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….

We are doing an advent calendar this year of local businesses and community organisations that offer eco-friendly services!

We are doing this to promote environmentally friendly options in Wellingborough and in the surrounding towns and villages. This will hopefully support local businesses and community organisations that are struggling at the moment due to covid.

It’s also a way for us to find out what’s on offer for Wellingborough Eco Map, a guide that we are building of local eco-friendly services, which is going to have it’s own website (coming soon!)

If you offer an eco-friendly service, send us your story and a logo and we will do our best to find a window for you! The window will be linked to our blog with an article all about what you offer. You’ll also be put on Wellingborough Eco Map too!

This will be updated with a new window opening every day until Christmas Eve, shared here and across our social media outlets; and btw, it starts tomorrow…

Introducing Wellingborough Swap Shop, it’s a free and local exchange where you can pass on things you no longer want, in exchange for something you need. You could describe it as a kind of cashless bring-and-buy sale. Participants do not need to bring anything in order to take away goods, and vice versa.

Our ‘Swap Shop’ recognises that things no longer wanted by someone, might be another person’s treasure. By reusing things we cut down on the amount of waste that goes into landfill and reduce the amount of resources that we use in manufacturing of new products. And it saves money!

What you offer is entirely up to you, as long as it’s legal, not hazardous or not a pet. Examples include: books, DVDs and CDs, kitchenware, pictures, tools, gardening items, curtains and other soft furnishings, children’s toys and baby items.

Wellingborough Eco Group has set up Wellingborough Swap Shop as a Facebook group. It is set up as a selling group so posts can be shared to other groups and Facebook Marketplace and will be managed by us as part of the One Wellingborough Plus project.

Join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/wellingboroughswapshop

We will also be hosting Swap Shops at the Victoria Centre and at other local venues in the near future and will update you soon about these events.

This month our two hour tidy up will be litter picking a week later than normal due to lockdown. It will now take place between 10am-12 midday on Saturday 5th December. Santa hats can be worn. All welcome!

We will be litter picking Shelley Park and the paths into Park Farm Industrial Estate. This location was chosen by litter pickers Georgina and Freddie at our last litter pick, because it has been neglected for years and is in a terrible state.

We are going to be meeting at our recycling station which will be set up from 9:30 in Shelley Park, just off Shelley Road, opposite Queensway Park. We will be litter picking between 10am-12 midday, and with parks, pathways and woods to pick litter from, there’s plenty of choice and lots of litter to tidy up.

Everyone (without Covid-19 symptoms) is welcome, equipment is provided, due to government restrictions, groups of litter pickers are limited to 4 people each. Here are some photos of the area:

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At our General Meeting last night 7 members were present. They were Simon Turner, Suzanne Jones, Anthony Loukes, Sophie Earl, Julian Sansom, Judy Sumner; and Jonathan Hornett, who was appointed as chair for this meeting. He introduced the following agenda items:

1. Constitution
2. Committee and Officers
3. Bank Account
4. Activities
5. One Wellingborough Plus

Constitution:

Members went through to the proposed constitution discussing the following points:

• Name of the organisation
• Objectives and aims of the organisation
• Powers
• Membership
• Equal opportunities
• Management Committee
• Named Officers
• Meetings
• Finance
• Amendments to the constitution
• Dissolution

All members confirmed that all points in the constitution were what they had agreed. The constitution was proposed by Judy and seconded by Simon and we voted to formally adopt the proposed constitution. There was a unanimous vote in favour and we formally adopted this as our constitution. We are now officially a constituted group!

Committee and Officers

Members discussed how the committee will work, and then we nominated and elected a committee and officers. Each committee member was officially nominated by another member and then seconded by a different member; then were voted in by the majority of members present as follows:

Suzanne Jones – Committee Member, nominated by Jonathan, seconded by Simon, voted in unanimously.

Jonathan Hornett – Secretary, nominated by Julian, seconded by Suzanne, voted in unanimously.

Simon Turner – Treasurer, nominated by Judy, seconded by Julian, voted in unanimously.

Judy Sumner – Membership Secretary, nominated by Anthony, seconded by Simon, voted in unanimously.

Sophie Earl-Martin – Media Secretary, nominated by Suzanne, seconded by Julian, voted in unanimously.

Julian Sansom – Business Secretary, nominated by Simon, seconded by Suzanne, voted in unanimously.

We now have an elected committee of 6 members!

Bank Account

We then needed to formally agree to set up a bank account and at which bank.  This had been fully researched before the meeting by Jonathan Hornett and had been previously discussed with the above nominated officers.  Jonathan Hornett has accounts at Natwest and proposed them as our bank, this was seconded by Simon. The committee and members present voted on this and unanimously decided to apply for a bank account at NatWest. It was also agreed that the officers that would have access to this bank account would be Jonathan and Simon, and that a minimum of two officers would have to approve payments.

Activities:

Our activities, including social media, were then discussed, and the following was shared at the meeting:

• Facebook Group now has 420 members! Nextdoor Group has 42.
• NEW Twitter and Instagram accounts and a Facebook Page set up!
• NEW website and emails set up at wellingboroughecogroup.org.uk
• Litter Pick, generally last Saturday of each month, next 1^st Saturday of December due to lockdown. At November’s litter pick 17 of us tidied Hemmingwell, collecting 35 bags of litter, 4 wheels, a scooter, bin of greenhouse glass, a jukebox and a portable stereo!
• Repair Café, we had one planned at Glamis Hall on Saturday 14^th November, but this has been cancelled due to the lockdown. Next one planned for January…
• Community Allotment now has a gravel on parking area. Working parties of two to be worked out.

One Wellingborough Plus:

We agreed at our last meeting to jointly manage One Wellingborough Plus’s Community Resilience Actions, and to accept funding for our new projects. These will include our community allotment, plus swap shops, a repair club (to work alongside our Repair Cafes) and a volunteer time bank.

Jonathan Hornett drew up an action plan for these activities and presented it with Judy Sumner to a One Wellingborough Plus meeting. This was shared with our meeting and discussed. The majority of the spending is at our community allotment, there has also been money allocated for leaflets and posters for the Swap Shop and Repair Café Club.

Views, Summary and End of Meeting:

Members shared their views on this meeting and were in agreement that it had been very productive. We have constituted the group, set up a committee and discussed our activities, including our involvement as part of the One Wellingborough plus project. The chair of the meeting, Jonathan, thanked everyone who attended, and agreed to write the minutes and announce that we have formally constituted.

Notes:

The Constitution can be found on our website at wellingboroughecogroup.org.uk/eco/constitution/

The Committee and Officers have a page at wellingboroughecogroup.org.uk/eco/committee/

Thursday 19^th November

Welcome to Wellingborough Eco Group!

– Everyone says who they are and why they are here.

– Introduce Wellingborough Eco Group

– Agree a chair for this meeting
– Introduce our agenda items:

1. Constitution
2. Committee and Officers
3. Bank Account
4. Activities
5. One Wellingborough Plus

Constitution:

To formally adopt our constitution tonight.

– To refer to the proposed constitution and agree the following points:

• Name of the organisation
• Aims of the organisation (sometimes known as ‘objectives’)
• Powers
• Membership
• Equal opportunities
• Management Committee
• Named Officers
• Meetings
• Finance
• Amendments to the constitution
• Dissolution

Committee and Officers

To nominate and elect a committee and officers. Each committee member needs to be officially nominated by another member and seconded, then voted in by the majority of members present at this meeting. Please refer to ‘Officer Nominations’ on our blog and to this section of our constitution.

The officers nominated to roles are:

Jonathan Hornett – Secretary, who shall be responsible for the taking of minutes and the distribution of all papers

Simon Turner – Treasurer, who shall be responsible for maintaining accounts

Judy Sumner – Membership Secretary, who will be responsible for administering the membership

Sophie Earl-Martin – Media Secretary, who will manage our social media groups and other media outlets

Julian Sansom – Business Secretary, who will liaise with local companies and organisations.

Bank Account

We need to formally agree to setting up a bank account and at which bank.  This has been fully researched by Jonathan Hornett and discussed with the above nominated officers.  Most banks are not opening bank accounts due to Covid-19 that are suitable for us, unless you already have an account with them.  Jonathan Hornett does have accounts at Natwest and has proposed them as our bank.

Activities:

– Facebook Group now has 420 members! Nextdoor Group has 42.

– NEW Twitter and Instagram accounts and a Facebook Page set up!

– NEW website and emails set up at wellingboroughecogroup.org.uk

– Litter Pick, generally last Saturday of each month, next 1^st Saturday of December due to lockdown. At November’s litter pick 17 of us tidied Hemmingwell, collecting 35 bags of litter, 4 wheels, a scooter, bin of greenhouse glass, a jukebox and a portable stereo!

– Repair Café, we had one planned at Glamis Hall on Saturday 14^th November, but this has been cancelled due to the lockdown. Next one planned for January…

– Community Allotment now has a gravel on parking area. Working parties of two to be worked out.

One Wellingborough Plus:

We agreed at our last meeting to jointly manage One Wellingborough Plus’s Community Resilience Actions, and to accept funding for our new projects. These will include our community allotment, plus swap shops, a repair club (to work alongside our Repair Cafes) and a volunteer time bank.

Jonathan Hornett drew up an action plan for these activities and presented it with Judy Sumner to a One Wellingborough Plus meeting. The majority of the spending is at our community allotment, there has also been money allocated for leaflets and posters for the Swap Shop and Repair Café Club.

Your Views, Summary and End of Meeting:

– Everyone to talk about what they feel they have achieved from this meeting.

– Thank you all, together we will achieve a cleaner and more environmentally friendly future for Wellingborough and beyond!

We unofficially have five members who have been nominated to form the committee and to become officers of our group. They will be formally proposed and appointed at our General Meeting on Thursday evening. Members will have the opportunity to nominate them or other members, and to propose, second and vote officers in.

The committee will be expected to work on behalf of all members and will represent their views. Registered members will own and control the group, and as stakeholders are personally responsible for its activities including any liabilities. The committee will manage the group’s day to day operations, as appointed by the members.

The committee will consist of registered members who will be officers with a named responsibility and committee members without specific responsibility. The committee will communicate via email or other electronic services. Registered members will receive updates from the committee via email if they opt in to receive them, everyone will get updates via social media posts.

The structure of the committee will be flat and collaborative with each role supported by one or two other officers. There will be no formal Chairperson or leader, the meetings will be chaired on a rotating basis.

The officers nominated to roles are:

Jonathan Hornett – Secretary, who shall be responsible for the taking of minutes and the distribution of all papers

Simon Turner – Treasurer, who shall be responsible for maintaining accounts

Judy Sumner – Membership Secretary, who will be responsible for administering the membership

Sophie Earl-Martin – Media Secretary, who will manage our social media groups and other media outlets

Julian Sansom – Business Secretary, who will liaise with local companies and organisations.

In the event of an officer standing down during the year a replacement will be elected by the next General Meeting of members. Officers and committee members can be nominated two weeks before a General Meeting via email with the invite to the meeting and appointed at General Meetings.

General Meeting to Formally Adopt Our New Constitution

To formally adopt our new constitution, and to elect our committee members and officers, we will be having a meeting on Thursday 19th November at 7:30pm. All members are invited to attend.

Please join our Zoom Meeting at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89959901252?pwd=ZnVOZjJsT0NNU2Z1YXNYZzdPQ2FOUT09

Meeting ID: 899 5990 1252
Passcode: 585528

If you have any questions or feedback about our constitution, officers or group activities, please let us know with a comment or email to wellingboroughecogroup@outlook.com

See you on Thursday evening!

We hope that you have had a chance to have a look at our new constitution, to formally adopt it, we will be having a meeting on Thursday 19th November at 7:30pm

Please join our Zoom Meeting at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89959901252?pwd=ZnVOZjJsT0NNU2Z1YXNYZzdPQ2FOUT09

Meeting ID: 899 5990 1252

Passcode: 585528

If you have any questions or feedback about our constitution or group activities, please let me know with a comment or email to wellingboroughecogroup@outlook.com

See you on Thursday evening!