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:

• WCA Youth Conference: feedback from our second Youth Conference, where local MPs and councillors were challenged on climate issues by our youth representatives

• 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

• 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 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 
 

1. Wiltshire Council Strategy

   1. Highlights and lowlights of the report to Cabinet and the issued strategy

   2. Feedback from yesterday’s Cabinet meeting

   3. Feedback from questions through Nick Botterill

2. Breakout  

   1. what questions -to Climate Team/Climate Task group/Cabinet lead on Strategy

   2. what more action should WCA take on Strategy development

3. Climate Emergency UK County carbon scorecards –

   1. debate on scorecards and

   2.  any actions

4. 15th February -Full Council Meeting

   1. Update on planning for 15th and Rally

   2. Possible questions in Council Chamber

   3. Plans for the Rally

5. AGM 2nd March

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January 2022 Meeting

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AGENDA

1. Catch up on Climate Strategy progress

2. Planning for 1st and 15th February

3. WCA SG review of workshop outcomes

4. New Year resolutions for WCA and all of us

5. Topic group meetings January 2022 -plans

6. Next meetings

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