Core Meeting

The monthly meeting was deferred by a week to 13th June and saw a change of venue to the old Tynedale Council Chambers at Prospect House. The main items we discussed included:

• Hexham Racecourse Wind Turbine
• Bike Maintenance
• Green Camp
• Transition Tynedale Film
• Energy Group
• Eating Festival
• Community Rail Adoption
• Town Plan
• Car Share
• TT Meeting Format
• Website

Hexham Racecourse Wind Turbine

Ross told of how he was invited to talk at a planning meeting but this was postponed a few times following requests from Natural England, deferring the process in an attempt to stop it. On a more positive note, the application has received 31 letters of support which is a vast improvement on the 7 from a few weeks back. The postponement means that there’s still time to submit your letter of support. Please do so by contacting Northumberland County Council Planning Department and quoting application reference 11/03400/RENE

Bike Maintenance

Richard talked a little on the great cycle maintenance day from last month (for more details, see this entry. Thanks to everyone who attended and helped, including John from The Bike Shop in Hexham. Richard and others feel there is a groundswell of cycling in the Tynedale area and we should no doubt have another, similar event. There was general agreement.

Green Camp

Ross mentioned that Lya has been very busy at Minsteracres and so hasn’t been able to organise a Spring Green Camp so far this year. Last year saw two such events where we got the chance to spend a weekend sharing skills and enjoying great food and company. A thoroughly enjoyable event that many of us are keen to repeat. Tim suggested we get a date booked in September and we do the majority of legwork in making it happen.

Transition Tynedale Film

Phil reported back on the screening of the new In Transition film that he held at home with neighbours and TT members. A positive feedback and thought that we should try to get a screening at the Forum Cinema.

Energy Group

The newly reformed Energy Group will be meeting again at Jim’s offices on Friday 22 June, 7.30pm. Please contact info@transitiontynedale.org if you wish to attend and would like directions. Phil talked of how he was working through the paper trail of the Energy Group’s work so far, and how impressive it was. He remarked on how Gillian should be given a lot of credit for all her tremendous efforts.

Eating Festival

We have been approached by the Hexham Community Partnerships to run another apple pressing stall at the Hexham Eating Festival this year. Debbie has done all the necessaries so we’re all planned in.

Community Rail Adoption

Pat, Wendy and Phil talked about their experiences at the meeting held in Stocksfield by ACORP. The idea could be seen as a Big Society shirking of responsibilities by train companies. Or we could see it as a chance to reflect the strength of our community by taking action improve our lives rather than complain about it. Sounds very Transition. The main message from the panel was that the station adoptions that work do so because of a single champion. Could that be you?

Town Plan

Barbara talked passionately of how the Hexham Town Plan consultation is progressing. There will be a Visioning Day to be held from 2-4pm on 24th June at the Queens Hall. This is an open event where you are given the chance to discuss the needs of Hexham and suggest your own ideas.

Although the consulation is commendable, there was widespread disappointment from all TT members involved in the process that sustainability was not very apparent in the agenda and discussions.

Please attend the Visioning Day and make your voice heard.

Car Share

The Car Share group have met with Matthew Lumsden and have discussed the possibility of a 6 month trial of an electric vehicle. Work in progress, so watch this space.

TT Meetings

An open discussion was held on the format of the TT core meetings. The outcome was that we decided to stick to a standard list of core items in each meeting. Additional items could be raised on the night using the ‘agenda on the night’ format that we’ve become used to. But should someone have a topic that they would like to spend more time on, they should notify the core group beforehand.

We also agreed to change the meeting place to Prospect House for the foreseeable future: The Tynedale Room is very pleasant, quiet and free!

Website

Trevor and Pat presented on the state of the existing website, how it could be improved and the proposal to migrate to WordPress.com. And this is the proposal in action, so please do comment below on your experiences so far.