Month: December 2020

Did you know that there are over 20 allotment associations in the borough of Wellingborough! Wherever you live there’s one nearby and with today’s Advent Calendar we are opening our window for them.

You can rent a small plot for between £30-£40 a year and it can be a very rewarding pastime. There are many benefits, including physical exercise, mental wellbeing, healthy eating, reducing food miles, social interaction and family bonding. They’re wonderful places where you can listen to the birds singing, breathe in the fresh air, feel the sun on your skin and of course enjoy the fruits of your labour.

No allotment is complete without recycling. A compost bin or heap of some kind will not only do they give you somewhere to dispose of your weeds, but also provide valuable compost free of charge. Water butts can be linked to shed rooves to catch the rain; and of course lots of old things come in useful on your plot, you can use wood to make your bean canes, or like on our header image an old trampoline! You can even use your old bath at your allotment, it’s perfect for growing carrots in.

At our Community allotment, we are making a plot that for the community to give people the chance to share skills and to grow plants. Together, we will grow plants, fruit and veg on it for local community organisations. It is on Ladywell allotments in Wellingborough. Find out more and join in on our Community Allotment Facebook group.

Find out more about your local allotment using the borough council’s allotments contacts list:

• Earls Barton Clock Close Allotments
• Earls Barton Parish Council Allotments
• Earls Barton Station Road
• Ecton Allotments
• Finedon Allotments
• Great Doddington Allotments
• Irchester Allotments
• Isham & Orlingbury Allotments
• Little Harrowden Allotments
• Little Irchester Allotments
• Swanspool Allotments
• Wellingborough Breezehill Allotments
• Wellingborough Brook Farm Allotments
• Wellingborough Ladywell Allotments
• Wilby Allotments
• Wollaston Baptist Allotments
• Wollaston Oddfellows Allotments
• Wollaston Scott Bader Allotments

Wellingborough Eco Group will in due course be adding every local allotment association to our new Wellingborough Eco Map. If you know of one that is missing please email us via info@wellingboroughecogroup.org.uk

Todays Advent Calendar window opening is for Wellingborough Norse, of course! They support Wellingborough Eco Group’s Two Hour Tidy Ups, by providing all of the equipment and collect everything that we litter pick, however much there is or how disgusting it is. We simply couldn’t do it without them!

For example, at todays Two Hour Tidy Up we collected over 50 bags of litter, a huge pile of wood from a fence, a TV, a table and two chairs, baby toys, two tyres and carpet. Most of this rubbish was muddy and therefore not recyclable, but Dave and Sean from Wellingborough Norse happily took it all away anyway.

And of course they do a lot more than just run around after us. They provide the following services in the borough in partnership with Wellingborough Council:

• Waste management and recycling
• Fleet management
• Grounds maintenance, including maintenance of parks and open spaces, trees, cemeteries and churchyards
• Street cleansing
• Public toilets
• Operation of the town centre marketplace
• Car parks
• Winter gritting operations
• Public halls
• Use of parks and parks games
• Environmental education and enforcement
• Facilities management for operational properties and land

A good example of what they do is empty over 50,000 wheelie bins a week! A good thing that they do is work to reduce the amount that ends up in landfill. One way they do this is by holding regular stalls promoting recycling. They do likewise to stop people fly tipping too.

Thank you Wellingborough Norse!

Thank you to our 9 litter heroes today who did an amazing tidy up in Shelley Park and the paths into Park Farm Industrial Estate. We collected over 50 bags of litter, a huge pile of wood from a fence, a TV, a table and two chairs, baby toys, two tyres and carpet.

This location was chosen by litter pickers Georgina and Freddie at our last litter pick, because it has been neglected for years and was in a terrible state. It looks so much better now 🙂

Thank you to Kate, Sheila, Judy, Freddie, Georgina, Niall, Marion, Jonathan and Emma. Special mention goes to Niall (pictured on the header image) who came out on his 60th birthday! Thank you also to Dave K and Sean B from Wellingborough Norse who collected the heap of rubbish and to Wellingborough Norse for lending us the equipment.

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There’s lots more photos on our Facebook group, have a look at them here!

Today’s advent window opening is for Wellingborough Library, because it re-opens today! Wellingborough Library is a large, busy library in the heart of town, offering a wide range of services to customers: from business support to children’s activities, they are a real community hub.

Staff are friendly and seem happy to point you in the right direction. The library is always kept clean and presentable. Calm, quiet atmosphere just like a library should be. There is a children’s area, that offers different ages playgroups every week. There is also disabled access and disabled toilets.

And as well as having thousands of books, they have computers to use and meeting rooms. The Library shop sells a selection of greetings cards, gift items, children’s toys and educational material. They are also the place to find out about local tourist information.

Visit Wellingborough LibraryPlus today at Pebble Lane, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, NN8 1AS or find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/wellingboroughlibrary/

Today’s advent window opening is for the Daily Bread Co-operative, which is a rather special place – Daily Bread is a wholefood shop in Northampton that is celebrating it’s 40th birthday this year! They are a workers cooperative and their name comes from the Lord’s Prayer.

They are an ethically based business valuing people over maximizing profit. They stock a huge range of cereals, fried fruit and nuts, granola’s and muesli, as well as a large range of gluten free produce. Many of their products are organic, Fairtrade or both. They stock a huge range of vegan and vegetarian foods, plus have lots of eco-friendly cleaning products and a gift section.

Despite the name, they are not a bakery, though they do stock bread, flapjacks and slices, some of which are cooked on the premises. They also have a successful online shop at dailybread.co.uk and have regular deliveries to Wellingborough.

You can find them at: The Old Laundry, Bedford Road, Northampton NN4 7AD. So if you are heading that way, pop in and stock up!

There are a number of local radio stations servicing the towns around Wellingborough. Local radio is a great way to hear about local events and services that you may not be aware of. BBC Radio Northampton covers the whole of Northamptonshire and can be found on FM, DAB and online. Wellingborough Eco Group have had the pleasure of being reported several times at our events or about our activities.

Shire Sounds are the community radio station for Kettering & the surrounding areas (covering Barton Seagrave, Rothwell, Burton Latimer, Desborough, Warkton, Mawsley & everything in between) built & run by a team of talented under 25s. They broadcast live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to the community of Kettering, playing music from the 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s & todays chart music.

On tonight’s Simon Cox Radio Show, Simon is interviewing Jonathan from Wellingborough Eco Group, about our Swap Shop at 8pm, listen live at shiresoundsradio.co.uk, they also cover local news on our Facebook, Instagram & Twitter and during live shows. National bulletins play out at the top of the hour every hour.

Another local station is Beat Route Radio, the community radio station for Rushden and the Nene Valley. Run entirely by volunteers, they currently provide around 110 hours of live local programming a week and it’s not all music. Programs include sports, non-biased political comment and information about local events. Find them at beatrouteradio.co.uk

COMMUNITY RESILENCE PROJECT

“Here to help us help each other”

WELLINGBOROUGH CHRISTMAS PLAN

It goes without saying, this year has been difficult for all of us, and events have stretched us in ways we would never have imagined only 12 months ago.  The world has changed enormously as have many of our lives, and we have lost so many people dear to us along the way. 

Christmas is a time for celebration, sharing time with family and friends, caring and reaching out to others in love and friendship.  It also a time for us to have a break from work and enjoy other activities, or to just go shopping.  But, this time it’s already more challenging, many people will be on their own, some will be coping with the loss of dear ones and feeling that loss more keenly.  Many have lost jobs or work and are struggling to feed themselves and their families, and others are still isolating and trying to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.  Others still will be working hard on ‘the front-line’, as they have done all year, providing our essential services, and we have seen this year just how ‘essential’ these services are as well as the people (our neighbours, friends and family members) that provide them.

If ever there was a time to really connect with the spirit of Christmas and reach out with compassion, care and friendship, it’s now.  And, in this spirit, friends, colleagues and community members from across Wellingborough are coming together to create the WELLINGBOROUGH CHRISTMAS PLAN.

Lead by colleagues from the ONE WELLINGBOROUGH (1W) Plus Community Resilience Project, we aim to bring people and groups together to see how we can help across our areas throughout Christmas.  We know at this time many of our needs become more acute, we feel loneliness more keenly, the fact that we have less money is even harder to cope with, and if we are reliant on others for a helping hand, this need is heightened as places we often rely on close for their Christmas break.   So, we plan to bring people and groups together to see how we can all help, learning about what help people need as we go along.

We are looking for people and groups to join us by offering time, maybe food and gifts, helpful items for people in various situations, and sometimes just a helping hand or a phone call. 

The Many Parts of the WELLINGBOROUGH CHRISTMAS PLAN

The Wellingborough Christmas Plan, at present will cover the following topics / areas….

• Food needs – aiming to provide frozen meals – including Christmas dinner, and Food parcels for those struggling (in conjunction with groups across the community)

• Support Needs – through the ONE WELLINGBOROUGH (1W) support service, and other organisations and volunteers – providing urgent assistance with shopping, collecting medication and giving people a friendly phone call to see if they are ok, having a chat

• Celebrating Christmas and Challenging Loneliness – Our Partners and friends will be providing some on-line entertainment for young and old, games to join in with, shows to watch as well as inspiring neighbours and friends to get together safely outside and maybe even sing carols or other Christmas songs, spreading a bit of Christmas cheer (in COVID safe ways), and filming and sharing your events on line to inspire others

• Activities – Offering and encouraging people to take exercise, join in some small group winters walks volunteers will lead, and maybe digging the bike out for some small group cycling too.  There may also be some more litter picks to continue to help spruce up our town / borough

• Information and Events– We plan to provide Events and Information details through an Online Advent Calendar, where local groups and organisations that have been helping all year will tell us about their services, and how they might be able to help over Christmas.  The calendar will also provide information about events and activities available over December 2020, provided by 1W Plus members or other groups and businesses in the Community, so keep a ‘look out’ for that

• Finding that all Important Gift / Present – Maybe this year our gift to each other could be reaching out and offering good cheer and some time to connect and listen, and of course it could also be helping each other to find gifts, as going shopping for many could be difficult.  The Wellingborough Eco Group are starting their Swap Shop throughout December 2020, as well as launching the Repair Club, we are keen to help people move good quality items to find ‘new homes’ with adults and children across our area, so if you have any items you feel would make a lovely gift for others please make contact with the Wellingborough ECO Group  – find out more at wellingboroughecogroup.org.uk or via facebook.com/groups/wellingboroughecogroup facebook.com/groups/wellingboroughswapshop and facebook.com/groups/repairclub

• The Big Christmas Give – The main part of our plans over Christmas to help provide a little Christmas Cheer is to launch ‘THE BIG CHRISTMAS GIVE’, this an APPEAL for items to share with others, this could be food items (nonperishable), good quality clean clothing, games, gifts for children (in very good condition), Christmas decorations and items, and possible presents for adults too.  We aim to parcel up these items to create little ‘Hampers of Joy’ and store them at the Victoria Centre.  Once ready, we would open up on 2 given dates to the public (using a booking system) for folks in need to pop in to collect items.  Anything left over will be parceled and sent out to be distributed to people in various areas

What Areas We Will Cover….

The WELLINGBOROUGH CHRISTMAS PLAN can / will cover all of Wellingborough Borough and we are hopeful that people, groups, organisations and businesses from across the area will step up to join in.  Many will already be planning things and we offer many information outlets we have to help share their actions and let others know, so even if you only want to take part to amplify what you are already doing we would love to have you on board.

Taking Part – Joining In

Delivering this plan is going to take a great many of us to make this happen, and we all have ways we can help, even if we also need help ourselves.  If you, your street, your company, group or organisation would like to take part in whatever way you can please get in touch

Ways You Can Help can include, helping out by

1. Giving time to volunteer in making or distributing food
2. Helping leading a walk or cycle ride
3. Supporting us to sort out donations, and helping clean them as required
4. Answering the phone or responding to emails
5. Letting us know about an activity or event you might be running to add to our Calendar
6. Putting up posters, passing out leaflets
7. Donating gifts, items, food or clothing
8. Helping run the BIG CHRISTMAS GIVE
9. Setting up a Christmas support group in your street and a COVID safe Christmas singing event in your street
10. Checking on friends and neighbours safely

We can all do something to spread a bit of cheer and help out,  take your pick….

Getting in Touch….

This project is led by Victoria Centre and our many partners and friends from across all the Communities of our Borough.  Please contact the team at the Victoria Centre to share your ideas and thoughts.  If you need to speak about any particular idea please contact Marion Turner-Hawes, our Centre Manager.

1W Plus community partners include….

1W Plus Community Resilience Activities are funded by….