WCA Members Meetings

Previous Meetings
Next Online Meeting: Wednesday 6-December 2023: Trees, Retrofit and Project Updates
The next online general meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 6th December 2023, 7-8:30pm via Zoom. There will also be an informal WCA introduction, new members particularly welcome, and a chance to meet some of the steering group at 6pm using the same link.
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Please register for joining details using the form below. If you are not yet a member of WCA you can use this link to sign up: you are able to join as a group or as an individual.
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DRAFT AGENDA
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Starting at 6pm: Welcome
WCA Introduction and informal chat
A chance to find out more about WCA and ask questions, with one or more of the steering group. New members and friends particularly welcome.
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Starting at 7pm: Main Meeting
1. Guest speaker: Nick Hoare who runs the Stourhead (Western) forest estate in south-west Wiltshire. He currently has a new project to plant 190,000 new trees (with some mechanical help) and is looking for people to join him! He will also talk about his experience retrofitting heritage properties on the estate.
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2. Update on our new website resource for energy-saving home retrofit in the Wiltshire area and exciting plans for a Wiltshire and Swindon Green Open Homes event next February - at this stage we are keen to engage with people across the county who can help showcase retrofit measures big and small, either in your own home or by helping in another nearby open home.
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3. Update on our project to plant disease-resistant Elms and other trees in the community across Wiltshire
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4. update with local groups on Talking to MPs and Parliamentary Candidates. See Item 4 in the November meeting description below for much more detail.
5. Feedback/Updates from local groups and next actions
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​We aim to finish around 8:30, but there will be an opportunity for informal chat after the end.
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WCA steering group / speaker contact details are here.
Please try to join early for a prompt start and note:
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We aim to record the meeting, but can cut out specific bits before sharing if requested
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Please rename yourself on zoom to include your name and area or any local group representation​
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Please publicise the meeting by sharing this page:
https://www.wiltshireclimatealliance.org.uk/wcamembersmeeting
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and share and invite friends to the Facebook event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/719648446753340/
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You can contact us by email about the agenda on contact@wiltshireclimatealliance.org.uk
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Look forward to seeing you at the meeting.
WCA Steering Group
Previous Meetings
November 2023: Wilts Council Climate Action Scorecard; Wilts Council Engagement;
Local Plan Final Consultation; GE Candidate Lobbying
1. Wiltshire Council Climate Action Scorecard
The fantastic Climate Emergency UK organisation released their analysis of council climate action across the country in October 2023.​
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This gives an objective measure of how each council in the UK compares with others, and more importantly gives a detailed breakdown of the scores and the evidence on which they are based.
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So for the Wiltshire scorecard , you can scroll down to the table of Questions, click the down arrow on the right next to a section you are interested in, then for each question you can click on the 'how is this marked' button to reveal a link to the actual data used to score the question.
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So for example, question 4.9 under Governance and Finance, concerning climate awareness training, reveals that as of February 2023, only 43 managers, including just 17 out of 102 (16%) of senior managers (tiers 1-3), had attended the full 1-day climate awareness training session. Also a couple of 1-hour briefings were provided for cabinet members, committee chairs and other councillors, which was attended by some. Recordings of all sessions were made available to all the intended audience afterwards. However the uptake and tracking of delivery was not sufficient to award a mark for this item.
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Please browse the scorecard and see where you'd like to help achieve improvements - then email us at contact@wiltshireclimatealliance.org.uk
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2. Engagement with Wiltshire Council
In the past month we've had 2 meetings with Wiltshire Council climate team. Both were positive in terms of engagement. The first was for them to walk us through the Local Plan and give some clarity on process - more in agenda item 3.
The second meeting was to discuss their 6 monthly update on progress against actions on their Climate Strategy Delivery Plan.
Climate Dashboard HERE; Environment HERE; full report to Council HERE . From this meeting we now have agreement to meet on specific targeted subjects. And, importantly, we need your help to form small teams on those subjects to work with the council as a critical friend.
3. Wiltshire Local Plan Final Consultation
​The final consultation on the Wiltshire Local Plan revision ends Wednesday 22 Nov. We do not want to introduce big delays into adopting the new plan as it is much better than the current one. However a small team has identified some areas which so need improvement, and we need to support the improvements against pressure from big housebuilders to do the minimum necessary.
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CSE have provided a helpful analysis of the plan to help us focus, but there are also some other key small changes we would like to see.
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We discussed the CSE analysis and discuss how people can help to support the improvements in the plan.
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4. Lobbying MPs and candidates
The next general election is looming. ​The website Electoral Calculus currently shows Chippenham, Wilts South West and Salisbury seats being quite marginal according to current polling, and overall that a change in government is likely. So now is a key time to be challenging and/or supporting key candidates green efforts or lack of them in all constituencies.
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The most effective way is to arrange a meeting with a local group in the constituency, but this needs careful planning. Letters to MPs on particular topics can also be helpful if they are well structured with specific asks and followed up.
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We would like to map out what is happening in each constituency and offer help as needed. We are developing a briefing for organising a meeting and providing some suggestions for key topics to discuss.
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Climate Action Tracker (the other CAT) has a useful analysis of national policies which needs studying.
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Note that constituency boundaries are changing for the next general election. You can find information about your new constituency by postcode or map here. This Wikipedia page has a table of candidates for each seat although it is not very complete yet - can you help complete it?
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Public support is also important, and getting endorsement from other groups and articles in local news and social media groups are also very important. Can you help with this?
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Please email contact@wiltshireclimatealliance.org.uk if you can help.
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WCA steering group / speaker contact details are here.
October 2023 - Green Open Homes; See Though Carbon; Tackling our Politicians.
Retrofit and Green Open Homes
Jeremy Wyatt, Great Green Bedwyn, talked about the journey, trials and triumphs of setting up and running a Green Open Homes event in a local community to promote energy efficient retrofit. This is year 2, building on last years successful start. More information on this year's event HERE. (There was also a Dorset event here.)
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See Through Carbon
Robert Stern talked about the large contribution of SMEs to climate change emissions, and the need to address this in a way that worked for small businesses. He is planning a trial in Wiltshire. We are looking forward to hear more about the assessment methodology he will use.
Lobbying MPs and Candidates
The next general election is looming. Parties are setting out their stalls in various national conferences at this very time. The website Electoral Calculus currently shows Chippenham, Wilts South West and Salisbury seats being quite marginal according to current polling, and overall that a change in government is likely. So now is a key time to be challenging and/or supporting all parties green efforts or lack of them in all constituencies.
Keith and Julian recently attended a Friends of the Earth meeting on the subject, and Julian reported on a recent meeting with a parliamentary candidate.​ Please get in touch via contact@wiltshireclimatealliance.org.uk if you can help with this, in your own constituency or by helping with briefings elsewhere.
September 2023: Climate Urgency: What the Science Predicts and What we Really Need to Do
Robbie, now 25, gave a very clear and concise summary of what the science says about our future and the urgency and importance of broad climate awareness and action.
The IPCC report is bad enough, but its recommendations are conservative because it has to get signed off by politicians in all countries. This year's record temperatures are a wake-up call broadly increasing awareness, but how can this translate into the rapid personal and political change needed to avoid the worst impacts predicted? What actions are really needed?
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June 2023 - Focus Projects 2023 - reducing greenhouse gas emissions
The steering group was looking at how to better facilitate action projects in all important areas. This meant working out what projects members are keen to take a leadership role in and connect them with other interested parties and sources of funding.
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Projects were established on Retrofitting, Tree planting, Energy and developing an Election Wishlist.
May 2023 - Wilts Council; Comunications; Action Projects
Click the section headings below to jump to the relevant section of the video. Slides available here.
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A pre-meeting member presentation from Charlotte Dacre, Ancient Woodlands Inventory Officer at the Wiltshire and Swindon Biological Records Centre, can be viewed here.
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Andrew updates on latest climate news after the IPCC report: sea temperatures anomaly, willingness to adopt different changes
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Richard feedback after The Big One rally in London
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Salisbury Transition City's People in the Park event on Saturday 20th May
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Mel feedback on Parish Councils action day, 23 March
Wiltshire Council’s Climate Strategy Actions
Bill gave a summary of the progress the Council is making. References:
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WC Response presented at the May cabinet meeting
Communications - engaging the public
Julie on working with Wiltshire Council and creating content that is simpler, results focused and shareable, and involving member groups.
Intro to WCA Focus Projects 2023 - reducing greenhouse gas emissions
How to better facilitate action projects in all important areas. This starts with working out what projects members are keen to take a leadership role in and connect them with other interested parties and sources of funding. It is now planned to make this the focus of the next member meeting.​
April 2023 - IPCC/Government; Wilts Review of Businesses; The Big One
Click the section headings below to jump to the relevant section of the video:
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Overview of latest IPCC AR6 Reports: Andrew. The reports are available on the IPCC site, and there's a detailed summary here from Carbon Brief.
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Powering Up Britain, the government's latest proposals: Adam reviews the recent Government announcement, “steps to strengthen Britain's long-term energy security and independence to help deliver clean, prosperous future”. See some comments from Science Media Centre and the TUC. Government announcement here.
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breakout feedback: taking positive action: how individuals, groups and WCA can engage with MPs, councillors (eg via Area Boards) and their local communities.
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Business Review Report: Major businesses in Wiltshire are responsible for over 50% of emissions in the county - Keith, our business lead, walks us through the outcomes of his review and asks the big question, what next? More detail on this WCA page.
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discussion following presentation
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The Big One, London rally for Climate Action, 21-24 April: Bill. This is a rally supported by most of the big UK climate and environment groups, convened by XR in their new role of building mass community engagement: more detail here. Quick WCA survey of when you want to go here.
March 2023 - AGM, Workshop feedback and Updates
This was a meeting packed with information - the video is indexed as usual and you can as usual jump direct to the parts that interest you from the links below (and also in the youtube description):
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AGENDA:​​
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Review of WCA year, with focus on Business engagement, Land Use, Transport and Energy
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London rally 21-24 April - a mass event involving many large environmental organisations, details and registration on this xr page
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Contact details for speakers here.
January 2023 - New Year Priorities
AGENDA:​
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Workshop and social event for members (Chris) – This will take place on Saturday 4th February in Devizes. Details and registration here
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Anniversary Rally 21st February (Bill) – our plans for the rally and how to get involved.
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PR campaigns (Adam/Julie): more details on our media campaigns on solar, onshore wind, and active transport. These will be launching early in the New Year.
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New year resolutions (All) – a very interesting discussion on ideas and priorities for 2023.
contact details for speakers here.
December 2022 - 2023 plans etc
AGENDA:​
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Workshop and social event for members: Plans for a face to face networking and social event for members, on Saturday 4th February in Devizes (Christian). Details and registration here
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PLACE project: CSE have selected WCA to join their 'Planning Locally to Address the Climate Emergency' (PLACE) project. We will be working with CSE to explore how community groups can work more effectively with local councils to build climate emergency action into local plans and planning policies (Adam/Nick)
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PR campaigns: Latest thinking on high profile campaigns early in the New Year on key topics including renewable energy, land use, energy efficiency etc. (Adam)
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Anniversary Rally: Plans for our annual rally at Wiltshire Council's Full Council meeting on 21st February in Trowbridge, marking the 4th anniversary of the Council acknowledging the climate emergency. We will discuss plans for the rally and questions to be asked at the Full Council meeting. (Bill, reported by Adam)
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Business Engagement project: Update as the project hits a key milestone of having analysed 50 local companies' climate action plans. (Keith)
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November 2022: Planning WCA Events for 2023! etc
AGENDA:
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Intro
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Members events 2023! - current thinking on three members events for the coming year, including breakout to discuss - Christian
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Press and communications - Nick/Adam
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National energy policy - Adam
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Climate Change at Town/Parish Councils - Cate
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Member updates, events and AOB - all
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Thinking on 2023 Events:
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The WCA was formed to make our members stronger by working and taking action together and the time has now come for us to plan a few events where we can do just that.
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The steering group is in the early stages of planning three events and would love you to join us so that we can plan these together. The three events we are considering are as follows:
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Workshop for Members – with the main theme being about working together to encourage Wiltshire Council, MPs and the community. We want this to be a useful event for members which will include a social networking evening with live entertainment - January or early February
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Anniversary Rally and Council Questions – This will be a repeat of our annual rally to mark the anniversary of WC’s acknowledgment of the climate emergency. We will coordinate the asking of questions at the council meeting 21st February 2023 – Full council meeting
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A Big Open Event! – We are exploring plans for a big Wiltshire conference / festival later in the year. We need your help to develop plans for this, especially younger people who are currently under-represented and a balance of members from all corners of Wiltshire.
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October 2022: Our Wonderful Member Groups!
AGENDA:
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Our Member Groups - short presentations from member groups to learn from each other and share resources. We heard from: Salisbury, Calne, Bradford-on-Avon, Corsham, Melksham, BWCE, Devizes, Chippenham, Wootton Bassett and Swindon.
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Topic group and other short updates, including:
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Wilts Council delivery plan overview (linked from the WC climate page)
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Climate Dominoes report, Keith (slides)
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CHEESE in Wilts - low-cost thermal image surveys with follow-up​
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Solar Together feedback
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Business Engagement topic group - Keith (slides)
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Wilts MP engagement - have you seen yours?
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Intergroup communication platform - you can join WCA Slack workspace (email contact@wiltshireclimatealliance.org.uk), would people also like an opt-in email group for information exchange? or a whatsapp group?
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August 2022 meeting:
Council Action in Wilts and best case studies from around the UK
Cllr Dr Nick Murry gave this presentation on progress in North Wiltshire, showing how town councils, Neighbourhood Planning and community groups can work together on specific climate issues and net zero policies.
Mike Birkin, Friends of the Earth South-West campaigner, gave this presentation on the best case action from other councils from the FoE/Ashden case studies . There are videos from a launch conference held recently with speakers from many local authorities where you can get more insight. This overview video gives a good summary with many references.
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July 2022 meeting
Tom Bailey, co-founder of climate campaign Take The Jump and based in Bristol, presented his campaign to accelerate climate action by all actors. It complements energy and fossil fuel campaigns, and campaigns to get government and corporations to act, and recognises that a majority of people want to help but many feel powerless. All actors need to come together and address all aspects of the problem to achieve the rapid change we need. The campaign has well-designed colourful media images and a community toolkit may be ready to share hot off the press.
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As Great Big Green Week 24-Sep 2022 approached, led by The Climate Coalition, we also wanted to share member group plans for this year, which could include launching Take The Jump in their community. Many groups are also doing home energy-efficiency events and open green home weekends. And we need to challenge the government to improve commitments ahead of COP27 when the UK hands over the hosting baton to Egypt for the 'Africa COP'.
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Many items for immediate action were included in the Wiltshire Council climate strategy , and we briefly recapped these important items to keep in the spotlight with councillors at area board meetings.
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We then had updates from WCA topic groups and campaigns and most importantly from WCA member groups to share their plans.
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June 2022 meeting
Main topics:
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WCA Youth Conference: feedback from our second Youth Conference, where local MPs and councillors were challenged on climate issues by our youth representatives
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Energy saving: developing ideas for a 'toolkit' to help local groups run events focusing on how local people can save money and reduce their emissions
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Business Engagement Group - Keith Freegard will give an update on progress engaging with major businesses around Wiltshire, challenging them to reduce their emissions
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Progress with other Topic Groups, including sustainable development, land use and transport
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May 2022 meeting
In this meeting, we discussed:
Energy strategy: further discussion on lobbying local and national politicians to take decisive actions on renewables and energy efficiency - including feedback from recent contacts with local MPs
More detail on the Westbury Incinerator: why the Strategic Planning Committee decided to defer the decision and how we can try to get it rejected at the next meeting
Business Engagement Group - Keith Freegard will give an update on progress engaging with major businesses around Wiltshire, challenging them to reduce their emissions
Progress with other Topic Groups, including our work on energy efficiency and retrofit, sustainable development, land use and transport
May AGENDA
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6pm - intro to WCA and informal chance to chat to steering group members and chat about climate issues
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7pm - main meeting - draft agenda
1) Member catch up and idea sharing breakouts
2) Energy strategy and lobbying approach
3) Westbury Incinerator update
4) Business Engagement update
5) Topic group updates
6) Member group updates and feedback
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April 2022 Meeting
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The world has changed in the month since our last members' meeting. The Ukraine crisis has dramatically raised the profile of 'energy independence' through renewables and energy efficiency. Let's work to make sure this finally results in meaningful action at local and national level.
In this meeting, we discussed:
Our latest plans for a Youth Conference - our 2021 conference was a really high profile event and we are hoping for a similar success this year
Our new Business Engagement Group - Keith Freegard will give an update on how we plan to engage with major businesses around Wiltshire and challenge them to act on reducing their emissions - and how members and local member groups can help with this.
Progress with our work on Green Homes and retrofit, including how local member groups can get involved, and how we intend to collaborate with similar groups to WCA in other counties, and also with the Centre for Sustainable Energy
Ideas for improving collaboration between local member groups, including the use of online collaboration tools.
April AGENDA
1) Member catch up and idea sharing breakouts
2) Energy independence
3) Youth conference update
4) Business Engagement update
5) Energy update: green homes/retrofit
6) Member group collaboration - online tools etc
7) Quick fire topic group updates
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March 2022 Meeting and AGM
We’re at that time again, our annual review where we’ll be looking back at what’s happened over the past 12 months and also looking forward to plans for 2022.
AGM -Formal Stuff
As a constituted group we are proposing a number of formal changes to make things work a little better, including some changes to our constitution, as listed in the agenda.
We then need you to re-elect your Steering Group. We would appreciate your help with this.
We put a call out for nominations for the steering group, particularly looking for a more diverse mix including more women and youth members - we will update on this at the meeting.
General Meeting
Topic Groups
After the AGM, we’ll be giving a flavour of how our various WCA Topic Groups have progressed over the past year and where they’re heading in 2022.
We’re also looking at potential working groups to look at the upcoming Local and Transport Plan consultations, an “open green homes” initiative, a youth group meeting with Councillors, and MP engagement.
Member Groups
It’s also a time when our Member groups can give us all a flavour of where they’ve journeyed: always a fascinating insight into community action in the County and wider, and giving an opportunity to
share experience and ideas that others can “borrow” for their local areas.
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Meeting Details
Part 1 -AGM
a) Introduction and overview of 2021
Bill Jarvis, 2021 Convener
Eva McHugh, 2021 Secretary
Christian Lange, 2021 Treasurer
b) Constitution Changes
1) Steering Group numbers to be increased to 12. -VOTE
2) Existing “Convener” name for WCA lead to be changed to “Chair” -VOTE
3) WCA Chair to be a shared role with 2 joint chairs;
held for a 6 monthly staggered basis -VOTE
4) Members to note, interim joint chairs from January 2022
Bill Jarvis and Adam Walton
c) Election of Steering Group members
1) Steering group members re-election -VOTE
2) Joint Chairs March-August 2022 -Adam Walton and Graham Martin -VOTE
3) Joint Chairs September -November 2022 -Graham Martin and Christian Lange -VOTE
4) Treasurer – Tess Gorman -VOTE
5) Secretary -TBA
6) Youth Co-Ordinator -TBA
Part 2 General Meeting
1) Topic Groups Updates
2) Comfort Break
3) Member Group update
4) AOB
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February 2022 Meeting
This one is all about the Council Climate Strategy, where it is, what's been done and what do we do about it.
This month Wiltshire Council Cabinet received the final version of the Climate Strategy along with some background on the key issues that the Council have been working on.
This link takes you to the public reports pack issued to Cabinet. The section on the Climate Strategy starts at page 451. Please don't get put off by the bulk of the document (apologies we haven't extracted this section!).
It is worth looking through as you quickly get a flavour of what the Council has done and where it intends to go.
The conclusion on the public survey, carried out by the Climate team as a part of the Strategy Consultation, is extremely encouraging, as long as the Cabinet have the will to listen and make it happen.
Meeting Focus
So, we'll try to brief you on this, then look at the q&a with Cabinet the day before and also feedback from questions asked directly of Nick Botterill, the Cabinet member charged with responding to the Climate Emergency.
We'll also take a look at a survey carried out by Climate Emergency UK that provides a scorecard of UK Councils Climate Emergency progress. Wiltshire sits no 5 in the rankings!!!
We'll then run through where we are with planning for the next Full Council meeting on 15th February
Meeting details
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Wiltshire Council Strategy
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Highlights and lowlights of the report to Cabinet and the issued strategy
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Feedback from yesterday’s Cabinet meeting
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Feedback from questions through Nick Botterill
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Breakout
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what questions -to Climate Team/Climate Task group/Cabinet lead on Strategy
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what more action should WCA take on Strategy development
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Climate Emergency UK County carbon scorecards –
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debate on scorecards and
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any actions
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15th February -Full Council Meeting
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AGM 2nd March
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January 2022 Meeting
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AGENDA
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Catch up on Climate Strategy progress
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Planning for 1st and 15th February
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WCA SG review of workshop outcomes
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New Year resolutions for WCA and all of us
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Topic group meetings January 2022 -plans
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Next meetings
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