Monthly Archives: October 2017

October Newsletter

11 Wednesday Oct 2017

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Here’s an update after a very busy summer, and a look forward to exciting new projects kicking off now to keep us busy over winter!
Transition is all about local action, and there are lots of opportunities below. Please contact us on transition.newmills@gmail.com if you’d like to get involved!

Rethink Plastic!
Those of you who have been following Liz Longden’s plastics blog series will know we have a new campaign: Rethink Plastic New Mills. This is in response to the growing problem of plastic use (and especially single use plastics), which is building up in oceans and on land, and which is largely unnecessary as alternatives to single use plastics exist in most cases. There are plans to share what we have found out about how to reduce use with people and schools, and also encourage businesses to offer alternatives. The first element of the campaign is Refill (see below and our new Facebook site).
Transition New Mills will be out on the Prom on Market Street on Saturday morning (14th October), so come along and find out more about it!

Refill New Mills
This offers an alternative to single use bottled water by publicising locations where people can refill their bottles free of charge. Using the Refill app, users can locate participating outlets, which could be cafes, restaurants, or even farms. Look out for the poster in participating businesses. At the moment, the following businesses are part of the scheme, so why not pop in and tell them what a good idea it is!
Pulse cafe
Revive cafe
Goia Mia cafe
Clockhouse cafe
Sett Valley Cycles

 

Incredible Edible 
As the growing season comes to a close for this year, Incredible Edible can be very proud of its achievements:
Torr Top car park walls have been planted up with edible plants and flowers, available for anyone to harvest. More is planned for next year.
‘Planter for Peace’ has been replanted at The Printers at Thornsett
New Mills Primary have had a successful year’s growing, learning (and eating!), and are awaiting the outcome of a funding bid for a polytunnel and raised beds
A good working relationship has been established with High Peak Borough Council, and New Mills Town Council
A popular stall at NMCO Apple Day giving away herbs and seedlings, and promoting the project
New Mills Community Orchard have created a trial Forest Garden with perennial fruit and vegetables
These are great practical projects; if you want to get involved, email us at transition.newmills@gmail.com

Last Balsam Bash!
Anyone who has bashed some balsam this year is invited to join us at this year’s celebration alternative balsam bash lunch at Pulse, on 21st October at 12:30 – it’s great we have so many helping hands for this and it would be nice to celebrate our achievements after a summer of grafting! Let us know on facebook if you’re thinking of coming.

This year we concentrated again on 3 main areas : the Torrs, the Picker and Mousley Bottom. The areas we have worked on in past years are much clearer and hopefully next year we shall be able to extend to neighbouring areas.
There have been about 20 organised bashes with around a dozen people involved in total, starting in mid-May and finishing in mid-August when the balsam began to set seed.
However we have seen evidence of individual freelance bashing and have been encouraged by the interest of passers-by and an increase of awareness of the problem in the general public. We have now got leaflet dispensers in the Torrs, Mousley Bottom and Hague Bar, in addition to leaflets in the Heritage Centre and the Library which have to be replenished regularly.
Next year we will be greatly helped by New Mills Town Council who have purchased a mowing arm which will be particularly good for the rampant areas of balsam in Hague Bar meadows.

Discussion Group Next Meeting
Next meeting on Monday 16th October in New Mills will look at Naomi Klein’s ‘No Is Not Enough’. Just email us for location if you want to go on transition.newmills@gmail.com

Demain (Tomorrow)
As part of New Mills Festival, we screened and discussed Demain (Tomorrow): an inspiring film exploring agriculture, economics, energy, education, democracy and bringing together some real life solutions to our current environmental problems. It was great to see so many people there, including many new faces.
There were lots of positive suggestions and ideas from the audience; what we need now are people to help make them happen!

Local Giving
We have signed up again to the Localgiving site which allows us to receive donations online, as well as offering match funding opportunities. However, the way these work is not as straightforward as last year, so if you intend to make a donation we recommend waiting until we can give further advice on how to maximise the match funding element.

RETHINKING PLASTIC

09 Monday Oct 2017

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3rd in the series of blogs from Liz Longden:

We have been making some progress in the past week. Just over a week ago we held a meeting for interested people who might have a stake in this campaign. As the time approached I have to confess to an attack of the jitters. What if nobody came? What if only a couple of people came, what if we couldn’t attract interest of input from the people there? What if I was completely incoherent, fluffed all my lines? However, none of these things happened, we had a good turn out from other New Mills groups, and input from a HPBC councillor, resulting in a successful meeting.

Among other decisions we now have a name for our campaign: RETHINK PLASTIC NEW MILLS. Maybe not that original, but it seems to fit the bill. It describes what we are trying to do, and it doesn’t ask us to aim for the impossible. We are all aware that we cannot get rid of all plastic, nor is it necessary to do so.

All this has had me musing on the nature of campaigning. People tell me that campaigners are more likely to be successful if we show rather than tell, suggest rather than instruct, encourage rather than harangue. Knowing this doesn’t stop me wanting to accost folk in the supermarket buying multipacks of flavoured water, bottled in plastic and wrapped in plastic. I don’t do this obviously, but I so badly want to get through to them. What can we do that we are not already doing? There is so much information out there now. David Attenborough is talking about it. How can people not be listening? What stops people listening? How can we help people to change their habits?

Transition New Mills are going to be on Market St Promenade next Saturday morning, the 14th October, (unless the weather makes it too difficult) with lots of information and ideas about why you might want to reduce your plastic footprint and ways you can do so without too much disruption. I hope we are going to show, suggest and encourage, rather than the other. Above all I hope we are ready to listen. We would really love you to come and see us. Any ideas you might have would be more than welcome. If we just get some people to go away thinking, it will be worth the effort.

So I hope to see you there!

Liz Longden.

Plastic Fantastic #2

02 Monday Oct 2017

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This the second of the Transition New Mills plastic campaign blog posts:
I was at the screening last Tuesday of the film ‘Demain’ (‘Tomorrow’) and came away full of energy and commitment, sure we could anything we could put our minds to, with enough thought and effort.
The next morning I was plunged back into despondency, picking up plastic bottles discarded in the street, along the canal, and on the playing fields round the corner from my home. The littering on the playing field has been worse recently. I have picked up twenty or so bottles from there over the past couple of weeks, plus the drinks cans, sweet wrappers and crisp packets. It also looks as if the litter bin has been deliberately emptied and scattered to the winds. Perhaps it is a fox or badger that has discovered human food, and I am blaming innocents, in which case, apologies. But the plastic remains!
So after all this litter picking and rumination I have to conclude that it is our young people that we need to get on board. Young people can be brilliant, committed, energetic, innovative and brave. And young people are currently coming to political and environmental issues in large numbers, as we saw in the recent election. So when I get up this week to talk about what might be priorities at our campaign Partners’ Launch, I think discussing ways to get our young people involved will be up at the top of the list.
Are any young people reading this? Or do you know any young people who may be interested in becoming involved in this campaign? Can we find out what they know about plastic pollution and what ideas they have about dealing with it? I am afraid I no longer have any contact with teenagers – my daughters are in their twenties. But I know people who have children and grandchildren. We would love to hear from you, and even more would love to hear that you’d like to be involved​ -​​ ​in any way at all. We are listening!
I am thinking a lot about this week’s launch [this was on Thursday 28th Sept – website problems prevented posting of the blog here – ed] which is for any people or groups who feel they have something to contribute to this campaign. I have a feeling that the overall success or failure of our efforts will be hugely influenced by the input we can get from ​the community. Please come along, or if you are unable to do this, perhaps you could send us your ideas about what our priorities and strategies might be. Thank you, and thank you for reading.

Liz Longden