Thursday, September 1, 2022

Town trail - Autumn/Winter sessions

 

There is only one working party on the Town Trail in each of the months September and October but then we're back to fortnightly until Christmas. The dates are as follows; reminders will be sent out to volunteers  as usual.

Monday 19th September

Monday 17th October

Monday 7th November

Monday 21st November

Monday 5th December

Monday 19th December

 

As usual the sessions will run from 10 a.m. for approx 2 hours - depending on energy levels! Also, as usual we will need the group size to be no less than 3, for safety/insurance reasons.

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Food waste collections in Hereford powered by bike? And other measures from Herefordshire Council.

Herefordshire Council could be the first local authority in the country to have food waste collected by bike if proposed plans are agreed by cabinet members.

The innovative proposal is set out in a cabinet report on the next steps for the introduction of the new recycling and waste collection service.

The recommendations will be discussed at the cabinet meeting on 21 July

Cargo bikes pushing ahead

A cargo bike food waste collection is planned for central Hereford. The zero-carbon approach would see kitchen scraps turned into compost. While the environmentally-friendly step would be a first for a UK council, a BBC report shows food collection by bike is already underway in Paris. Meanwhile, online retailer Amazon is reported to be launching a fleet of e-cargo bikes to replace thousands of van deliveries in London.

New waste collections mandatory

We are working towards introducing a new waste and recycling collection service across the county that includes a weekly food collection and fortnightly garden waste collection service, which councils must introduce as part of new government legislation.

The new enhanced service will provide much more recycling capacity and will improve both the quantity and quality of recycling. Residents will keep the bins they already have for general waste and recycling. The council will pay the one-off cost of additional bins needed to separate different types of waste. This will be offset by savings made every subsequent year in reduced disposal costs.

The move follows recommendations approved by the council on 25 November 2021:

  1. The council supports residents to increase recycling by adopting the new waste collection model as outlined in this report with a view to being fully operational in November 2023. This includes:

a.    The introduction of a new two weekly garden waste collection service

b.    The introduction of a new weekly food collection service

c.     The adoption of a twin stream recycling service to enable residents to further segregate recyclable materials and

d.    To adopt a three weekly residual collection model

Getting it right

Residents are being encouraged and supported to make good choices to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ through our ‘Getting it right’ campaign. This encourages people to put the right items into the right bins. Reducing contamination (putting the wrong things into the wrong bins) will improve recycling rates.  

Other waste reduction measures include the incredibly successful reusable nappy scheme, which is helping residents with young families reduce nappy waste. Its popularity meant the scheme had to end just 30 days after its April launch date.  We also recently announced funding grants for setting up or extending existing repair cafes to discourage people from throwing away repairable household items.

Published: 14th July 2022

Monday, June 27, 2022

Town Trail - Friendly Robin joins the work

We had another session on the Town Trail a couple of weeks ago. You'll see from the photos, that we were joined by a robin again. We sometimes think the birds are watching out for us so that they can forage in the earth we've disturbed.

 

We've had a couple of comments expressing concern about the nesting season. We stopped working in the area between Woodleigh Road and Bridge Street for this reason. 

 

In the area down from the station, we are mainly clearing excess ivy off the ground. There are no ground nesting birds in the area where we are working - which is mainly a strip either side of the path. This is a good area to encourage woodland edge plants which would increase the biodiversity. We will not be clearing the whole area as it is important to leave some ivy and a diversity of habitats. Whilst we are doing this, we also clear a lot of litter.






As you may know, the Trail is owned by Herefordshire Council. We operate under a Licence to Cultivate granted to the Town Council. The work we do is part of a maintenance plan agreed with both councils. We also take advice from ecologists and environmentalists. We have carried out one review with Herefordshire Council/Balfour Beatty since we started work in October last year and plan to do another one during the autumn/winter.

 Our next session is on Monday 27th June and as always, you can contact us on sustainableledbury@gmail.com

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Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Sustainable Ledbury Midsummer update

Summer is on its way and we’re thinking about the Poetry Festival. Together with our friends at Pot & Page Café we’ve organised a children’s poetry competition. Details have been out for a while now but you can still contact us for an application form via email on sustainableledbury@gmail.com or via our website, sutainableledbury.co.uk The closing date is 10th June and winners will be notified by 24th June. Prize giving will be part of a children’s event at Pot & Page on the afternoon of Saturday 2nd July. The theme of the competition is ‘Looking after Our World’.


We’ve been looking after our world too. We’re making progress on the Town Trail. Before the nesting season started, we managed to clear ivy and brambles from the section of the Trail between Bye Street and Woodleigh Road. We’re leaving this section now until after the nesting season. There’s still plenty to do. With help from Balfour Beatty, we’ve cut back some of the ivy on the trees on the section of the Trail that runs down the side of the Recreation Ground, letting in more light. We’re now making a start at clearing some of the ivy along the station end of the Trail. It’s been good to get all the positive feedback on Facebook and to have new volunteers join us.


If you read this before Community Day, come and find us there and we can tell you more about what we’re doing and talk about our Waste Reduction project.


Thursday, June 9, 2022

Town Trail - Bridge, what Bridge?

We had another session on the Town Trail last week, working on the bridge. You didn't know there was a bridge? We're not surprised. It was covered in ivy. It looks a bit different now.













When we'd finished we surveyed a small area and identified 11 wildflowers. We hope there'll be more as we let the light in.

Our next session is on Monday morning, 13th June. For more information contact us on sustainableledbury@gmail.com




Sunday, May 8, 2022

Seed Library now open at Pot & Page Café, Ledbury.

Sustainable Ledbury is very pleased to announce that the SEED LIBRARY is now open!


PLANT 🌱 GROW 🌱 DONATE
Come and pay a visit to the Seed Library at Pot & Page- in partnership with Sustainable Ledbury
🧡












All seeds are FREE to take home, so discover the joy of growing your own today!
If you have any excess seeds, you can also donate them to the library, so the cycle can continue ♻️


If you want help or advice, there is useful free advice available from Garden Organic here


Visit the Seed Library at Pot & Page to find out more!
Pot & Page, 8 New St, Ledbury




Thursday, May 5, 2022

Poetry Competition for school children as part of Ledbury Poetry Festival.

 

Sustainable Ledbury and Pot & Page Café are holding a poetry competition for school children as part of the Ledbury Poetry Festival. The theme is ‘Looking After our World’.

Poems must be no longer than a maximum of 30 lines, on the theme ‘Looking after our World’, and may be in any format.

Entries must be all the children’s own work and must be submitted with a completed application form via email to sustainableledbury@gmail.com or handed in to Pot & Page Café, New Street, Ledbury.

The categories are as follows:

Reception/Year 1/ 2; Year 3/4; Year 5/6, Year 7/8; Year9/10; Year 11/12

The closing date for entries is Friday 10th June 2022 and winners will be notified no later than Friday 24th June. The prize giving ceremony will be held in Pot & Page Café on the afternoon of Saturday 2nd July.

There will be a First Prize of a £10 book token, Runner Up of a £7 book token and up to 2 highly commended, in each category. All will also receive a certificate.

Sustainable Ledbury would like to print the winners’ poems and the entry form asks for permission from the parent or guardian to do this. Full names will not be used in any publication, only the first name and initial letter of the family name. The application form must be signed by a parent or guardian indicating agreement to this.

There will be 3 judges but they will not be able to provide feedback to the children on their poems.

For any questions or queries, contact Sustainable Ledbury on sustainableledbury@gmail.com

With thanks to Pot & Page Café for their sponsorship.

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Town Trail working party; April 26th

At the end of April, at Ledbury Town Council's request, we did some more work along the stretch of the Trail that goes by the Recreation Ground. The 'chipper' team from Balfour Beatty joined us so that the brash could be chipped rather than us creating 'dead hedges'.



Sadly we found quite a lot of rubble. This kind of fly tipping slows down our work but we were very thankful that the Balfour Beatty team could both deal with the brash and remove the rubble.



Clearing away some of the ivy lets a lot more light into the area. We hope this helps you enjoy the area through the summer.




After Monday 9th May we will have a 3 week break before the next session on 23rd May. It was hard to schedule fortnightly sessions around bank holidays and everyone's other commitments!
As always, if you'd like to join us, do contact us via email on sustainableledbury@gmail.com for more details. You can also find us on our website sustainableledbury.co.uk

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Waste Reduction project update

Sustainable Ledbury is delighted to have taken on the responsibility to manage this project. A group of our supporters signed up for the training which took place in early 2022. From now on they will be  attending local events to raise awareness and give advice on how to reduce our waste. This will include information on reducing food waste (and saving money!), recycling, and composting.  

Some of our supporters had been involved in the waste reduction Master Composters and Love Food Hate Waste campaigns, run jointly by Herefordshire Council, Worcestershire Council and Garden Organic. Sadly, Herefordshire pulled out of this some years ago. It was therefore a natural step to consult with Garden Organic to see if we could set up something on a smaller scale for Ledbury.

Ledbury Town Council supported this idea and commissioned Garden Organic to train some volunteers in a range of things that can be done to reduce waste.

We now have a group of trained, enthusiastic volunteer Waste Reduction advisors, who will be out and about at various local events in 2022. 


Our first stall will be at the Ledbury Community Day on the 4th June 2022.


If you have an interest in reducing, reusing, recycling and composting, and enjoy sharing your knowledge with others, we would love more volunteers, and the online training is still available.

If you would like to know more about volunteering for this campaign, please contact Sarah Blenkinsop by email at sustainableledbury@gmail.com or, alternatively, you can send your details in a sealed envelope addressed to Sustainable Ledbury to the Ledbury Town Council office on Church Street.


Thursday, April 7, 2022

Cherry Blossom and Alkanet on the Town Trail

Taken a while to get round to doing this post, but on 4th April we started working at the station end of the Town Trail. The cherry blossom was looking great and some Green alkanet was in flower (blue flowers in one of the photos). The roots of this plant supplied the red dye which Egyptian women used on their hair and nails. It's not certain when it was introduced to Britain or why.





We've taken a bit of a break for Easter but will be back next Monday - 25th - doing some work along the stretch through the Recreation Ground. The 'chipper team' from Balfour Beatty will be with us to chip all the brash so that we can leave the area looking good for the music fest for the Jubilee.


As always, if you'd like to join us, do get in touch via our email sustainableledbury@gmail.com

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Town Trail - Raspberries and Roman salads

Our latest session on the Town Trail was on Mon 21st March. We finally got down as far as the Woodleigh Road bridge - just! We now need to change location as we're into the nesting season and there's a lot of wild life in this section. It felt like a real achievement to get this far and our work has let so much light into the area. We're looking forward to seeing what plants grow through now they've got some light.













The plant finds this time included raspberries! We cleared the ground around them so who knows if they'll bear fruit later in the year. We also spotted ground elder. Did you know that the Romans brought this plant over to use as a salad vegetable? They probably didn't realise how invasive it would be if you get it in your garden!

Our next session is on Monday 4th April. We'll be up where the Trail starts, near the station, where we'll be clearing ivy off some of the ground - to encourage more wildflowers.
The group is growing and new members are always welcome. If you're interested, contact us on sustainableledbury@gmail.com for more information.

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Town Trail - Woodleigh Road, wild flowers.

We were back working last Monday (7.3.22) down near Woodleigh Road. The robins joined us again but were definitely camera shy this time and I didn't manage to get their photo.


We're starting to see more wild flowers coming through though. There were Celandine, Lords and Ladies (sometimes known as Cuckoo Pint) and even some Cyclamen. Did you know that the roots of Lords and Ladies were gathered for their high starch content. In Elizabethan times this was used for stiffening the high, pleated, linen ruffs that were fashionable at the time.








We'll be back for one more session in this area of the Trail on Monday 21st March. Then we'll be into the nesting season and will move to the top end of the Trail, near the station. We can clear ivy off the ground along that stretch without disturbing the nesting process.

If you would like to come and help, do get in touch.
sustainableledbury@gmail.com

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Town Trail - Robins join in the work!

There were just a small group of us working on the Town Trail on Monday 7th Feb. We 'liberated' some hazel that was almost smothered with ivy.




We are now seeing wildflowers coming through where we've cleared the ground, which is really encouraging. The birds seem to like what we're doing too and a couple of robins came to inspect our work. One of them was camera shy!




As we work down the trail below Woodleigh Road, we know we will have to take extra care. There are hedgehogs, slow worms, frogs and newts in the area. As well as making room for more wildflowers, we want to make sure that the wildlife already there is given the best chance to thrive.



Our next session is on Monday morning 21st February. If you'd like to join us, do get in touch.
sustainableledbury@gmail.com

Friday, January 28, 2022

Town Trail - Signs of Spring, and litter.

We had another good session on the Town Trail on Monday (24th Jan) and have cleared another section. 



We collected 3 bags of litter and an old tyre and left the area looking more cared for. 


We were very disappointed to learn that more litter had been dropped in the area during the week but we'll be back.

The good news is that there are already signs of wildflowers starting to appear - celandine and wood avens. The photos show 'before' and 'after' our work.



 I nearly forgot the 'after' ones. When I went back to the area some 10 minutes later, it was good to see ground feeding birds, including robins and blackbirds, foraging on the disturbed soil.

Saturday, January 15, 2022

Town Trail - Brambles and Ivy

We had our first session of 2022 on Monday (10th) continuing to tackle the brambles and ivy. We're back working from Bye Street/Bridge Street towards Woodleigh Road.









Our next session is on Monday 24th Jan. Do contact us on sustainableledbury@gmail.com if you'd like to join us.