CFB February newsletter

Dear <<First Name>>

The year's moving rapidly on and so much has already happened.  Our new website is now live and we hope you've had a chance to look at it; our 2050 sign ups are almost at 700 and nearly 550 subscribe to this e-mail newsletter, which is fantastic progress.  If you follow Avaaz, 38 Degrees, Friends of the Earth or Greenpeace you'll know there's also been lots of progress with protecting bees, influencing the new Energy Bill and preventing forest sell offs, amongst other things.  Closer to home the CFB  "Energy We Can All Afford" Question Time event is almost upon us, a local food website and map is getting close to fruition, the Eco Trade Fair rapidly approaches and there's progress with the air quality issues in BoA.  And .... we need a new treasurer as Maureen has decided to step down at the end of March.  Read on for more details.

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FEBRUARY MONTHLY MEETING

screening of "Gasland", all about fracking for gas in the USA.

7.15 for 7.30 start, Quaker Meeting House, Whiteheads Lane, BA15 1JU.

We need to get started promptly at 7.30 as the film is just over 1.5 hours long and we need to fit in CFB news beforehand.  After the film there will be a Q&A session with Alex and Nicky from FrackFreeSomerset.  We will welcome donations to help cover the £100 cost of the film licence.

NEW CFB WEBSITE

We do hope you've been looking at our new website - still at the same address.  It's now fully up to date and is the ideal 'one stop shop' to find out about CFB's activities as well as advice on a range of topics, including energy efficiency measures.  You can very easily sign up to the 2050 campaign, switch to a green energy supplier and even make donations to boost our funds.  There's  a calendar showing all our meetings and events which is kept up to date automatically and loads of photos celebrating all the great things CFB has been doing.  Kim Samouelle has done a brilliant job for us, it's a website that does us proud: www.climatefriendlybradfordonavon.co.uk.

NEW CFB TREASURER NEEDED

From the end of March Maureen Wood has decided to step down as Treasurer of CFB.  Maureen has done a fantastic job for us over the past few years, keeping our balances straight, visiting the Coventry BS to pay in money and get cheques to reimburse people, as well as preparing the annual accounts for the CIC.  She has the accounting system in very good order, all ready for a new person to pick up the reins.  So, could you be that person?  Or maybe there are a couple of people out there willing to share the load. Maureen will happily work with you to effect a smooth handover. If you're interested and would like to chat about it please e-mail climatechampions@gmail.com and we'll arrange to meet.

MARCH MONTHLY MEETING 

Monday 18th March 7.30 p.m. Fat Fowl

Our annual 'review' meeting where we invite members to contribute to discussion on what should be CFB's priorities. We have lots of 'new faces' coming to our meetings which is great so do come along and give us your thoughts.

ECO TRADE FAIR   Saturday March 16th. 

St Margaret's Hall, BoA  10am - 3.30pm

Get the date in your diary - this promises to be an excellent event with a wide range of stalls booked.

Whether you want to see and discuss electric cars, talk to renewable energy installers, find out how to make your house warmer and save on your heating bills, invest your money in community renewable energy, make your displays more environmentally friendly, buy greener beauty and cleaning products, find out about the Green Deal, see what local shops have to offer in environmentally friendly products,  or draughtproof your sash windows, we will have the stall for you.

 Children's activities. Refreshments all day. Raffle. Make sure you don't miss out on this great event.

 

Trade Fair Volunteers needed.

We are urgently looking for more volunteers to help on the CFB stalls at the fair and with refreshments. Thank you to those who have offered so far, we will be in touch but more volunteers are needed. It would be particularly useful to have one or two volunteers to help before the day with the small group who are organising the refreshments.  We are also looking for donations of cakes and biscuits to serve on the day.  If you can help with your time on the day and/or contribute a cake or biscuits please ring 07507 782523 or email: climatechampions@gmail.com

"ENERGY WE CAN ALL AFFORD?"  Question Time

Thursday 28th February, 7.30 - 9.30 p.m.  St Margaret's Hall, BoA

Organised by Climate Friendly Bradford on Avon, this promises to be a very interesting meeting on an extremely important topic. There will be a panel of speakers:  Duncan Hames MP;  Ed Matthew, Director, Energy Bill Revolution; Brian Deeley, CEO Wiltshire Age UK and Mike Birkin, Friends of the Earth. The meeting will be chaired by Prof. Geoff Hammond. Each panel member will be giving short presentations and then answering questions from the audience.



This will be one of a number of public meetings with MPs and others across the UK supported by a coalition of organisations engaged in fuel poverty and climate change issues and including the Energy Bill Revolution - www.energybillrevolution.org, Friends of the Earth, Age UK, etc. The aim is to influence the energy bill at present passing through Parliament to ensure that the we can all afford the energy we really need without wrecking the planet. Do came along to ask questions and put your point of view.

LOCAL FOOD MAP & WEBSITE

The SFADG (Sustainable Food & Drink Group) reports:

Help us get local food producers, independent retailers of local food etc on the map!

CFB are working with "A Local Life" magazine to produce a map/directory of local food producers, independent retailers selling local food, and pubs, hotels, restaurants and cafes who use local food. The plan is to also update the BoA local food directory website. You can see the details on page 43 in your February/March copy of "A Local Life".  Please help us to bring this to the attention of as many relevant businesses as possible. If they wish to be included they should e-mail: contact@boafood.co.uk  to express their interest giving contact name, business, e-mail and phone number. Thank you.   



You may like to see the recent  SFADG article on the 'Resurgence of Support for Local Food' on the "Local Morsels" website.



The next SFADG meeting will be on Tuesday, 12th March at 7.30 p.m. upstairs at the Town Club on Market Street. The meeting will include a talk by Vivienne Kynaston telling us about her recent visit to Ghana with the Fairtrade Foundation, where cocoa bean production for Divine chocolate is having a big impact.

EARTH HOUR 

Saturday, March 23rd 8.30 - 9.30 p.m.

Earth Hour will be marked globally (for the seventh time) between 8.30 and 9.30pm.  If you haven’t planned anything yet, why not join our night walk, meeting outside the Tourist Information Centre at 8.20 p.m., and heading towards Avoncliff, along the river (or along the canal depending on degree of muddiness) where we have permission for a bonfire.  We will toast marshmallows, sing songs, recite poetry, etc.  Please bring a large piece of firewood (for the fire) and a torch.  A poem or song or percussion instrument would be good too.  Everyone welcome. Marshmallows provided!  This is a fine-weather event, so please check www.climatefriendlybradfordonavon.co.uk if weather is poor. For more details about Earth Hour itself, visit www.earthhour.wwf.org.uk

SEEDY SUNDAY

11.00 - 1.00 Sunday 24th March, St Margaret's Hall, BoA

BoA's 3rd Seedy Sunday - seed swap, plant sales, information stalls and lots more.  Can you help with the CFB stall, seed swap or refreshments? Do you know anyone who would like to take a stall? If so, please contact us at climatechampions@gmail.com.

CFB "LIBRARY"

We own quite a few books and DVDs and would like to make these available to our supporters to borrow.  We'd also like to increase what's available, so, if you have anything suitable - any printed or recorded material and would be happy for others to borrow them please let us have the details at climatechampions@gmail.com.  The information we'd need would be:

title of item

type of media - book, DVD, booklet, magazine, etc.

name of author/organisation that produced it.

OTHER ITEMS THAT MIGHT INTEREST YOU

• Meet the Palestinians. On Saturday 2nd March two Palestinians will be coming to BoA.  They will  speak at an event at St Margaret’s Hall which will begin at 7pm and include a Middle East vegetarian buffet. Local singer, Blake, will be performing songs from his album ‘Stay Human’. It should be a memorable and colourful event.
  
  Tickets will be on sale from 12th Feb at Ex Libris Book shop in the Shambles.   £10 adult: £20 family of 4: Students £5.
• Free Big Mend drop in sessions at Jumble Jelly in Silver Street on 5th March, 2nd April, 7th May & 4th June, from 10am-noon. It's a monthly 2-hour mending social,  open to all, to find out how to mend, darn and otherwise repair our clothes, or to offer to share expertise in repairing.  www.scrapiana.com
• Web Usability Partnership are conducting research on an environmental website and we need to recruit some adults with an interest in the environment. You would be paid and would need to go to Chippenham.  To find out more contact Julie Green - julie.green@webusability.co.uk or phone 01249 444757.
• Walkers are Welcome monthly walk is on Tuesday 26th February, starting at 10.00 a.m. from outside the TIC in Westbury Gardens; 3 mile and 5 mile options.
• Festival of Walking is on the weekend of 6/7/8 September, all walks starting from BoA - put the date in your diary  www.walkbradfordonavon.org

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