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Transition New Mills March Newsletter

01 Wednesday Mar 2017

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Local Giving Match Funds Deadline
Any donations through our Local Giving site will be matched using lottery funding… but only until April 2017. This could give us up to £500 of free cash!
Needless to say, we are very keen to reach this target, and being an environmentally based group there is flexibility over the projects for which we can use the money. The more we can raise, the more we can do!
Don’t put it off any longer: please help us reach this total in a very efficient way by donating as much as you feel comfortable at Transition New Mills | Localgiving

The Plan for 2017/18
We’ve been busy over the winter period putting together our action plan for 2017! We are going to:

  • continue balsam bashing,
  • continue to fund the Incredible Edible New Mills project and help them to build edible planters for New Mills and also to fund further outside classrooms like the one built at New Mills Primary.
  • bring exciting speakers and films to New Mills
  • continue to make appearances at New Mills Carnival and, for the first time, at the New Mills Festival.

No doubt the plan will evolve further as the year progresses but it is shaping up to be a busy year!!

Incredible Edible update
Things are hotting up now Spring is on the way:

  • Incredible Edible New Mills have also announced plans to restore the Paths For Peace planters that many of you may have seen around New Mills. They plan to plant hem with herbs and edible flowers. They are look for volunteers to help look after them thus providing New Mills with free herbs. Contact us for further details.
  • New Mills Community Orchard Forest Garden site preparation event 12:30-16:00 on Sunday 5th March in the New Mills Community Orchard, next to High Lea Park. Bring a spade and gardening gloves if you have them.
  • New Mills Veggieheads – a social group where like-minded individuals can eat delicious local vegetarian food. You can find them on their Facebook page.
  • IENM are also planning to have their own Incredible Drinks – the first being at 7.30pm Wednesday 8th March at The Beer Shed on Market Street. Join them if you can!

These are great practical projects; if you want to get involved, email us at transition.newmills@gmail.com

Can we help your employer?

It was fantastic to hear from Stockport engineering design firm Wilde Analysis Ltd, who approached us for opportunities for their staff to make a positive impact in the community through volunteer work. Time is one of the things Transition New Mills is particularly short of, so this proposal benefits everyone!

There are some great opportunities coming up, including balsam bashing and Incredible Edible planting, but there are lots more things we could branch out into with more people. If you think your employer would be interested in following Wilde Analysis’ lead, please raise it with them and ask them to get in touch with us.

War on Waste

The second topic in our practical short series of top eco-tips deals with waste and shopping. There’s a lot more to this than just knowing what you can recycle – with the aim of throwing as little away as possible in bins of any colour.  There will be something in these suggestions for everyone, and again, they’ll save you money and lower your carbon footprint.

Government spoils New Mills School’s solar party

Closely following the great news in October of New Mills School’s new solar panels, the Government is now unbelievably proposing a new business rate tax on solar power. This would diminish or even wipe out any savings that business and schools hoped to make by doing the right thing and investing in cleaner energy. In a further outrageous twist, this would affect state schools but leave public schools exempt because of their charitable status!

If you agree that this is both unfair and counterproductive, please sign the national petition (be quick, it will be handed in on Thursday 2 March) and write to our conservative MP Andrew Bingham.

Story time for the Discussion Group

The Discussion group will turn to fiction for the next meeting at 8pm on Monday March 20th. This concerns the  real life issues of water pollution and foreign aid in Bangladesh as set out in The Inheritance Powder by Hilary Standing.  Email us for further details on transition.newmills@gmail.com

We hoped you liked the newsletter – let us know what you think at transition.newmills@gmail.com

Forthcoming events

New Mills Community Orchard
Forest Garden site preparation
Sunday 5th March, 12:30-16:00
To lay out the site and fencing for the Forest garden pilot.
Please bring gardening gloves and a spade if you have one.

Incredible Drinks
Wednesday 8th March, 19:30, downstairs at the Beer Shed
Social get together for supporters of Incredible Edible New Mills.

Transition Drinks
Thursday 16th March, 19:30, downstairs at The Beer Shed
Come and discuss the latest projects, football or whatever.

Discussion Group
Monday 20th March, 8pm
The Inheritance Powder by Hilary Standing.
Email transition.newmills@gmail.com for details

October Newsletter

11 Tuesday Oct 2016

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At a time of rather depressing national and international news, the Transition movement aims to put power and hope into ordinary people’s hands, undertaking local action which collectively will change the world.  The possibilities of what we can create in the communities around us is really exciting and empowering, and if enough of us do it, it can lead to real impact, to really jobs, and to real transformation of the places we live and beyond. So don’t just read this newsletter; take up one of the actions. If you don’t fancy any of the suggestions, create your own and we’ll help you make it happen!

Incredible Edible update

The growing season might have ended for the year, but the Incredible Edible group haven’t! Plans are afoot in the winter months to:

  • install a greenhouse at the New Mills Primary School edible garden,
  • create a series of planters around the town with edible plants
  • help New Mills Community Orchard create a Forest Garden trial

These are great practical projects; if you want to get involved, email us at transition.newmills@gmail.com

Subsidised Centre for Alternative Technology Trip

Take a trip with Sustainable Hayfield to the world renowned Centre for Alternative Technology, Machynlleth, Wales, on Sat/Sun 12th/13th November.

Departing after breakfast on Saturday, returning tea time Sunday. Free transport provided in Hayfield Community Minibus. Accommodation at nearby Plas Dolguog country house hotel from £45. Entry to CAT £8.50 (£7.50 concessions).

Transition New Mills will pay for entry for any TNM supporter who is willing to write a blog or do a presentation following the visit.

To register, email lauriejamesis@btinternet.com or ring Laurie on 07867 578326

Local Giving

Any donations through our Local Giving site will be matched using lottery cash. This offer lasts until April 2017, and could give us up to £500 of free cash! Needless to say, we are very keen to reach this target, and being an environmentally based group there is flexibility over the projects for which we can use the money. Please help us reach this total in a very efficient way by donating as much as you feel comfortable at Transition New Mills | Localgiving

New Mills Secondary Solar School

Solar PV panels have finally been installed at New Mills School. Electricity generation started on Sunday 18th September from a 21kW array on the Maths and Swinburn Buildings. Back in 2013 Transition New Mills supporters contributed over £400 of the £7,800 raised, through our ‘Clock New Mills’ walking challenge. The school will benefit from cheaper electricity, and the PTA will get an annual interest payment on the investment. Well done to everyone involved; another step closer to a low-carbon New Mills!

Forthcoming Events

Transition Drinks, Thursday 20th October From 7:30pm, The Royal Oak
Come along to talk about Transition projects, Incredible Edible, the football or whatever!

What Do You Think of the One World Festival? Wednesday 19th October, 7:30pm Open meeting upstairs at the Beehive to share thoughts and ideas for next year’s festival.

Buds, Berries and Leaves Survey Moors for the Future Partnership Friday October 21st, New Mills Volunteer Centre, 10am-2:30pm Free training sessions for anyone who would like to take part in the new survey on ‘Buds, Berries and Leaves’.

Membership is now free; but donate online and we’ll double your money!

26 Tuesday Jul 2016

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Membership of Transition New Mills is now free; but you can donate online and we’ll double your money!

At our recent Annual General Meeting, we voted to make it easier for people to become members of Transition New Mills. So we scrapped the annual charge and made membership free, as we felt that this was a fairer and more inclusive way of doing things.

Being a member needn’t mean doing anything more than what you do already as a supporter of Transition New Mills. Of course we hope that you’ll get actively involved in some projects, and vote at the AGM, but if you’re just interested in what’s happening and nothing more, that’s fine.

We’ll be checking with all our supporters on our contact list, and any new contacts, to make sure they’re happy with this and still want to be kept in touch with a new monthly newsletter. We’ll also check that they’re all still eligible: basically, as long as you either work, rest or play within New Mills, then you can be a member.

We have also made donating to Transition New Mills much easier and fairer.  Now you can donate online whenever you want, for whatever amount you are comfortable giving. And in a fantastic introductory offer, we have teamed up with charity Localgiving and the Peoples’ Postcode Lottery to match any online donation, doubling our income at a stroke!*

We’d really love to take maximum advantage of this offer, so that we can do more of the things you want to see and do, such as:

  • expand Incredible Edible New Mills – more outside classrooms, more planters around the town and more edible plants
  • more organised balsam bashes and equipment
  • more visiting speakers
  • keep the website running and up to date
  • improve publicity

Many thanks for being a supporter; together we can go from strength to strength to make the town stronger and greener. Please do check out the Localgiving page at:

Transition New Mills | Localgiving

* Up to £500, and until April 2017

Balsam Bashing New Dates

29 Wednesday Jun 2016

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Happy bashers at the Picker

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

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

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

 Monday 11th 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!

 Contact us on transitionnewmills.org or facebook.com/transitionnewmills

All Go with Transition New Mills!

23 Thursday Jun 2016

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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!

AGM and Foodie Friends Cafe

08 Wednesday Jun 2016

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FoodieFriendsCafe

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

 

Food and Climate Change

21 Saturday May 2016

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The next meeting of the Transition reading group is Monday June 27th, 8pm at Jill’s.
The topic will be food and climate change – here are links to some articles (most are short but with links if you’re interested in further research):
https://www.chathamhouse.org/publication/livestock-climate-change-forgotten-sector-global-public-opinion-meat-and-dairy
It has been suggested that, for subsequent meeting/s, rather than all reading the same book we try something new! We each bring books we’ve found interesting to the June meeting, lend them out and then members of the group choose a book to read and present a ‘book report’ to the next meeting/s to provide the discussion topic. For example, Rick has several books on economics that he would be happy to lend out.
Please let Sue Cooper (suecoopernewmills@hotmail.com) know if you are planning to come to the June meeting.

Balsam Bashing Starts This Weekend!

20 Friday May 2016

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Balsam Bashing 2016

We are into our third year of trying to clear the New Mills area of the invasive alien Himalayan Balsam which is swamping our native flora. We know it is going to be a long haul but we are already winning in some areas. So we need to renew and redouble our efforts this year.

We shall continue to concentrate on four main areas : the Torrs, Goytside, the Picker and Mousley Bottom.

The balsam is already popping up so we are starting to bash while it is still small. We hope you can join us on one of the first three organised bashing events :

Saturday 21 May  10-11.30am   meet at Torrs hydro

Sunday 22 May   10-11.30am   meet at Torrs hydro

Monday 23 May  6.30 – 8.00pm  meet at junction of High St, Dye House Lane and Hyde bank Rd

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.

Please wear stout footwear, long sleeves are more comfortable

Contact us on transitionnewmills.org or facebook.com/transitionnewmills

Important Dates for your Diary

15 Sunday May 2016

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Photo-AH3

There are 3 important dates coming up where we would really like to see you:

  1. New Mills Carnival; afternoon of Saturday 11th June
  2. AGM & Speaker(tbc);   7.30pm Thursday 30th June, Volunteer Centre
  3. One World Festival;  afternoon of Saturday 2nd July

We intend having a stall at the Carnival and One World Festivals, but we really need your help staffing it. If you are able to give even just an hour on these days it will help make this possible. It’s fun, and just involves finding out what people are interested in, telling them what we’ve been doing, and discussing what we’d like to do in future. And the weather has always been lovely!  Please let us know at transition.newmills@gmail.com if you can be of assistance.

This year’s AGM will be on the evening of Thursday 30th June, and we are lining up a topical speaker for the event. There will be 2 vacancies on the Administration Group, so we are keen to receive nominations from anyone who is interested in helping to run the group and make our town stronger, cleaner, fairer and more resilient. Let us know at transition.newmills@gmail.com to find out more or register your interest in these posts.