This page includes news and background information about Sustainable Thornbury.
Click on the images below to go to our special pages.
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The 2016 Annual General Meeting was held on Wednesday 22 June at the Chantry. See the AGM page for more details.
We have now completed our series of skills workshops in May and June of 2016, like the very successful workshops in 2010, 2011 and 2014. The workshops were open to the public, including older children accompanied by adults. Each workshop lasted 2 to 3 hours.
See also the poster and flier.
The composting workshop had to be cancelled, so we are hoping to run it at a later date. Contact us if you would like to go.
Here are some pictures of the workshops that have happened:-
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| Bottling plums | Remodelling clothes |
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| Herbs For Healing Workshop | |
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Bike Maintenance Workshop |
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Cosmetics From Natural Materials Workshop |
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Making Jewellery from Recycled Materials |
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We had a stall in Thornbury on Saturday 7 May to advertise the workshops.
We went on the climate march in Bristol on Sunday 29 November. About 3000 people were there, asking the government and the Paris climate summit to take urgent action on climate change.
See more photos.
Bath and North East Somerset Council seems to have taken up our Give-it-away-Take-it-Away idea. They are running Give and Take days on a regular basis around their area.
The Thornbury Community Orchard is now on a more formal footing, as we now have a contract with South Gloucestershire Council. There are regular pruning and tree-care sessions, as described on the Orchard page.
Thornbury’s
very successful
Community Composting site is saved from the threat of closure. South
Gloucestershire
Council proposed to withdraw funding and close the site down to
save money.
The
composters have cut
the cost from £130,000 to around £10,000. Their
plan still
needs
Council support until the new arrangements can be put into place, and
other
sources of funding can be found.
The
Community Composters have been
giving a wonderful service to the gardeners of the Thornbury area for
years.
They turn tons of local garden waste into valuable compost in a way
that is
environment friendly. The Composters are also an important part of the
success
of Thornbury in Bloom.
Alan
Pinder of Sustainable
Thornbury said, “If the
Council pulls the plug to save a few thousand pounds it would be very
hard to
get things started up again. The Composting team work very hard and
they
deserve better than this.”
We had front page coverage in the Gazette, and our pressure helped the Council on last year to resolve to support the Thornbury Composters with £10,000 for one year. Sustainable Thornbury has offered to help the composters set up the new arrangements.
A Year of Giving and Taking in Thornbury
Thanks to our generosity of spirit and reluctance to throw out perfectly good "stuff", here in Thornbury we have taken steps to saving nearly one item every day from our rubbish bins over the last year. Thornbury Give-n-Take was launched on http://www.mythornbury.co.uk/ at Sustainable Thornbury's 2012 Eco-fair, and has been steadily building in popularity. It was set up by My Thornbury as part of their website, and we are extremely grateful to them for this.
It's a simple idea – if you have something taking up space that feels too good to bin, post it up on Give-n-Take, and see if someone else would like it. You won't make any money, but it'll save you the bother of getting rid of it, and you gain both the space and the satisfaction of making someone else's day!
You can even use Give-n-take to request an item that could be gathering dust in another Thornbury loft or garage. Items don't even have to be working - if you think your broken whatnot might be useful to someone, list it and find out. Give n Take can be used for items not acceptable to charity shops, such as electrical and electronic goods, furniture, plants, food, building materials and car parts. The taker takes 'as seen' and entirely at their own risk. Items must be offered free, and usually the person taking the item collects. All items must be legal.
Since Give-n-take began, over 350 items have been posted as offers or wants, from chest freezers to Star Trek fact files, and even a kitchen sink!
To join in the fun, visit http://www.mythornbury.co.uk/ and click on Give-n-take.
You can see and download the Give n take poster.
ST now has a Facebook group. and a Facebook page. If you are on Facebook, you can get news from our Facebook group by joining it. Anyone can see our Facebook page.
ST also has a Yahoo group called SustThornbury, which is an opportunity to exchange ideas and chat with other ST members. To join click on the graphic below. You need to be signed up to Yahoo groups, which you will be if you are on Freecycle.
Click to join the Sustainable Thornbury Facebook group
At the last AGM, the members decided ST membership should continue to be free. Please join if you want to hear about and support what we are doing.
If you want to receive our Bulletin by email, please become a member. It is sent out by email from time to time.
Sustainable Thornbury is a community group focussed on the market town of Thornbury and the surrounding area in South Gloucestershire, England. We are concerned about global warming and peak oil, so we are trying to make our town more sustainable. We are a Transition Initiative. More ...
The group is currently working on energy. We also have a Grow-your-own-Food self-help group. More ...
If you want to receive regular news, you can get our Bulletin by email. To do this, please become a member or give us your contact details. You can also see what is happening on the What We Are Doing page, and our Facebook page.
We have run projects and campaigns on waste, local food, energy efficiency, reducing plastic bags, developing skills and reusing goods. More ...
We sometimes have public talks, film shows and discussions for anyone who wants to know more about climate change, energy, food, waste, transport and related topics.
Most of our projects and campaigns are run by working groups. We get together as necessary, usually in the evenings, for the whole group and for each of the working groups. If you would like to come to meetings and help out, please contact us. A list of planned meetings and events is on our Diary dates page.
We need more members so that we can show we have the support of local people. Membership entitles you to get our email bulletin, so please join us.
