Draft minutes
Agenda for the AGM
- Approve minutes of 2022 AGM (see here)
- Chair’s Report
- Treasurer’s Report (annual accounts are here)
- Election of Officers
- Chair
- Treasurer
- Secretary
- AOB
14 members present in the village hall (including committee) and 2 members joined the meeting remotely via Zoom.
Minutes
Minutes of the 2022 AGM were approved (proposed Penny Kinloch, seconded Graham Sumner)
Chair’s report
Giles Barwell read out his Chair’s report, which can be found below.
Treasurer’s report
The treasurer presented the accounts, which were approved (proposed Chris Warwick, seconded Graham Sumner)
Election of officers
Sustainable Harwell has a Chair, a Treasurer and a Secretary. These posts were all up for re-election.
The secretary, Martin Gibson is standing down, and was thanked for his help and contributions, including his help setting up the group in the first place.
The following officers were elected unanimously:
Chair – Giles Barwell (proposed Graham Sumner, seconded Chris Warwick)
Treasurer – David Marsh (proposed Chris Warwick, seconded Martin Rickets)
Secretary – Penny Kinloch (proposed Martin Gibson, seconded Graham Sumner)
AOB
Chris Bloomer introduced himself as the new chair of HarBug.
End of Formal AGM
Talk by Megan Gimber
What have hedgerows ever done for us? See separate post.
Chair’s Report
The last 12 months have proved to be very productive for the group. We now have over 100 contacts in the village and local area with virtually all of these registered to receive newsletters as well as other regular information.
Group Projects
The tree-planting subgroup have been working hard all year in combination with the Parish Council to progress the new community orchard at the rec.
Using funding provided by The National Lottery Community Fund the orchard has become a reality. Last December the dedicated team of volunteers planted approximately 40 trees in the inner area: a mixture of apple, cherry and espaliered pear trees. They chose varieties that have different fruiting seasons – early, middle and late – to give as long a harvesting period as possible in addition to heritage species that have previously grown locally. All the trees have been sponsored by people living in Harwell or connected to the village. The trees are labelled indicating the variety of fruit together with the name the of the sponsor if requested.
The group had a second planting in February for trees outside the circle of hedging plants. Then seating and tables plus a litterbin were also installed.
In due course there will be a sign board showing a map of the orchard with tree number and variety of trees.
Nearly one year on we are pleased to report that all the trees are looking heathy with many of them producing blossom in the spring and some even producing fruit although for the first year this was removed to help the trees become established.
The cycling and footpaths subgroup
We are still waiting for the roll out of the 20 MPH speed limit and traffic calming measures in the village which the group previously lobbied for. A new consultation on revised traffic calming measures closed recently and we believe the implementation is imminent.
The group is looking to start a new project in the coming 12 months to plant a new hedgerow along the Holloway to Chilton. If successful it would create a valuable wildlife corridor between the two villages. The talk by Megan Gimber tonight will feed into the planning for this opportunity.
Lobbying for new local homes to be more sustainable subgroup
Previously the project team have been advocating that the new homes being built at Valley Park should have solar panels on all suitable roofs as well as heat pumps fitted. We were pleased to learn during the year that at least one of the developers has now committed to this. Together with the Harwell Swifts group we also pushed for more swift boxes to be installed at the site in order to further support the local swift population. We understand this has been committed to also.
Other projects
Following on from talks by two external speakers about car sharing late last year we applied to The Vale Climate Action Fund to support a new project to look into the appetite and options for a car sharing using electric vehicles in the village. The first part of the project, a survey within the village, has just finished with the results available on the Sustainable Harwell website.
Other Initiatives
During summer we once again ran a stall at the Harwell Feast to promote the Community Orchard and Harwell Swifts. There was a high level of interest both with people wanting more information on sponsoring trees at the orchard as well as installing swift boxes at their houses in the village.
The group also started a WhatsApp group this year to aid communication between group members. Anyone can join and if you haven’t yet and would like to you would be very welcome. Just email Sustainable Harwell and we will send you joining instructions.
The group also applied for and received a grant for £5000 from the Low Carbon Hub to support the new solar and battery installations at the Harwellian and Village Hall which you may have noticed.
Other Groups and organisations
As mentioned above, we have been working to promote the activities of the Harwell Swifts group to help them provide greater provision to support the Harwell swift population. You may have noticed the substantial increase in new swift boxes around the village.
The Group continues to be aligned with several other local organisations including the sustainability groups in nearby villages. Although it was curtailed during lockdown there is communication between SH officers and these groups.
We also continue to be a member of Community Action Groups (CAG) Oxfordshire and receive valuable information and support from them. https://www.cagoxfordshire.org.uk/
We are also a member of The Low Carbon Hub in Oxford. As part of the network of 39 other community groups we benefit from the support and opportunities that they can offer in generating renewable energy and energy saving projects.
The group is also a member of Friends of the Earth and receives support from them including group insurance. We continue to work loosely with the Oxford branch.
Group Meetings
We have held a number of group meetings throughout the year and once again, we’ve heard from several expert speakers. In October last year Emily Kerr gave a very interesting talk entitled how sharing our cars within Harwell can save money, benefit the environment and make Harwell streets more pleasant. In January Jenny Figueiredo, the EV Charging Project Manager at Oxfordshire County Council provided an informative talk on planned EV Infrastructure for rural Oxfordshire. In March Keith Willis from KW Solar, based at Harwell Campus, provided great information about solar panels and storage batteries for the home. And tonight Megan Gimber from The People’s Trust for Endangered Species poses the question: What have hedgerows ever done for us? And what we can do for them in return?
Just to remind you that more information about all these talks and the activities and wider work the group is involved with is available on our web site at: https://sustainable-harwell.uk
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow officers in the Group. David Marsh our Treasurer, for keeping the financial activities of the Group in order as well as devoting a lot of time time ensuring the web site is up to date. Also a big thanks to Martin Gibson who played a key role in starting Sustainable Harwell nearly 5 years ago and since then has helped steer group activities over the years. Martin is stepping down as an officer and Group Secretary tonight.
Finally, I would like to say a huge thanks to all the group members who have given up the time to support projects, attend meetings and get involved with other activities throughout the year. Without their help many of the things I have outlined above would not have happened.
Giles Barwell
Chair
Oct 2023
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