Happy bashers at the Picker

We are now well into our third year of trying to clear the New Mills area of the invasive alien weed Himalayan Balsam which is swamping our native flora. We are concentrating on 4 main areas : the Torrs, Goytside, the Picker and Mousley Bottom. We have already had 8 bashing sessions with over a dozen people involved.

We are really encouraged to find that there is a lot less balsam in the areas we have cleared over the last 2 years, and a variety of native plants are recolonizing the areas quickly – so we really are making a difference.

 Balsam bashes are easy and a great way to relieve stress! We would love to see you at one of the forthcoming events:

Sunday 3^rd July   10.30 – 12.30   The Picker     Meet at junction of High St, Dye House Lane and Hyde Bank Rd    Leader : Chris Moore

 Monday 4^th July  6.30 – 8.00pm  The Picker   Meet at junction of High St, Dye House Lane and Hyde Bank Rd  Leader : Chris Moore

 Sunday 10^th July  10.30-12.30  Mousely Bottom  Meet at the bottom of Station Road  Leader: Julian Ashworth

 Monday 11^th July  6.30-8.00pm  Goytside   Meet at Torrs Hydro  Leader: Julian Ashworth

Wear stout footwear. Long sleeves and gardening gloves are preferable (we can supply gloves if necessary)

If you can’t join us on any of these dates, please help by coming on a future organised bash, pledging to Pick a Patch of your choice or just pull as you walk. But please remember not to leave pulled and crushed plants on the path!

The polls are coming to a close on the EU referendum, but there’s another chance to cast a vote next Thursday at the Transition New Mills AGM.

We are looking to elect 2 new committee members, and are seeking nominations for these posts. We rely entirely on the goodwill, time and enthusiasm of volunteers for all our activities, and without them, nothing will happen. So if you’re interested in getting involved in the running of the group, let us know by 18:30 next Thursday if you want to stand.

The AGM will start at 19:30, Thursday 30th June, at the Volunteer Centre on Union Road. Business will be completed by 20:00, at which point we are pleased to be able to bring you a talk and discussion by Father John Baines on the recently launched and very popular Foodie Friends Café, which uses surplus or rejected food from supermarkets to rustle up a great value 3 course meal in convivial surroundings for anyone who wants it.

The weekend before this, there will be a balsam bash at  10:30-12:30 on Saturday 25th June, in Mousley Bottom, around the riverside path. Meet at the DCC Rangers Hut.

And a few days after the AGM, on Saturday 2nd July, we will be having a stall at the One World Festival in High Lea Park, between 12:00 -17:00. We also need volunteers for this, even if you can only spend an hour or so – please let us know if you can help us out on this occasion.

Hope to see you at one or more of the above events!

Our AGM this year features Father John Baines of St Georges Church who will talk about the recently launched Foodie Friends Café, a project which chimes strongly with Transition New Mills’ aims of bringing the community together to make our town fairer and more vibrant, whilst reducing waste.

The AGM will begin at 7.30pm, Thursday 30 June at the Volunteer Centre, Union Road. We’ll keep it short and from 8pm or before, we move on to the session with Father John. We’ll be out and finished by 9.30pm at the latest.

The AGM is the time to elect people to manage and facilitate activities for the group. We have an Administrative Group of 3 people, currently Julian Ashworth, Mike Daw and Angharad Hughes. However, both Mike and Angharad are stepping down this year so we have two vacancies. If you would like to nominate yourself for this group, please let us know. We can take nominations up to one hour before the meeting. If you’re thinking about seeking election to the Administrative group, do get in touch and one of us will be happy to talk with you about what’s involved (without any commitment!). Note that we’ll be asking each of the candidates to say a few words about themselves before holding the vote so, if you are nominating yourself, please come prepared.

Once again, the Steering Group aren’t proposing any changes to our constitution but if you wish to propose any, or any other motion, please let us know in advance so that we can make sure time is given to discuss and vote on them.

Everyone is welcome but you will only be able to vote at the AGM if you’re a member.

An agenda for the AGM plus this year’s reports are linked below. Please note that we have had to amend last year’s accounts because we uncovered a minor error relating to how much was allocated to grant expenditure so a new version is also below. The overall balances remain the same.

We hope to see you there!

AGM 2016 Agenda

Activity report 2015-16

Grants Summary 2016

Membership report 2015-16

Transition 2015 Accounts-Revised

Transition 2016 Accounts

New Mills is to host a screening of the film “This Changes Everything”, inspired by Naomi Klein’s excellent book of the same name.

It’s free, everyone is welcome and it’s at 7.30pm Thursday 12th May at Spring Bank Arts Centre, Spring Bank, New Mills, SK22 4BH.

A couple of transition members again helped out at Rollins Wood, on Maz’s most recent tree-planting day.

In glorious weather, about a dozen volunteers planted some less common native trees: wayfaring tree, guelder rose, spindleberry, dogwood and scots pine… along with some more familiar blackthorn, hazel, etc. It’ll be a riot of blossom!

Follow Rollins Wood on Facebook for more info.

The topic of the next meeting of the Transition New Mills discussion group will be a screening of the multi-award winning film Taking Root. It’ll take place on Monday February 29th at Dee’s.

If you’re interested in coming along, please contact Mike Daw for more info.