SOW meeting, 26 July 2023. Twelve people present; thank you Alice for leading.

Specific action points

ACTION JP (or other person with access to the mailing list) Send this discussion document round to all regular SOW attendees to see who wants to sign up for which activities.

• ACTION EJ and PK make a start on finding out who owns which parts of land that might be suitable for planting trees or other local nature actions. Include in that information from Philip about permissive paths in the area (on the principle of ‘use it or lose it’). The PC clerk is a good starting point.
• ACTION AJ find out when the pavilion is free one evening in late September for a community meal of free food for all comers (use produce from our own gardens and allotments).
• ACTION KS puts up a survey on Facebook with list of suggested actions SOW could help people with e.g. hedgehog holes, water butts, bee houses, repair cafe.
• ACTION RG writes an article on maintaining their meadow for the journal (deadline Tues 19 Sep)

Ideas discussed

Ideas for productive areas of activities, and suggestions. Some of the suggestions are for specific events that are not necessarily seasonal, and others are for info campaigns that might be beneficial etc. Categorised by subject area.

Transport

• Dedicated group of enthusiasts from SOW to promote sharing of transport resources. Eg have a pool of pedal bikes, then make arrangement with Sean with his ebikes as a village resource, then aim for a shared car (tie in with idea of a public charging point for EV at pavilion, and look to have a shared village car).
• Emphasis on ways to save money, such as using bus app, and ticket splitting etc.
• Encourage active travel – cycle repair workshop; community bike rides. Cycle ride – Alice could lead. SUMMER

Food

• Discouraging food waste through journal articles on how to use things up in the kitchen; use-by dates and what they actually mean.
• Foraging workshop; foraging trail
• Crop sharing, allotment (possible new allotments behind Mill Road orchard), along airfield road.
• Community meals – brilliant way of promoting vegetarian diet and bringing people together. Free food is hard to ignore. (Discussed doing as part of Village Day or Bonfire Night but not good to undercut other caterers; although would be good to have veggie option on bonfire night.) Autumn to use home-grown produce?
• Herb boxes, like the flower tubs. For all year round. By a SOW team? SPRING
• Using community soup evening as fundraiser (model is that there will be food – everyone who comes pays a fiver; people bid for a community project; attendees then vote for which project the best; they take the money to implement small local project and then report back next event. Eg three or four a year)
• Bring your own apples to press with the Jordans’ equipment. Sep/Oct

Biodiversity

• Bird feeders; bird boxes; Bee hotels; hedgehog highways – workshops and offering to cut hole in fence (possibly dressed as a hedgehog in order to be seen to be doing things)
• Plant native hedging along busway. Or fruit trees but would be expensive to use only fruit trees. Choose plants whose size can be controlled. Would need permission. October -> winter.
• Plant small trees in empty spaces. (Eg Arcadia Gardens?) AUTUMN/WINTER.
• Wildlife gardening advice team – eg James Y advised someone on planting wildflowers for pollinators;
• Tap in when there are annual counts of butterflies, birds etc and use this as basis for building up local understanding of what there is in our gardens and fields; use iRecord
• Wildlife walks, eg trees, birdsong, moths, etc. Good for families. Ask John T. SUMMER
• Good wildlife pictures to put up on facebook to grab attention
• Put up bee hotels in public spaces. Pavilion, church, church hall, garden centre, bus stops. SPRING
• Plant community hazel (or willow) coppice. Also along busway? AUTUMN/WINTER.

Waste

• discourage vaping – check if they are sold in village shop; nowhere to recycle them; potential fire hazard; talk to shop or highlight issues in journal
• Repair cafe – plug into CCF (Cambridge Carbon Footprint), who can help supply repairers; people need to sign up beforehand so you know what needs mending; probably need pavilion or church hall rather than Crossways because of space required.
• Terracycle – public recycling locally of items that don’t go in usual recycling (crisp packets; biros; toothbrushes etc.) – gives money back, although need to collect a lot of waste before any meaningful profit.
• Article in journal about what can and can’t go in blue bin
• Toy swap/library – is there another resource such as phone box where this could be housed?
• Get more use out of tool share
• Plastic awareness – like the Big Plastic Count – promote awareness and alternatives; use social media for drip-drip reminders, facts etc.

Water

• Messaging about water efficiency
• Can local parish impose local hosepipe ban?
• Water butts – train people to install, have team of people who can install; advise on large water tanks

Climate Change

• Local resilience plan – what can village do to prepare specifically for heatwaves, droughts, flooding etc.
• Letter-writing campaign eg about environmental policies to companies, press, politicians. This can be on individual basis or from groups

Energy

• Solar panels on pavilion – should pay back reasonably quickly, and people (eg Philip and Rachel) can help calculate how long it would take to cover costs. Look for a grant for that, work with parish council.