Ecowatch

By fcharles

SSDC bids for eco-town at Yeovil

SOMERSET local authorities took another step towards creating the county's first eco-town when South Somerset District Council in partnership with Somerset County Council submitted its bid for a share of a £10m government funding pot to create an eco development in Yeovil.

In order to meet local housing demand and the needs of a growing population, the district council has been planning for a 5000-home urban extension to Yeovil and late last year it became one of only nine authorities in the country to be in the running for additional eco-town funding.

Peter Seib, SSDC's portfolio holder for economic development, planning and transport, said the council wanted to make the required development "better than just an average housing estate." If Somerset succeeds in its bid, it would enable the council to "plan a development that would include homes that will look good, last, fit in with the historic and countryside landscape around Yeovil but in fact be zero carbon buildings."

The development would be self sufficient in employment, include more opportunities for walking and cycling, have less traffic congestion, provide local services onsite and have 40 percent of its land as open, green space.

SSDC has submitted a bid for £730,000. If successful, the money would be used for feasibility studies and master planning in order to establish whether an eco-town could be achieved in Yeovil..

SSDC is working with ZeroC, developers of the £7m mixed use development of Foundry House and local builders Charles Bishop Ltd, developer of a planned smaller £415,000 quality housing scheme at Mill Lane, both sites close to the proposed Yeovil urban village area near Stars Lane car park.

In the meantime work is continuing with town and parish councils to gather opinion on where the urban extension would be positioned about the town. The district council has its next consultation meeting on Wednesday, 10th March, when a more detailed set of possible location options will be outlined.

Mr Seib said: "I believe by striving for Eco-Town standard, with its emphasis on quality of life, on low traffic impact and on low ecological footprint, we will ensure that as it grows, Yeovil remains an attractive place to live, to visit and to do business."

SCHOOLS in Dorset are being encouraged to help transform textiles into treasure as part of a county-wide schools textile recycling competition.

Competing to be named Dorset's textile recycling champions, the challenge is to collect the highest amount of textiles per child in each school. The winning school will be awarded £600 prize money for each tonne collected.

The Dorset Reduction and Recycling Group is working with Sherborne based TRC Limited to promote and encourage textile reuse and recycling in schools. Pupils can donate items such as sheets, towels, belts, handbags, curtains, fabrics, blankets, soft toys and clean clothes. Schools will receive £300 per tonne of textiles collected.

Gemma Coles of the Dorset Reduction and Recycling Group, said: "In Dorset, we throw away about 6,600 tonnes of textiles every year. Taking part in the competition is a fun and interactive way of teaching children the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling waste as well as diverting it away from landfill."

To enter the competition each school must register with its local council's recycling officer and have at least one collection during the school term. The competition is running until the end of June and is open to any school in the area from preschool through to secondary or upper schools.

Textiles collected from schools will be sorted, baled and loaded onto trailers or into containers and taken to Eastern Europe or to Africa. They will be sold into local stores and markets.

A FREE seminar on how to make your community building more energy efficient, and also looking at renewable energy generation, is being held in Durweston on Friday 19th March. The training is aimed at those who are involved with the running and management of a community building – such as a local village hall.

The seminar will include training on how to monitor energy consumption and identify the potential savings that could be made through the introduction of energy efficiency improvements. It will also cover sources of funding, and look at issues such as listed building status.

The seminar is being run by the Energy Savings Trust Green Communities Team, and is organised by Dorset Agenda 21 with support from North Dorset District Council.

To register and for more information visit the website http://dorsetenergyaudit. eventbrite.com/ or contact Paul McIntosh on 01305 213721 email paul@da21.org.uk .

Finally, we were delighted to receive this tribute to Ecowatch from our regular Fosse Way contributor Paul Lund (and we hadn't even noticed it was our third birthday!)

Three years of Eco-Watch!

Eco-Watch has been campaigning for our local environment – "and our planet" – by giving readers useful advice, eco-tips, news and reports since 2007.

Archives show how most of the eco advice and reports about climate change, since the first Eco-Watch on 5th January 2007, remain as relevant today as when they first appeared in print.

"As individuals, there are things we can all do, that cumulatively will make a difference. Whether it's spending this year's holiday at home or installing a domestic wind-turbine in your garden, we can all make decisions that in their small way will help," wrote the editor, Fanny Charles.

In the edition of 23rd February 2007, Eco-Watch reported on a successful Homes for Good exhibition in Weston-super-Mare; Amy Lawson's Eco-Friendly Shop had its open day, in Meare; and it was reported that South Somerset District Council might reduce its carbon emissions, saving the taxpayer money by reducing its fuel bills, through the installation of solar PV panels at the Council's HQ in Yeovil.

Somerset County Council was reported as having signed the Nottingham Declaration - pledging to tackle the causes and consequences of climate change in Somerset. Some useful work has been done since and communities assisted in their efforts of raising awareness, but news of the County's current recruitment freeze and loss of short contract jobs means the resources are just not there to do very much more.

Tip of the Week came from Wally Harbert in Frome, who recommended using a solar powered night light on the landing, instead of the usual low watt light bulb left on, in case a visit to the bathroom is needed.

Two weeks later on 9th March, Eco-Watch mentioned how Tesco, Asda, Boots and Debenhams were among a number of giant UK retailers who had agreed to work harder to reduce the use of plastic bags.

Three years on and those high street giants might be saying much the same, though we – as customers – are far more aware of the problem with bags and plastic filling up land-fill and floating in the world's oceans causing unnecessary suffering and death to marine creatures.

Through the weeks, months and three years of Eco-Watch a wealth of information, contacts and advice has been conveyed through the column.

If, like me, you are a reader who tears out and saves the Eco-Watch page, and any other green stories, from the magazine you will now have a thick wodge of A4 paper by now!

I think the beauty of the column and its strength lies in the content that readers contribute.

Individuals and groups in every community have wonderful ideas, examples or news – whether they are stories of success or failure – which everyone can benefit from reading about.

Some communities stand out – such as Frome and Glastonbury in Somerset – as frequent Eco-Watch contributors, but many campaigners, activists, groups, businesses and councils from all over the Fosse Way and Blackmore Vale regions of Somerset, Dorset, South West Wiltshire and western New Forest can equally take advantage of this organic form of networking.

The more you make use of it, the more useful it becomes!

Paul Lund

Send your news, views and eco-tips to fcharles@bvmedia.co.uk