Next Dover Cycle Forum - 17th October

Dover & Deal Cycle Forum
Due to a clash with other meetings, the next local CYCLE FORUM meeting will now be on Wed 17th OCTOBER instead of the previous Wed. - again at 7.30pm - 9pm at Tom Rowland's house (Alfred Square).

The agenda will follow. We'll hope to discuss:
- reports of maintenance issues affecting cyclists (please bring your photos of issues we should take up)
- bikes on trains: flashback to the Olympics, what we said in the Southeastern consultation, and a new grading scheme for cycle facilities at stations
- updates on the Dover District Cycle Strategy,
20sPlenty Campaign and what happened at Dover's Joint Transport Board
Seafront Improvement Project
- Deal Town Team: improving Deal town centre for cyclists - can this help revive the High St?

Ian Killbery earlystart@me.com
Tel: 01304-362569

Community Composting Courses

Launch of Community Composting Training Programme

Deal With It are having a look at this for 2013 - if you would be interest in becoming a 'composting ranger in Deal' please drop us a line at food@dealwithit.org

Free community composting courses for growers of Local Food will soon be taking place across England. The courses which will be running during October and November are aimed at local not for profit organisations, community groups and social enterprises which are growing local fruit and vegetables and which wish to develop new or existing composting activity at their own sites. 

The free training places are limited to ten per course and priority will be given to groups sending more than one person along to all three days of the training so that the new composting practices are well embedded in the trainees’ organisations. The trainees are helped to put their learning into practice with ongoing specific support to individual groups and loans of composting machinery and equipment. Further support is provided in the form of six months’ free membership of the Community Composting Network and information resources and a follow-up local networking and activity workshop at each of the twelve Community Composting Hubs.

The project was set up by the Community Composting Network with funding from the Big Lottery Local Food programme and is part of a plan to establish ‘hubs’ throughout England. These hubs will work together to become the country’s leading provider of composting support.

Deal With It - Food Group meeting

Deal With It's food group 'Grow Deal' meet tonight. If you have never been before these meetings are was jam- packed with favorite recipes still on the vine with their own stories, Rosie's Jam and Tina's preserves, Sarah's flans and discussion on all things foodie.

Tonight we had Sally from www.Fresh-Vegbox.co.uk showing and talking about the local food that is delivered straight to your door (01304 331729). Good discussion on why there is so little demand for organic veg locally.

Stephenie shared with us the plans around the CIC Keen 2Cuisine based at the Chequers Pub on the Ancient Byeway between Deal & Sandwich. - They are doing some posh food classses at present but hope open a wider cookery school soon ... see www.wholeschoolmeals.co.uk/keen2cuisine or ring 01304 362288.

The Deal Volunteer Centre are looking for recipes for  a local recipe book http://www.doverdistrictvolunteering.org.uk/

John from Deal Foodbank talked to us about how the local foodback hopes to launch in Nov with its aim to support people in severe need with three days with food....again had a good discussion on the links from some of our ideas and the needs of people the foodbank are trying to assist. Not as we need reminding ... but what a great and kind community we have here in Deal

Annie and Steve are hoping to organise a Jam making day at one of the schools in Nov one weekend

Sarah outline the plans for a community garden at Deal Railway Station - there will be a gardeners gathering on Sat 13th October at 2:30pm at her house - please contact her at food@dealwithit.org

Ideas on foragering on coastal and country and a great jam community fest

Deal Beach Clean - Weather Warning Sunday

We are due for the Deal Beach Clean on Sunday 23rd at 9am - The met office have issued a severe weather warning. So we think it prudent to cancel - 40mph gusts are going to make 'bag control' a nuisance!

Wendy will be down there if people miss this notice.

Apologies but that's an increasingly unpredictable weather system for you ... hmmm perhaps we need to do something about climate change

Transition Conference 2012 ...

 For the full write up of the transition conference 2012

http://transitionculture.org/2012/09/19/a-write-up-of-the-2012-transition-network-conference-the-best-yet/


Video http://youtu.be/dLAf87n0XnI

Please come along to the East Kent Transition Gathering on 30th Sept 2-6pm Canterbury Christ Church University (St Augustines Hall)

Pines Calyx 1st Energy positive & Carbon neutral building in Europe

Inspiration on our East Kent doorstep: 1st carbon negative and energy positive Conference building in Europe

Pines Calyx eco conference & events centre becomes a ‘carbon negative’ and energy positive building. Environmentalist Sir Crispin Tickell joins celebrations as centre becomes the first conference venue in Europe to achieve this standard.

The multi award-winning eco conference and events centre The Pines Calyx at St. Margaret’s Bay, Kent, is celebrating its achievement in becoming one of the first energy positive and carbon negative buildings in the country.

Sir Crispin Tickell, who is Patron of the Bay Trust, visited the building today to share the landmark moment and to see how the Pines Calyx is leading the way in demonstrating the pathway to sustainable design and living.

The pioneering environmental building has installed cutting edge technology to generate its own power and heat with the capacity to produce more than it consumes – making it the first conference building in Europe to reach beyond ‘zero carbon’ and become carbon negative in energy use.
Through integrating a revolutionary new solar ‘PvT’ panel system (which generates both power and heat) and a water source heat pump, the building now has a capacity to provide all its own energy needs.

Alistair Gould, who is Chairman of The Bay Trust, the building’s owners, said: “From the beginning we have sought to apply every low impact approach to both the construction and use of the building. We’re delighted that this imaginative and economic addition to the building means we have attained the rigorous target we set ourselves when we commenced this project 10 years ago. Most importantly, over the next two years the building will be subject to close scrutiny from the Kent University’s Department of Architecture whose team will be monitoring all aspects of the building’s performance.
The Pines Calyx is at the centre of The Bay Trust’s remarkable visionary programme to create a centre for sustainability education and healthy living. The building features rammed-chalk walls, a living roof, and a wide use of reused and repurposed materials along with state-of-the-art technology to control lighting and other systems. The surrounding nine acres of parkland and woodland is managed and shaped through Permaculture and sustainable land management principles where the grounds both supply the building’s water needs and, through a reed bed system, handle all waste water from the building.

Speaking at the event today, Sir Crispin Tickell said: “I commend the Pines Calyx as something of a model. It shows what you can do if you try. There is a big picture into which this building fits which includes global, national and local responses. People need to see and even touch what can be done. In such circumstances the Pines Calyx is a showcase.”

Alistair Gould added: “This moment is a really important step for us in our journey to explore and share models of how we can live and work happily and healthily within the ecological limits of the planet”.

General Manager of the Pines Calyx, Kevin Francis commented: “We anticipate that conference and event organisers will appreciate not only the first rate facilities of this beautiful building and its stunning surroundings, but also how the significant ‘beyond zero carbon’ status adds further to what is already a unique and inspiring venue.”

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Jerome in Sustainability

http://pinescalyx.co.uk/


http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Energy-efficient-building-St-Margaret-s-named/story-16944787-detail/story.html

Green economy growing in Kent....

From Your Deal :

The green economy in Kent is continuing to expand despite the recession, according to a report.

A review published by environmental think tank Green Alliance revealed the South East is leading the way in environmentally-friendly business, with the industry growing whilst other sectors struggle.

The report, Green Economy: A UK Success Story shows the green economy will have grown by around 40% by 2014, and Kent businesses are reaping the rewards of such a boom.

And the surge in the industry has seen 172 renewable energy jobs created in the 2011-12 financial year.

Liberal Democrat South East MEP Catherine Bearder said: “Too many people think it’s about saving the environment or helping the economy. This shows we can tackle both problems at the same time.

“It’s a real win win. We are in difficult economic times and it is often easy to sideline the green agenda as we attempt to steady the ship.

“But eco business is booming in the region and it is proving to be a fertile ground for green jobs and investment.”

Kent County Council’s cabinet member for regeneration and economic regeneration has welcomed the news, and said the authority was doing all it could to encourage further growth.
read in full here

Grow Deal meeting - 26th Sept

The next DWI meeting will be on Weds 26th Sept at 7:30pm -

This months meeting is our food group 'Grow Deal' : HOME-GROWN AND HEDGEROW 

Celebrating local and fresh food:  A swap-shop evening of preserves, any fruit and veg you gardeners have a glut of, and favourite recipe's - also offering an up-date from local veg box suppliers, cookery classes, plans for a community garden in Deal, garden shares and info on the local foodbank.


All welcome


Dealabilty, Victoria Rd, Deal

Train4Deal - HST submission

Our colleagues at Trains4Deal have just submitted their business case for making the HST service to Deal full time day-long service.

"The new Kent rail franchise comes into operation in 2014. Trains4Deal wants the Government to include a full day and evening High Speed service in the service specification for the new franchise when it is published later this year.

It’s the only way we can be certain of keeping the level of service already enjoyed by every other community.

Kent’s railways are massively subsidised. Everywhere else in the county is featherbedded in comparison.

Deal and Sandwich shouldn’t have to go on being the poor relation. We are dealt with more harshly than every other Kent town on the HS1 network." T4D

Read about it in full here:
http://www.trains4deal.com/uploads/1/2/7/0/12706075/deal_report.pdf

East Kent Transition Gathering 30th Sept

The East Kent Transition Gathering is taking shape - this will be at the Canterbury Christ Church University on the 30th Sept 2:30-6pm.

This is aimed at all those who are involved in making the environment a better place in east Kent not just those of us involved in the transition towns groups like Deal With It.

Please ring Steve 372673 or email press@dealwithit.org for car shares

Deal - Kingsdown - Dover Marine Conservation Zone Film

This short film is taken in the proposed Marine Conservation Zone between Deal & Dover and includes the Kingsdown Butts

For the area covered see http://www.mczmapping.org/

This is still under consultation process - the next stage kicks off in Dec 2012 - but the film gives us all a glimpse what is just off our East Kent coast. For more info see the DEFRA site


Running between Kingsdown, Deal to the north and Dover to the south is an important stretch of rich chalk reef, lying below the famous white cliffs of Dover.

The chalk platform extends across the shore and out to sea, with deep sand-filled gullies between tall ridges of chalk covered in seaweeds, sponges and anemones.

Large crabs and lobsters find shelter within the chalk in recesses, while baby cuttlefish swim around the outcrops, demonstrating their amazing camouflage.

 Further offshore, the chalk gradually becomes covered in coarse sediments. Here, thousands of sandy tubes made by tiny ross worms form significant reefs which can harbour a wonderful diversity of wildlife and support the whole food web.

If you cannot see the embedded Video its here http://youtu.be/gVS-b2usDvw

Next Deal Beach Clean Sunday 23rd Sept

The next Deal Beach Clean will take place on Sunday 23rd Sept - Meet at Deal Pier Entrance at 9am. Bags, Gloves and equipment will be provided.

This one is part of the Marine Conservation Society's National 'Beachwatch Big Weekend'.

For more details please contact Deal Beach Warden Wendy Boorman at BeachClean@dealwithit.org