Appleton with Eaton Community Action Group for the Environment (AwECAGE)

aweCAGE Next meeting Monday March 4th, 8.00pm, at South Lawn, Netherton Road, Appleton

Robert Longstaff will be talking about disposing of all sorts of household and garden waste by composting, and much more..... He’s a real expert. We have also asked Eynsham CAG greenTEA to tell us about what sort of activities they have undertaken, as they have been going for some years, and have a ‘waste’ team. They may also be able to tell us what TRANSITION is.We hope you can join us round the wood fire at South Lawn

 

Where we’re at:

The way we are operating at the moment as aweCAGE gets established is to think in terms of a Core group, an Interest group and the rest of the community.

The Core group will meet 3 or 4 times a year to plan and direct. At present this group is Felicity Dick, Peter Jennings, Alison Strugnell, Phil Sapwell and Rosie Page, plus any additional people who are interested in planning an activity. We meet at someone’s home.

The Interest group consists of local people who have expressed an interest. If you are reading this, you are part of it! We hope to hold interesting meetings 2 or 3 times a year at South Lawn, Netherton Road, Appleton, and put on events. If you are on the list, it would really help if you could identify what you are particularly interested in, and even better, if you could volunteer to help from time to time.

The Local Population is defined as inhabitants of Appleton, Eaton, Fyfield, Tubney, Besselsleigh and places in between. We aim to involve as many people as possible in activities of all sorts.

We have become a CAG, that is an Oxfordshire Community Action Group. This gives us the benefits of insurance and some funding, but also obliges us to DO something and report back. The objective of CAG is to make everyone in Oxfordshire energy-conscious, to conserve finite fuels and encourage the use of renewable fuels. It casts a wide net under the headings of FOOD, WASTE, ENERGY, TRANSPORT & BIODIVERSITY.

Waste has been our first theme. We held a recycling event on November 17th -- the green windmill day -- which was a success and which we will repeat in the summer. We hoped to have organised a visit to one of the local waste disposal plants, but both are closed to visitors at the moment. The delay will give us a chance to ask you what day and time will suit you best. The next theme, starting early summer, will be energy.

 

Meeting on 16th July 2012 at South Lawn

 
This meeting was about energy-saving in the home. We were given a monitor called   'Energy Aware’  to lend out which measures your household electricity usage through the day and night. Identifying areas of high or unnecessary power consumption is the first step to reducing energy waste, with the spin-off of lower bills. 
   
The monitor can be borrowed free from the village shop for a 2 week period for a deposit of £5.  Instructions included.  Ask at the    counter.
 

Future Events

We are planning a

Freecycle event

for a Saturday in the autumn. Please don’t throw out your unwanted items before then – they might be just what someone else wants!

Watch this space and keep in touch!

11th June 2012

 

Appleton with Eaton Community Action Group for the Environment (AwECAGE)
 
Please note we have changed our original name from GASA
 
We have put in our application to be a member of the Community Action Group (CAG) for Oxfordshire. This will allow us to access an Annual Maintenance Grant for the group and Special Project Grants for organisations in the village. 
 
We have now set up an email address for the group for contact which is:-
awecage@gmail.com                 
If you are not on email do not despair – there will be hand delivered notices to you.
There will be also notices in the Appleton Advertiser.
 
The next meeting is on
Monday July 16th at 8.15 p.m. at South Lawn
Under the trees if dry; in the barn if wet
Jo Hamilton
from the Environmental Change Unit in Oxford
will advise on
Household Energy Saving
 
Local drinks and Hot Dogs using local sausages will be on sale
 
Future gatherings are suggested for the summer, autumn and early spring each year. The next two are still in the early planning stages but might be along the lines of:
 
Autumn 2012:      Apple pressing and Juice Preservation
                             Veg, Boxes and Veg. Van (Cultivate)
 
 Spring 2013:      Talk on composting
                         Visit to the Anaerobic Digester at Cassington to see how your food waste is dealt with.
 

 

March & April 16th2012

An initial meeting was held in March. This was followed up by a further meeting on Monday April 16th at 8.00pm in the South Lawn Barn, Netherton Road, Appleton. Twelve people attended including nine from the village, Ray Wilson from Parklands School Besselsleigh, Martin Hall from the Longworth Environment Group (LEN) and Simon Kenton from Oxfordshire Low Carbon Hub who was there to listen to what we want to do and help plan the next steps. Unfortunately Jo Hamilton from the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University was unable to attend.

It was decided to form a working group to provide ideas, advice and assistance to anyone in Appleton who requested it for home energy and water saving, recycling or some larger project encompassing all or part of the village and its environ.

In addition regular tips and advise snippets would appear in the Appleton Advertiser and the AwE web site. A future flag ship project was discussed for installing a significant solar electricity array, possibly at the school, shop or village hall.

Simon would provide the group with a small grant to cover expenses, legal advice, insurance and contacts with other groups in Oxfordshire who had already gone down the same roads.

For the first six months Felicity Dick and Rosie Page will be joint chairpersons.

It is planned that Jo Hamilton will be attending a meeting to be held on 16th July when she will be able to answer questions and give advice.