Category: Clubs and Societies

Sustainable Warminster
Minutes of General Meeting
7pm, 11th June 2023 at Warminster Civic Centre

Present: Jennie Gilling (chair), Rebecca Krzyzosiak, Fiona Stafford, Jules Tuff (membership secretary), Pete French, Matt Wisdom, Marion Barton, Stephen Kirkwood, James Kirkwood, Iain Perkins, Denis Brett, Danny Howell, Harriet James (minutes), Jane Lakey, Nigel Parsons, Helen Martin (treasurer), Joanna Pazucha, Chris Walford.

Apologies: Maggie Richens, Clare Hancock, Mint Loader, Barbara Dodd, Heidi Dawson, Maggie Dettmar, Amelia ap Ellis, Pauline Ruffle.

1
Jennie Gilling welcomed everyone.

2
Membership Update
Jules Tuff (membership secretary) reported that we have 97 members including 12 new members since January.

3
Community Orchard/Yeates’ Meadow
The fruit trees in the orchard were planted and maintained by Colin French who died in March. Jennie Gilling gave an update on planning for the future maintenance of the trees and management of the grassland for wildflowers. She had met with Stuart Legg, Parks and Estates Manager for the Town Council and Naomi Styles, Woodland Officer at Wiltshire Council. The field is owned by the National Trust and the Trust’s views on planting more trees would be sought. The Town Council leases the field from the National Trust and the lease is due to be renewed in four years.

Action – Denis Brett would raise the lease renewal with the Town Council’s Parks and Estates Committee of which he is Deputy Chair.

A further meeting with local volunteers is planned for 19th June. Other volunteers are welcome to join. Please contact Sustainable Warminster if you would like to be involved in activities such as mulching round fruit trees, strimming, and organising the Wassail and juicing events. A summer pruning session lead by Richard Cripps will take place on 13th July 10:30 am -12:30
pm. This is open to any members who would like to attend. Experience not needed. Action – Jules to put this event on Facebook

4
Pollinators
Iain Perkins gave an update on the Warminster Plan Bee project to improve areas of chalk grassland for pollinators. There are 250 species of bee in the UK, 100 of which are present on Salisbury Plain and are rare red data book species. Thin, nutrient poor soils on chalk allow a great variety of wildflower species per m3. Much of the chalk grassland around Warminster is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Copheap is a County Wildlife Site and is now being grazed by sheep to improve the grassland for wildflowers. The Plan Bee project aims to improve the management of the grasslands within the garrison and in the Warminster community. Iain has been working with the MOD’s contractors at the garrison, with service families to manage a meadow at Oxendene and with a botanist at Imber to plant wildlife flowers in the churchyards. It was agreed that Sustainable Warminster would take part in Imber bus day on 17th August with a stall in the Imber Baptist graveyard to support wildflower planting/pollinators. If any members would like to take part in this, please let us know.

Action – Iain to liaise with Imber organisers.

Dorset County Council has successfully managed road verges for wildlfowers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap4cVIzJCkE

Harriet James reported that the Protected Verge on the north side of Westbury Road is rich in orchids and that Wiltshire Council will be adjusting their cutting regime to better manage this stretch.

Nigel Parsons reported that he has been surveying Warminster Common for Nigel Linge whohas been managing the grassland for wildflowers. The area is not yet very diverse.

5
Recycled fashion/mending day
Jules Tuff had been in touch with the Everybody Needs Pockets – Stitch it, don’t ditch it group in Frome. She would like to run an event (perhaps next March/April) in Warminster over a weekend to swap and repair clothes and encourage people to think about sustainable fashion. Jennie Gilling mentioned the Trendy Toad clothes sale that SW had run before and that this could be tied in. Anyone interested in being involved please contact Jules – email:
membership@sustainablewarminster.co.uk

6
Repair café
Members supported the idea of a repair café to offer repairs of household goods, perhaps in co-operation with the Warminster Community Shed whose members have the skills. It was agreed to look into this at a later date.

7
Smallbrook Road Toads
The public consultation on closing Smallbrook Road to through traffic in Spring to protect breeding amphibians will begin soon. Harriet James, Iain Perkins and Denis Brett to meet Wiltshire Council’s Highways engineers on 12th June.
Notice of the public consultation will be published in the newspapers and online. All members of the public can comment for or against.

An anonymous donor has pledged £1000 towards costs if Wiltshire Council approves the closure.

Wiltshire Council’s annual charges for road closure are not known. The presence of protected species in Smallbrook such as beavers was discussed. Harriet James is organising a talk from the Beaver Trust. https://beavertrust.org/

8 Wild Justice
Wild Justice is an organisation campaigning for the environment during the General Election.
wildjustice.org.uk

Members discussed the publication of party manifestos and the candidates for South West Wiltshire. There will be an election hustings in Warminster at the Atheneum on Wednesday 19th June.
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/athenaeum/2024-general-election-hustings/e-deblev

Action – Chris Walford will try to summarise the parties’ offers on the environment if he has time.

Jennie Gilling read out a Guardian article about Unilever delaying their commitment to reduction of virgin plastics and emphasised how it was equally important to scrutinise such companies.

9
Treasurer’s Report
Helen Martin reported that there was £2463.09 in the Sustainable Warminster account in addition to the retrofitting grant from the Centre for Sustainable Energy (£10,000).

10
Longleat walk update.
It was decided to postpone this walk because of illness.

10
Any other business

Centre for Sustainable Energy Grant
There was a discussion about how best to use the grant money from the Centre for Sustainable Energy to benefit those most needing help with energy costs in the community.

Jules and Harriet had met Sustainable Devizes who organised a community event to give people advice and information on energy saving, insulation, renewables etc. A similar event could be put on in the autumn in Warminster perhaps in conjunction with the Chat Café at the Atheneum. Chris Walford has experience of working with householders on draft proofing, water tank insulation etc. Please let us know if you would like to be involved.

Farm visit
Jules Tuff offered to organise a visit to a friend’s farm outside Warminster. Date to be confirmed.

Rivers
Stephen Kirkwood has been surveying Warminster’s rivers as part of the River Fly Partnership. He found an increase in water temperature as well as a decrease in wildlife. Signal crayfish which are an invasive species are present in Warminster.

Madagascar
Matt Wisdom will send us updates from his field expedition to Madagascar where he is working on forest restoration. He offered to give a talk on his return in September.

Upcoming meetings
Sustainable Warminster AGM – 4th or 11th September, date to be confirmed.
Committee meeting 12th August.
Next General Meeting – 19th November, 7pm, Warminster Civic Centre.

Minutes of a General Meeting of Sustainable Warminster held at Warminster Civic Centre on Tuesday 27th February 2024, 7pm:

Apologies: Jennie Gilling, Colin French, Tim Hancock, Amelia ap Ellis, Barbara Dodd, Fiona Stafford.

Present: 12 Attendees. Chair – Maggie Richens. Minutes – Heidi Dawson-Hobbis.

1 Matters Arising. No actions.

2 Membership Resort. Currently 79 members – 48 female, 31 male.

3 Treasurer’s Report. Current balance £2694.57. The Toad Party made a profit of £179.12. Included in the bank balance is a grant from St. Giles Church, Imber, which will be used for plants in connection with Plan Bee.

4 Details of the Environment and Sustainability Event on 23rd March. No more information had been seen prior to the meeting but Maggie had received an email this evening about participation, stating the event will run from 12 – 4pm. It was discussed that we should focus on biodiversity for a stall – toads, bats, and bees, and a meeting to arrange this was to be scheduled.

5 Great British Spring Clean (Litter Pick) on 23rd March. The litter pick will be highlighted on Facebook and runs between 10am – 12pm, drop into the Civic Centre to pick up equipment.

6 Green Homes Event. The Green Homes Event runs from 9th March for two weeks with the Wiltshire Climate Alliance. Individuals have agreed to open their homes to the public at set times to educate on changes that can be made. Jules will be opening her home up and has invited everyone to visit. Sign up on the website at https://wwb.greenopenhomes.net/wiltshire-and-swindon-green-open-homes-292 Jules also agreed that she was happy to write an article for the Warminster Journal.

7 Toad Patrol Report and Review of the Toad Party event. This event went very well with lots of publicity for the toads, and toad patrol gaining new members, now up to 75, and included more children. The event was so popular that there was a queue of people to get in and some had to wait for half an hour, so a bigger event space is likely to be needed if we run again. Harriet had publicised to the local primary schools and on Facebook, and 465 people attended. It was noted that a microphone would be useful for future events and Maggie mentioned that she might have one she could donate. Regarding the road closure the Council are still stating the idea the Council put forward of a fence and Iain had discussed with the Clerk of the Town Council why this was not a good idea. Iain and Harriet will bring up the plight of the toads. Rachel has asked for any photographs to be taken of dead toads so she can make up a book of condolence. It was also commented that the BBC have been very supportive, and that Wiltshire Wildlife Trusts have also visited the Reserve and have been asked to write to the Council. Harriet said she would contact Wiltshire Wildlife Community Energy to see if they will contribute to protecting our toads. Suggestions were made that funding could be useful for banners for the roadside (potentially with statistics of deaths), badges to wear to promote the group. It was also noted that the road counter data showed that many drivers broke the 30mph speed limit so there could be a push to get the road changed to 20mph limit.

8 Condition of River Wylye update. Iain stated that there is an issue with the Wylye becoming quite milky in places reflected an increase in silt, this appears to be coming from the area of the Jubilee Gardens development, with soil stripping a possible cause. He asked that people take photos if they see the river looking milky and inform the Environment Agency.

9 Wiltshire Wildlife Trust report on the Warminster Park Lake. This had not been seen yet but will likely be on the Council’s agenda at their next meeting. It was suggested that planted coir floats could be used to aid wildlife to escape from the lake, as at presently there is no way for hedgehogs, toads, etc., to get out of the steep sided lake. Await the findings of the report.

10 Talk on Hedgehogs. No progress to report currently.

11 Carbon Literacy Training. Jen Gale has offered carbon literacy training to the group with a cost of £10 for each certificate. Jules will contact Jen to arrange some potential dates and possible venue.

12 Longleat Walk. Maggie will contact Jim McConkie to discuss areas, numbers, etc.

13 Green Drinks for April. Suggested that the next one will be at the Fox & Hounds on Monday 8th April at 7.30pm.

14 Any Other Business. Next general meeting date to be 17th April. Heidi to book the room.