campaign about how being green SAVES MONEY £
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Here are *** ideas from Vicky*** pasted from the WhatsApp group (just to make it eaier to get one lists together for review ar meeting…
” here some Community Action thoughts. Mainly based around I’m too busy and so is everyone else I know at the moment!
1) Repair cafe in Oakington. I keep meaning to go to one, have a pile of stuff but never the time to get there. Get the group to come to us, just as one off, could host in the Crossways Cafe.
2) Wildlife Gardening Team
I always want to do more in the garden but don’t have time or knowledge. Offer as group (assuming people who have the knowledge want to volunteer) that we can come round and advise or do your garden. Could charge for it. I’d pay.
3) Toy Library
Donate second hand toys, loan them out.
Downside: Takes organisation and storage when not on loan. Tends to work for big outdoor toys.
4) Community Garden / Herb Share
Grow herbs and dry them. I haven’t bought bay leaves for years as one of houses in the village cuts their bay tree and leaves branches out for people to collect.
Thanks,Vicky.”
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Hi, some ideas for the list to discuss at next meeting
**** Happy Cow, Chilli Non Carne ***
SOW provide free veggy meal to anyone (meat eating reduction has relatively big impact on Global warming)
• EG 1. Village day gap between day and music, SOW provide free chilli in community hall to anyone
• EG 2. Harvest Supper / Pre Bonfire SOW provide free chilli in community hall to anyone
+ Booze of course (maybe Cider?) and maybe Black Coffee (band)?
*** GetThereShare ***
Focus on transport … start with bike pool (borrow my bike, Tom gives us some, electric bike station ala the guy who presented to us) …. routine journey share (schedule on facebook), … car share, ….one regular night tesco delivery blitz instead of one house van here every day and night … … … 5 electric car pool (£500 from each household in oaky) …
*** No Petrol Fruit and Veg ***
1. SOW Crop Share: making veg locally reduces need for carrots to be shipped via petrol all over uk – where does yr carrot and cucumber come from? – who knows. Grown in village = no petrol. Cultivated in village = community building/resilience… Space to grow? Allotments / new allotments / rent field / airfield road (fill some verges, make small water pools of others ,,,share with longstanton group, care home and schools), sleepers.
2. SOW Stall fortnightly Saturday central village staff selling (mainly) fruit and veg which we gather from local crop share/home gardens/local producers
work with transport group
*** Village Connections ***
Claim them, protect them, use them or or Lose them …natural walkways to other villages e.g. bar hill, longstanton, cottenham, histon, girton.
We just lost a local path to bar hill closed making a right of way path unusable orphan … fight and promote usage
win one (get path registered)
work with transport group
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