Author: ecoadmin

As you know, we are now an independent group that has lots of activities planned. For this to be facilitated, we need an organised structure and a team of members to manage the group on behalf of all members. We also need official paperwork to be able to open a bank account and to receive donations and grants. To these ends, a handful of members have been working on a constitution for the group.

The constitution is a change to the group, because it makes the group official and accountable, but without legal status. The constitution sets out how the group is run and what it wants to do. It states the groups objectives, activities and powers; and how membership works, including equal opportunities. It also states how the group holds meetings and how it will be managed.

Key changes are that we will be now asking you to register as a member, and that we will be having a committee with set officers. Whilst there is no requirement to register as a member, registering as a member supports the group officially and it’s free. Registered members will receive a membership number and will collectively control the group, as they will have voting rights at General Meetings and can stand for the committee.

Members of our social media groups who do not register, will continue to be unregistered members of our group. Social media members will have the same access to all of our meetings as registered members, but are less accountable, so will not have the same rights as registered members. The group will continue to be open to everyone; members, social media members and anyone else can participate in our activities and support us.

Please do read the draft constitution for the group, which is available via this link. If you have any comments or suggested amendments, please comment below or email wellingboroughecogroup@outlook.com

Thank you for your continued support,

Jonathan, Judy, Simon, Sophie and Julian

Thursday 5^th November

Welcome to Wellingborough Eco Group!

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

– Introduce Wellingborough Eco Group – Wellingborough Eco Group has been set up to help improve our borough’s environment, to reduce, reuse and recycle items that would otherwise end up in landfill, and to help local people reduce their carbon footprints. Wellingborough Eco Group is all about you and what we can all do environmentally locally in a friendly and positive way. This group is open to everyone and aims to work with local councillors, businesses and community organisations. We host various activities including Repair Cafes, Green Drinks and our monthly Two Hour Tidy Ups.

– Introduce our agenda items:

1. Constitution
2. Activities
3. One Wellingborough Plus

Constitution:

To decide on tonight, including nominating officers –To refer to the guidance on our website that sets out a list of the following points to discuss:

1. Name of the organisation
2. Aims of the organisation (sometimes known as ‘objectives’)
3. Powers
4. Membership
5. Equal opportunities
6. Management Committee
7. Named Officers
8. Meetings
9. Finance
10. Dissolution
11. Amendments to the constitution

An example of a recently constituted local group similar to ours can be seen at http://saveourstreettrees.org/sost-constitution/

Activities:

– Facebook Group now has over 400 members! Nextdoor Group has almost 40 too.

– 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, 3 of us, Jonathan, Judy and Simon, spent two hours looking at options and uses of the site. Simon has now drawn up a 3D plan based on what we have decided (see picture). Working parties of two to be worked out, starting from Sunday.

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, swap shops, a repair club (to work alongside our Repair Cafes) and a volunteer time bank. Jonathan has agreed to draw up an action plan for these activities, tonight we need to consider the impact of the lockdown and what is possible in the current situation.

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!

Thank you to our 17 litter heroes today who did an amazing tidy up, with very soggy conditions, in Hemmingwell’s parks and pathways. We collected over 35 bags of litter, half a green bin full of recycling, 4 car wheels, a jukebox, portable stereo, a scooter, a parasol and a wheelie bin full of greenhouse glass!

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Thank you to Kate, Angela, Caitlin and Olivia, Judy, Sarah and Fletcher, John and Tricia, Freddie, Georgina, Bob and Gill, Kerry; Jonathan, Emma and Billy. Two children, Olivia and Caitlin, desperately wanted to tidy their local area and are sharing their efforts with Blue Peter, hopefully they will get a badge each for doing this!

Our monthly two hour tidy up this month was to litter pick Hemmingwell. Wellingborough Norse kindly supplied the litter pickers and collected the rubbish we picked. Our recycling station was set up from 9:30 outside the Well Cafe, to carry out litter picking between 10am-12 midday.

Three of us, Jonathan, Judy and Simon, had a look at our plot on Sunday, at Ladywell Allotments in Wellingborough. We spent two hours looking at options and uses of the site. Measurements have been taken and Simon will be drawing up a 3D plan based on what we have decided.

We considered where to put two sheds and a greenhouse that are on site ready to be assembled, plus a covered seating area and fence to be made out of large pallets and roofing sheets also on site. These have been donated to Jonathan for use at our community allotment and were brought to our plot last week.

We looked at the options for growing areas including raised beds, plus where to put a pond and planting to attract wildlife. The site already benefits from a large rose hedge, brambles and an apple tree, these will be kept and added to for pollinators, birds and mammal residents including badgers, foxes and dear.

What we are going to grow and who for was talked about in detail, and we decided that we would have a mixture of fruit and vegetables for local charities, and flowers and shrubs for community centres and gardens. We talked about donations to food banks and the One Wellingborough project for the food, plus overstock to Animals in Need; with flowers being grown for Glamis Hall and the Victoria Centre.

We also discussed how to make this as environmentally friendly as we can, including composting and rain water collection options, plus a composting toilet and solar power to power a water pump and lighting. We all agreed that we should base it all on organic/permaculture principles as far as we can.

Then we worked on accessibility, talking about who will be using the plot. We decided that everyone should be able to use the plot, so parking, a covered area near the entrance, hard standing for parking and access to the covered area was seen as a must. Spaces for two cars will be provided at the front of the plot. A covered 12′ X 8′ ‘gazeebo’ will be on the right as you enter plot. A fence will separate the parking strip from the rest of the plot.

Grass paths will then lead from the gazeebo across the plot to the left side, with a raspberry border between it and the fence, and vegetable growing area moving down the plot. Either side of this area, grass paths will run to the bottom of the allotment. Midway down the plot, we will assemble the greenhouse as a central feature. Grass paths will cross the plot in front and behind the greenhouse. Water butts will be put either side of the greenhouse.

The first path will lead to our wildlife garden and pond to the left of the plot, behind the neighbouring plot holders shed. A bench is also planned for this area. The apple tree next to this will have its canopy raised to allow more space for seating and the path.

Behind the greenhouse, we will construct raised beds and compost bins. Our two sheds will be built in the two corners at the rear of the plot. One will be for storage, the other for a composting toilet. A solar panel could be attached to the toilet shed to power a light, water pump and fan for the loo. Both sheds will have numerous water butts alongside them.

We are aiming to get this all completed by the spring, we know what we’re going to do, working days will be open to all, detailed plans to follow…

Thank you to everyone who attended our Zoom meeting on Thursday night. Simon, Heather, Sophie and Anthony, Judy, Karen, Marion and Jonathan had a very productive session.

We agreed to formally form a separate group from XR Wellingborough after talking about the reasons for doing so. We have also agreed to draw up a constitution, which may include having a committee, but must focus on the group being run collectively by all members. Heather will look at constitutions and share something we can use as a basis for our group.

We talked in detail about the One Wellingborough Plus project, agreed to jointly manage One Wellingborough Plus’s Community Resilience Actions, and to accept funding for our new projects. These will include our community allotment, swap shops, a repair club (to work alongside our Repair Cafes) and a volunteer timebank. Jonathan has agreed to draw up an action plan for these activities.

Judy agreed (weather permitting) to join Jonathan, hopefully Anthony Loukes and anyone else who is interested, at our community allotment plot on Sunday at 11am to see what we can do there. We discussed who would be able to use it, how we could use it to share skills, and what we should grow there. Using the plot to grow flowers for local community centres and community gardens, plus produce to feed animals at Animals in Need were very popular ideas…

Heather offered to host Repair Cafes at Glamis Hall separately from their indoor car boot sales. Simon (who is also one of our repairers) missed this conversation but was keen to start the repair Cafes again. I will contact our other repairers to organise this.

We talked about how we can operate the Repair Cafes and the Repair Club, we looked at how to share how the items are fixed and came up with two solutions. One could be to have a socially distanced audience for one or two repairers, the other option could be recording the repair and sharing via YouTube and social media. Simon thought that we/he can do this, and this idea of sharing by video was also suggested for other demonstrations, for example willow weaving, activities at the community allotment and Judy showing us how to make eco cleaning products.

We discussed our social media groups on Facebook and Nextdoor, our blog and other forums, including our Slack channel*, agreeing that these are easy to use and manage. We decided that with the addition of a YouTube channel, what we have is enough for what we need, and that the logo doesn’t need changing.

Simon  has agreed to host future Zoom meetings with his subscription so that meetings aren’t interrupted by the 40 minute time limit. We agreed to have monthly meetings with this.

We also discussed our current activities, including our litter pick, and talked about how well they are received by local people. Our next litter pick is on Saturday 31st October 10-12, on the Hemmingwell. I will update the group about this in more detail over the weekend…

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* Our Slack channel is at wellingborough.slack.com and anyone can join us to discuss our activities. For an invite please email info@wellingboroughecogroup.org.uk

This month our two hour tidy up will be litter picking the Hemmingwell on Saturday 31st October. It takes place between 10am-12 midday. Halloween costumes can be worn. All welcome!

We are going to be meeting at our recycling station which will be set up from 9:30 in the Nest Farm Crescent car park, where the Well Cafe and other local shops and services are.

We will be litter picking between 10am-12 midday, with so many different areas to tidy up this time, you can decide if you want to tidy up the housing estate or pick litter in the family friendly parks.

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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After much debate, we are separating Wellingborough Eco Group and Extinction Rebellion Wellingborough. The overwhelming feeling was that this is the logical thing to do, for three reasons:

1. So that both groups can be more effective by focusing on their own activities.
2. To allow the Eco Group to accept donations.
3. To grow membership of both groups.

Moving forward, we want to ensure Wellingborough Eco Group is a group that is run collectively, we want everyone to join in. Your ideas are and skills are important to us, every member counts!

The focus of the group will continue to be based around sustainability and the environment. Our events are still about helping and encouraging people to become more sustainable whilst improving the environment locally. But what do is up to you…

On Thursday night we are holding a virtual Wellingborough Eco Group General Meeting. This will start at 7:30, on Zoom and is due to last 40 minutes.

Join us via
https://zoom.us/j/91678279718?pwd=d08zZE1uSnRUSDdsejRlN04ybU4zdz09

Meeting ID: 916 7827 9718
Password: Eco

Anyone can get involved, any member can propose an event and we welcome everyone’s ideas. With your involvement, events like these could be coming soon:-

♻️ Clothes Swap
🌍 Sustainability Advice Sessions
🧶 Crotchet Eco Make-Up Wipes
🦔 Introduction to Hedgehogs
🧼 Green Cleaning
🌱 Plant Swap
🌲 Tree Planting
🌳 Willow Weaving Workshop
🍸 Green Drinks
♻ Litter Picking
🔧 Repair Cafe
🌻 Community Allotment

Thank you to everyone involved for making this possible. See you on Thursday 💚

Thank you to our 25 Litter Heroes today who did an amazing tidy up at Croyland Gardens. We collected over 50 bags of litter, half a green bin full of recycling, 25 needles, 6 shopping trolleys and 3 bicycles! Our two magnet fishers also found an array of items including a frying pan and a horse shoe! In total, we had to have two van loads of rubbish taken away, weighing in at over 500kg!

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Thank you to Alice and Stephanie, Alan and Owen, Sabina, Artur and Ignas; Justyna, Judy, Magdalena and Adrian, Niall, John and Tricia, Brian, Bob and Gill, Sam, Inese and Julian, David and Alex; Jonathan, Emma and Billy. Lovely to see lots of children with their families.

Our monthly two hour tidy up this month was to litter pick Croyland Gardens, the site of Wellingborough Zoo! Wellingborough Norse kindly supplied the litter pickers and collected the rubbish we picked. Our recycling station was set up from 9:30 in Morrisons car park, to carry out litter picking between 10am-12 midday. 

SATURDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER 2020

As part of Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British September Clean 2020, this month our two hour tidy up will be litter picking Croyland Gardens on Saturday 26th September.

It takes place between 10am-12 midday. Our recycling station will be set up from 9:30 in Morrison’s Public Car Park.

Everyone is welcome, equipment is provided, groups of litter pickers are limited to 4 people each due to Covid-19 restrictions.

For more details see https://www.facebook.com/events/136998207651885

Join us online for a Extinction Rebellion Wellingborough / Wellingborough Eco Group General Meeting on Tuesday September 1st from 7:30pm. We are going to be on Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/91678279718?pwd=d08zZE1uSnRUSDdsejRlN04ybU4zdz09 and use the password Eco

Do join us for networking, news, chat and new friends; and be part of a growing global network where local people push for and build a sustainable future. The meeting will follow an agenda, which will be published before the start.

We have plenty to talk about, including a report from the first day of the rebellion in London, our Keep Britain Tidy litter pick to plan for and progress on the environment by the borough council. Everyone is invited!