Winsley Climate & Nature Group

[Last Updated June 2023]

Thank you for visiting the Climate Group webpage. We hope this page is useful to you and welcome any feedback.

We are currently facing a climate and ecological emergency – the Climate and Ecology Bill is due to have its second reading in November of this year. As reducing carbon emissions and the rate of biodiversity loss go hand in hand, so they are both in the remit of the Climate Group.

The Office For National Statistics has information on how Wiltshire is doing compared to other counties regarding carbon dioxide emissions (down from 1.3 in 2005 to 0.8 in 2019 CO2 emissions per km2) and woodland coverage (10% in 2019).

While we are on the rights trajectory, there is more we can do to reduce our carbon emissions. This means considering everything we buy, eat and how we travel.

Energy Saving

The Energy Saving Trust have some top ways to save energy

  1. Smart heating controls
  2. Replace your gas or oil boiler (when you need to) to a renewable heating system
  3. Insulate your home
  4. Draught-proofing
  5. Low Energy Lighting
  6. Energy Efficient Appliances
  7. Low Carbon Travel
  8. Reduce, reuse, recycle
  9. Reduce your ‘Food Miles’ 

Energy Saving Locally

Several residents of Winsley have fitted energy efficient appliances; such as installing heat pumps and solar panels. If you are happy to share, please tell us about the work you have been doing (with photographs!) so that we can learn from you.

There are grant schemes for Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure]. However, this only applies if you have off street parking. If there is demand for electric and hybrid charging points in the parish, we need to know from you.

We will be able to get access to thermal imaging camera, please let us know if you would like to borrow the device. It allows you to see where heat is escaping from your home so that you can prioritise your installation and draught-proofing strategy.

There are grants for community self-generating electricity, but land is needed, so please contact the climate group if you want to be part of a community energy generating scheme.

Regarding recycling, in addition to Wiltshire Council kerbside and household waste recycling centres, in Winsley there are Blister pack collections – currently these cannot be recycled in the usual way as the aluminium is sealed to the plastic. However, we collect them and take them to stores that can recycle them.

The COOP on Bradford Road can recycle soft, lightweight plastics such as film lids on yoghurt pots, soft fruit punnets and ready meals, as well as plastic crisp packets, pasta bags and chocolate or biscuit wrappers.

As part of the five R’s (this has been expanded to nine ‘R’, but we’ll just concentrate on five for now): Rot, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, Repair; the Repair Café in Bradford on Avon where volunteer electricians, seamstresses etc offer their services to try and fix the clothes and household appliances that local residents bring to them, visit their Facebook page.

Incidentally, if you have items that you no longer wish to keep, but you think someone else might still get some use from, you can add your items to the Freecycle website and the person you give your item to will come and pick it up to get it off your hands.

You can reduce your food miles by growing your own veg. This allows you to choose what you want to eat, eat vegetables that aren’t available in shops and they taste better! You can go on the list for a free allotment (though there is a long waiting list), if you do not have the space, Hartley Farm have some allotments which you can rent, or support companies that are growing locally, such as Grown Green.

Local Biodiversity

By learning more about the natural environment in your area, hopefully, you will want to protect it. These are some projects currently in Winsley now:

  • For naturalists of school age, learn about the natural environment in your area ‘Fern Forest School’.
  • There are Bat Walks, House Martin Walks, Moth Releases and Slow Worm Walks.
  • Local residents have planted trees on the verges, please water if they look thirsty!
  • Protect the orchids in Avon Park dog walkers field by avoiding them.
  • Local group Nature Chain Winsley organise Wild Garden Walks and other events.
  • During the 20th Century, 90% of lowland grasslands were lost [Source: Wildlife Trust]. Fortunately for us, local botanist john Presland established Murhill Nature Reserve where you can volunteer a few hours a month to maintain it.
  • There are so many reasons to have ponds as they attract wildlife and conserve water. Many have been drained so that land could be used for agricultural use as big tractors find it difficult to navigate around them. Winsley parish has two protected ponds in Ashley.
  • Allowing roadside verges to grow a few centimetres longer creates habitat, shelter and food for invertebrate sand mammals, by adhering to and supporting ‘No Mow May’.

If you need more information or advice, please contact us 
We can organise talks if enough residents would like to know more about certain topics.

 

Thank you on behalf of the Climate Group