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This page includes news and background information about Sustainable Thornbury.

News

Monthly meetings - change of dates

From July, our monthly discussion and business meetings will change to the fourth Wednesday of each month. This changes the dates from what was previously published here. They will still be at the Chantry starting at 7:30pm.

Thornbury CSA local food scheme

Thornbury CSA, our local food scheme, is now up and running. We are looking for more members. We will have vegetables starting on Friday 16th July and on Thursdays each week after that.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, the term used for consumers working with farmers and growers to produce local food. This is an exciting chance to be in at the beginning of a new sustainable project. The plan now is for members to collect and weigh their share of the vegetables each week. The vegetables will cost £9.50 each week for a standard share for two adults, but different sizes will be available. The annual membership subscription is £10, and you can join without buying vegetables if you wish to support the scheme or keep in touch with it. 

We will soon be contacting all those who expressed an interest with more news. If you did not respond before and want to buy good local food and support local growers please email or ring 01454 416778.

EcoFair success

Our first EcoFair on Saturday 22nd May 2010 was a huge success. Over 750 people came (plus the 120 stallholders and helpers), and saw lots of ways to be more environment-friendly and still have a good time. It was a perfect, hot, sunny May day, and there was a relaxed feeling of community. We were entertained by wonderful local talent, and the children had a wonderful time without buying anything or using electricity or batteries.  

We have had lots of feedback saying how wonderful and inspiring it was. More reports, feedback and photos are on the EcoFair 2010 pages.

EcoFair Competition - Make a Greetings Card 

We had 40 excellent entries for the card competition. The entrants were aged from 2.5 years to adult. The six winners have received their prizes and all the cards are displayed in the former Thomas Ford shoe shop in the St Mary's Shopping Centre in Thornbury.

AGM

The AGM on May 19th elected new officers, including a new chair, new secretary, new treasurer, and a new membership secretary.

The AGM also decided to start charging for membership, in order to raise funds and make membership mean something. The subscription will be £5 for individuals or £8 for a household per year. We hope no-one will feel this deters them from being a member.

Bulletin

If you want to receive our Bulletin by email, please become a member.

Give-It-Away Take-It-Away Day postponed

We have decided to delay Give-It-Away Take-It-Away Day this year, probably until September. We are looking for someone or an organisation to take it on in the future. We will think about other ways to reuse goods that charity shops cannot take. 

Allotments

The new allotments in Alveston already have crops growing in them, and the Council has decided to use the field near the Thornbury Leisure Centre for allotments. See the allotments page for more details. 

A newly formed Alveston Allotments Society is managing the allotments in Alveston. The Extra Allotments for Thornbury committee is compiling a list for other areas. If you are interested in an allotment, please contact the appropriate committee, as described on the allotments page.  

Grants from South Gloucestershire Council

South Gloucestershire Council has generously given us more grants of over £1000 under their community grant scheme and environmental grant scheme. We are very grateful for their support. The grants were to help with a range of running costs, including organising the EcoFair and the Community Supported Agriculture scheme.

Background information about Sustainable Thornbury

Who we are

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 ...

What we are doing at the moment

The group is currently focussing on more local production of food. We are trying to get a community agriculture scheme going. We have a campaign to get more allotments in Thornbury and Alveston. We also look after the Thornbury community orchard and we have a Grow-your-own-Food self-help group.  More ...

What we have done

We have run projects and campaigns on local food, energy efficiency, reducing plastic bags and reusing goodsMore ...

Events and meetings

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 have meetings most months, 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.

How to join

We need more members so that we can show we have the support of local people. Membership is free, and entitles you to get our email bulletin, so please join us.