EAG Meeting 25th March 2024
Minutes of the Environmental Action Group meeting held on 25th March 2024
LITTLE EATON PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Environmental Action working group of Little Eaton Parish Council held on
Monday 25th March 2024 at Little Eaton Village Hall.
PRESENT: Parish Councillor C Holmes, Parish Councillor J Reid, S Cope, S Stone, S Last, P Watson, B Shore, L Aspden,
23/050 To receive apologies for absence.
Apologies received from A Jennison, K Linge, J Kaye-Allan
23/051 To Receive Declaration of Members Interests and approve requests for dispensations from members on matters in which they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest” or similar.
L Aspden works for Natural England and is also part of the Little Eaton Greenway project. Attendance at meetings of the environmental action working group is in a personal capacity.
23/052 To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 2nd February 2024
Everyone agreed the minutes.
23/053 Actions arising from the minutes
23/006 and 23/007 Community recycling
J Reid has asked the new pharmacy owners to see if they can recycle blister packs. Noted that a GP group who can turn blister packs into plastic boards exists in Hull.
Discussed seeking village champions for recycling – perhaps collect a bag from the GP and then drop off with an appropriate company that recycles.
Action: put something in the newsletter to see if people would volunteer to drop off bags of hard to recycle items – eg. at Superdrug.
Phone box recycling was discussed including the fact that the post locker at the co-op can be used to send off recycling. In order to do so, need a TerraCycle account.
J Reid has been looking at Paulas choice website: https://www.paulaschoice.co.uk/terracycle with the ability to recycle all empty beauty packaging until 25th May. This is one of various options, but it was noted that companies often only allow recycling for limited periods of time.
Potential hard to recycle items that could be taken into account generally and within the phone box were as follows:
Pens to school in Heanor (Annie)
Contact lens at Boots
Specsavers – recycled glasses
Razors or heads – via post to TerraCycle at the co-op
Long life drinks bottles/lunch boxes – can’t put in blue bin – via post to TerraCycle at the co-op
Printer cartridges and light bulbs -> Currys
Vape collector was at the co-op, as was batteries. Not sure if Vape collector still there.
Coffee pods.
New Inn / Queens Head – shoes and clothes recycling
Refills on the road was referenced as well as a way of avoiding packaging: https://www.refillsontheroad.com/
23/012 Coronation Copse / Millenium Way update
Fox will continue with the contract and will be adding a border to both sides of millennium way grass. Need to locate someone to bail the central grass at the start of September as the cost obtained so far is high (perhaps one of the local farmers). Sue said that she has a contact who may be able to take on the bailing.
Cultivation license information has been received. The Garden Centre side of Millennium way with no longer be mown and the hope is that they will mow it.
Severn Trent has tidied up the land following the recent flooding – it is not clear if they are re-seeding it -could smooth over soil and we do our own seed. Chopped off tree branches will be tidied up too.
We will come back to tree planting along the meadow at a later date, and initially we will start to mow a path along it. Parish Council are looking to do that themselves with a mower being located. Need to bear in mind impact of warmer wetter Winter’s in the UK as some native trees cannot cope so well due to the weather.
Contracts for Croft corner and other areas are under discussion too.
The church yard maintenance plan has required a policy rewrite. A tree survey is being carried out and a bat survey is being done too. Remedi (young offenders) are likely to support with the Church Yard. A new gardener is coming in to look after it.
It was noted that compost bins at the back of the church are not usable.
Will grow like grass like Millenium way and mow a border through to any visited graves. Memorial gardens will be kept. Cut will take place at the start of the year, then a Summer cut and an Autumn cut.
Thinking about a volunteer group to go and carry out a cleanup of the church yard – this will be hard work but then easier to manage the rewild project. Needs to be controlled rewilding. Local native trees will be chosen to replace those that were lost, and there may be the need to remove one tree within that conservation area.
A meet up has taken place with our equivalent group in Duffield – talked about an orchard over there. Information being sent to us, and links made regarding looking into the establishment of a Repair Café.
Communication is needed about the churchyard and
A plan has been written and sent to the church representatives.
23/014 Phone box recycling hub
Hasn’t been measured yet. Action: Pete/James to go and look at, flooring may need sorting.
Need to think about reach to put items into recycling containers and consider, for example, a tall thin box at the bottom, Ikea sized boxes on the shelves.
Risk is that box fills too quickly, people leave bags of non-requested items in the box.
23/043 Communication calendar
Complete and link available via the Parish Council website.
23/047 Environment Act 2021 – Consideration of a biodiversity action strategy and
23/054 Local Nature Recovery Strategy
The strategy has been formally adopted by Little Eaton Parish Council and are asking this sub-group to influence direction. Overall aim is an ongoing net gain in biodiversity.
Initial discussion took place about this.
The aim is to create local nature recovery strategies across counties to support the above – with impacts on health and wellbeing benefits, and an increase in biodiversity. Is being run via Derbyshire County Council with broad consultation expected by March 25 and reviewed every 5 years. Strategy is around encouraging community engagement not just the normal groups involved in this.
Derbyshire are thinking about basing it on landscape character ie the aim is that landscape in an area continues to resemble how it traditionally was and so enables areas to stay unique. Takes into account economic value, tourism etc and can also influence planning decisions. Should be an opportunity to influence them as a Parish Council and as individuals.
Environmental action group to take a look at in the next meeting. Can factor in churchyard direction, find out what we have, what is missing species wise etc.
To protect nature, we need to engage with Erewash Council re: spraying glyphosate in the village and being more controlled re: where they spray.
Next meeting, we will spend more time on the environment act as didn’t get chance to fully cover. Claire will send it to us, and we will discuss it at the next meeting.
23/055 Litter picking request from resident
Asked if we could ensure we pick as well at the Bell and Harp end of the village as that area tends to get missed.
Useful links referenced during the meeting:
https://naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2023/11/27/life-in-the-ravines-planting-for-the-future/
See also: draft Little Eaton Parish Council Biodiversity policy and Draft Model biodiversity model action plan sent out after the meeting.
23/056 Date of next meeting and Agenda Items
Next meeting is Wednesday 8th May at 7:00pm in the Heritage Room at Little Eaton Village Hall. This should also enable A Jennison to attend.
Agenda items should be sent to Councillor C Holmes by 29th April. Main focus will be on the environment act.
Next dates for litter picking:
Date Time Start Location Volunteers leading
19th May 3pm Bottom of Windy Lane Claire
7th July 10am St Peter’s Park TBC
