STOKE ENVIRONMENT GROUP
Stoke St Gregory, Somerset, England
Search our site with a keyword HERE
Stoke St Gregory Community Plan 2023
New 24th June 2023 - 20 mph? See HERE
Over the last months a group of villagers has been very busy conducting a survey and producing a report on the answers given. This has resulted in a new village, or community plan which will inform decisions by local groups and hopefully show outside funding agencies the perceived needs of our village. See all the documents HERE on the Parish Council website.
Carbon Footprint
This is just one of many topics covered in the survey and plan, but maybe a useful starting point for Stoke Environment Group. One of the survey topics was stated as “What do you think would help you to reduce your own carbon footprint and help restore the area’s natural biodiversity?” An amazing 348, out of the 385 people who took part in the survey, responded to this question, showing the level of interest and concern in our village. But, how can we translate these feelings into action?
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The first step is to let us know who you are. The survey was obviously confidential, so whether you have views on how we should proceed, or just want to be kept informed can you please contact us?
120 people ticked the box - Support and guidance on making my home more energy efficient. We held an event on this subject, which was poorly attended, so were we not looking at the right topics for those 120 people, did we not advertise properly, or would you 120 people like information in a different form? Please let us know. envirostoke@yahoo.com
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Other responses were:
76 - Support and guidance for reducing my use of energy and water
29 -Support and guidance for reducing food waste
190 - Increased opportunities for recycling, reusing and repurposing
115 - Community composting scheme
81 - Provision of more allotments to support local food production
147 - More safe cycle lanes/pedestrian walkways across the village
39 - More electric vehicle charging points
47 - A community car-share scheme
90 - Opportunity to use green community transport
Again, if you ticked any of these boxes, please let us know who you are, and why you did so.
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Stoke Environment Group has been looking at and tackling some of these issues already and will be following up on more of them. But please don’t be shy. All those ticks in boxes mean that you care. We just need to get together to see what we can do. If we don’t, then the good work of the Village Survey Group might be wasted.
We have had the following response from one of the members of the Stoke Environment steering group:
I can and have been tackling most of these in the Round Robin. The telephone box project will tick the recycling nicely. We can put communal compost heaps in the orchard as discussed. Footpaths already in place with Sarah's wonderful team. The community transport could be trickier for us to undertake.
I'm sure there are many other ways we can fulfil these briefs in the future - and are doing so now. The challenge is to make these changes attractive and simple and reach as many people as possible. A lot of people are anxious about changing habits. It's our role, as I see it, to make the transitions look as normal as possible.
The Enviro Fair is our biggest advertisement - these categories in the plan can be used as a guide as to who and what we employ next year to put the messages and information across.
I also suggest we have an advisory team that people could access on all subjects. Perhaps this could be done on the website? Readers invited to pose questions which are passed onto the relevant expert or practitioner to reply? Sort of enviro agony aunt/uncle!!
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There were no other responses. Do we just continue doing what we are doing or is there something specific we can contribute to the Village Plan?
20 mph - Is it a Good Idea for Stoke? - New 24th June 2023
We've now got used to travelling through Curry at 20 miles per hour. Are we ready for the same thing in Stoke? England is way behind the rest of the UK in terms of slowing down traffic in residential areas, but we don't have to wait for the Westminster government to get its finger out. But, we always have the same issue. Lots of people ticked the box, but who are you? Who will come forward and make a contribution to a safer Stoke? Would you be willing to pledge to travelling at less than 20 mph through the village? If 50 people committed to that it would slow everybody else down. Please get in touch envirostoke@yahoo.com
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Start by having a look at the 20's Plenty site HERE
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Surely there is someone around who wants this to happen?