Author: PACE

Latest PACE newsletter pull-out

Here’s our latest newsletter pull-out, covering our new Powick E-bike Loan Scheme, our Carbon Reduction Plan, progress with our biodiversity scheme, the E-Bike to Work Scheme and active travel in the county. Have a look and please get in touch if you’d like to be involved.

Thank you for your support!

We are delighted to report that PACE’s project to develop pollinator sites at Powick Football Pitch and Callow End Playing Field achieved its target of £992. In fact, due to many generous pledges we exceeded that amount; raising a total of £1083.

We received pledges from local residents and businesses, along with £500 pledged by MHDC. All the money raised will go towards supporting our action to enhance biodiversity in our Parish. Over the summer we will be ordering bare rooted trees and dog roses along with hundreds of native wild bulbs ready for the autumn planting season.

Can you lend a hand?
Ordering is the easy bit, we will need help from people of all ages to get them into the ground. If you can help in any way please contact us – contact@powickclimateaction.org

Thank you to all who pledged via Spacehive.
We couldn’t have done it without you!

Thnk you image featuring lawn with wildflowers and insects

Latest PACE newsletter pull-out

Here’s our latest newsletter pull-out, covering the success of our biodiversity fundraising campaign, the possibility of setting up a car club, the eBike to Work Scheme and the new cycle / walk way. Have a look at what you can do to take action.

Boost biodiversity – Powick & Callow End

We have launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Spacehive platform to raise funds to enhance the biodiversity at Powick Sports Ground and Callow End Playing Field.

The project would plant a variety of bulbs, flowering plants and trees which would increase the food supply for insects and small mammals which in turn would support bats and birds. We wish to encourage children to become aware and to value the nature around them. We intend to work with children’s groups in developing the project and explanatory signage will be installed to inform the public.

CLICK HERE to find out more and to back this project!

IPCC report

You may have heard of the recent IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report on the state of the climate. It’s their sixth assessment report and it paints a familiar but worsening picture. One that demands action!

The full report, endorsed by nearly 200 governments worldwide, is a long read but here are five take-away points:

  1. Changes in climate are widespread, rapid and intensifying. They are unprecedented in thousands of years.
  2. Human activities are indisputably causing climate change. Making heatwaves, heavy rainfall and droughts more frequent and severe.
  3. There is no going back from some changes in the system. However, some could be slowed and others stopped by limiting warming.
  4. Climate change is already affecting every region. The changes we are experiencing will increase with further warming.
  5. Unless there are immediate and large-scale greenhouse gas emission reductions, limiting warming to 1.5C will be beyond reach.

The first interview in this podcast clearly explains the situation and what is at stake. We would encourage you to listen to it as education about these issues is key.

You may be wondering what you can do? There are many great resources out there for those wishing to assess and alter their own impact, join groups taking action, and contacting your representatives etc. We covered many of these in our PACE pull-out last year, which is available as a PDF here – tinyurl.com/PACEPullOut

Please do also get in touch with our PACE (Powick Action on Climate Emergency) sub-group if you would like any further information, or to join us in making changes locally: contact@powickclimateaction.org

A Great Community Initiative!

A local community and Parish Council working together to bring change…

A Hampshire village has launched a scheme to replace all disposable cups in their village with a reusable mug that will be free for users with a simple £1 deposit.

The Overton cup will be available in all the shops and cafes along Overton’s high street, including the greengrocer, “who does a lovely soup from his leftover vegetables”, according to Alison Zarecky, chair of Sustainable Overton. Customers pay their deposit (plus another £1 if they want a lid, which are non-returnable) and then return the cup once it’s been used to any deposit point in the village.

As of last year, the UK was using about 2.5bn disposable cups a year, with a 2017 government report concluding that only one in 400 was being recycled. Reusable coffee cups were becoming more common, but with the risk unclear during the pandemic, many coffee outlets stopped accepting them. However, many health experts now believe that reusables are low risk.

Overton cups are shown off outside the local greengrocer
Overton cups are shown off outside the local greengrocer. Photograph: Supplied

But the Overton cup is just one of a number of initiatives being put into practice in the village. “The parish council declared a climate emergency in 2019,” said Zarecky. “And then we called for volunteers, and set up Sustainable Overton, and so many people came forward. It was really quite wonderful.”

They began thinking about what they could do, and established links with other groups around the country. They have set up a nappy library, thanks to a grant from Hampshire county council, and are establishing a community energy project. They also have a plastics team, and have trained up “energy champions” to help people to green their homes, including a thermal camera hire service so users can work out where their house is leaking energy.

“We’ve learned a lot from what other places have done,” says Zarecky. The cup scheme was inspired by a similar idea in Shrewsbury a couple of years ago, while Ashton Hayes in Cheshire, which has been working on a carbon neutral community since 2006, was “inspirational”.

But there were also questions that they could not immediately find answers to, and so they have produced toolkits for setting up a climate group. “It’s been a massive learning curve.”

The next step? To encourage more villages and towns to set up their own community energy groups. “In Hampshire we only generate about 1.8% of our own energy,” says Zarecky. “There’s a lot of roof space here.”

Even though they were unable to meet in person during the pandemic, more people have volunteered for the group in the last year than ever. “I think we know this is important and we want to do something meaningful about it.”

Article courtesy of The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/20/community-reusable-cup-scheme-unites-hampshire-village?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

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