> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://wiki.greatcollaboration.uk/knowledgebase/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://wiki.greatcollaboration.uk/knowledgebase/events/banter-sessions-inc-table-of-all-sessions/banter-125-24jun26-effective-actions-against-climate-change.md). # Banter 125: 24Jun26 Effective Actions against Climate Change {% embed url="" %} ## Video Timeline: 00:00 - 29:52 Presentation (with feedback)\ 29:52 - 53:44(end) Q & A *** ### Presentation - Effective Actions against Climate Change: {% embed url="" %} Please note that you are welcome to download this file: click on the Book icon (second from right on bottom line), and click on 'Download a Copy'. It should go to your Downloads folder. There is a markdown copy listed at the bottom of the page *** ### Meeting Summary for Effective Actions against Climate Change Jun 24, 2026 11:54 AM London ID: 834 5460 8536 ### Quick recap Graham presented a climate action presentation focused on effective carbon reduction strategies, emphasizing that while many familiar actions like tree planting are important, some lesser-known approaches like soil carbon storage and reduced mowing frequency can have greater impact. The discussion revealed significant practical challenges, with Emma sharing details about managing 120 acres of common land in North Hampshire that requires £20,000 annual management to prevent scrub from taking over, and Jane describing a local example of valuable scrub habitat that residents want to destroy. Participants discussed specific challenges including tree selection for current climate conditions, the difficulty of managing gorse and other vegetation, and the importance of educating both residents and farmers about effective climate-friendly practices. The conversation also covered how parish and town councils can influence climate action through neighbourhood plans, retrofitting requirements, and encouraging community engagement with environmental initiatives. ### Next steps #### Emma * Add to the chat the definition and description of "scrub" as it relates to their commons and SSSI management. #### Garry * Post in the chat the recommendation about white beam trees as a successful species for local climate conditions. #### Graham * Look up and provide a clear definition of "scrub" for Tristram and the group. * Investigate and report back on how climate change mitigation can be effectively incorporated into neighbourhood plans, in response to David's question. #### Penny * Add the Weymouth environmental targets document (or relevant link/reference) to the chat for others to review as an example for neighbourhood plans and soil standards. #### Collaboration * All relevant parish/town councils and community groups: Consider engaging local expert groups (e.g., Wildlife Trusts, Natural England) for site-specific advice on land management and soil health, as suggested by Emma and Jane. * All relevant parish/town councils and community groups: Review and update messaging/education for residents about the value of "untidy" or wild land for carbon storage and biodiversity, incorporating local examples and management needs. * All relevant parish/town councils and community groups: Where appropriate, encourage and support residents in adopting wildlife-friendly gardening practices (e.g., no-dig, composting, native planting) as highlighted by Jane and Penny. * All relevant parish/town councils and community groups: Review and, where possible, adapt management of allotments to support soil carbon retention and biodiversity, referencing examples such as Charles Dowding's no-dig approach (Penny). * All relevant parish/town councils and community groups: Consider referencing the Great Collaboration website and its resources for local climate action commitments and reporting, as suggested by Graham. ### Summary #### Climate Action Impact Strategies Graham presented on climate action strategies, focusing on the impact principle where efforts should prioritize actions with the largest environmental impact rather than those with high public visibility. He discussed a climate impact pyramid covering individual actions, parish council efforts, community organizations, and nature recovery initiatives. The presentation highlighted surprising findings about soil carbon storage being the biggest carbon container, with reduced mowing and scrub habitats being more effective than tree planting for carbon sequestration in the short term. #### Scrub Land Management Discussion The group discussed the definition and management of scrub land, with Jane sharing her experience of a natural area near Lydney that contains wildlife including orchids but needs management to balance wildlife preservation with human access. Graham emphasized the educational role of parish councils in helping people understand that untidy land can be beneficial for carbon storage and wildlife. The discussion included practical considerations about tree planting, with Garry recommending whitebeam as a successful local tree species, while Emma noted that even managed common land requires significant investment and that whitebeams can pose safety concerns due to their tendency to drop large branches. #### Heathland Management and Conservation Practices The group discussed managing scrub and heathland, with Emma explaining that their common land consists of emergent silver birch and gorse that requires significant management including cutting and burning several acres of gorse annually to maintain wildlife corridors and fire breaks. Emma described their volunteer working party system involving 25 volunteers that saved approximately £23,000 worth of work through chainsaw training and similar skills. The discussion covered carbon storage practices, with Graham emphasizing the importance of preserving existing habitats rather than replacing them, and Emma explaining their management constraints including legislation requiring removal of vegetation from nutrient-poor heathland and coordination with Natural England for a 10-year management plan. #### Gorse Disposal and Carbon Solutions The group discussed challenges with gorse disposal in Hants, where residents have complained about smoke from burning. Emma explained that while hand-cutting and burning produces less smoke than mechanical methods, transportation of the gorse to processing equipment remains difficult due to the 3-acre area requiring significant manpower. Graham presented information about modern timber construction techniques, including tall wooden buildings in Trondheim, Norway, and emphasized the importance of protecting mature habitats and restoring wetlands for carbon capture. The conversation ended with a reminder about available carbon reduction activities listed on the Great Collaboration website. #### Riverbank Restoration Strategies Discussion Frank discussed additional planting strategies including willow and alder for riverbank restoration and native irises for developers' SUDS systems. He highlighted challenges with council wildflower meadows requiring cut and collect methods and the need to educate the public about realistic wildflower areas. Frank also mentioned successful farmer initiatives including mixed livestock grazing and beaver introduction, while noting that farmers implementing sustainable practices face opposition from traditional farmers. #### Farmer Education on Carbon Sequestration Frank shared an example of successfully preventing a farmer from planting trees by demonstrating the value of fungi crops in carbon sequestration, highlighting that while trees are beneficial, they're not the only way to support biodiversity. Graham emphasized the importance of education in changing farmer perspectives, while Sue discussed challenges in consistent messaging about native planting and soil care, noting progress in shifting from no-mow to slow-mow approaches. The discussion concluded with Sue asking how councils can effectively communicate soil health information to residents. #### Soil Quality and Biodiversity Initiatives The group discussed soil quality and biodiversity initiatives. Emma suggested consulting local experts like Wildlife Trusts or Natural England for advice on managing land, while Jane mentioned having already sought advice. Sue shared that their town council purchased biodiversity data for £80, though noted the SSSIs haven't been inspected in 20 years and the data is outdated. David discussed challenges for an urban parish with no land, highlighting the importance of retrofitting social housing and encouraging solar panels and heat pumps, while also mentioning their nature park and local group Nature in the Lees. #### Neighbourhood Climate Initiatives Discussion The group discussed how small-scale neighbourhood initiatives could help mitigate climate change. Jane suggested encouraging individual households to create wildlife-friendly gardens using no-dig methods and composting, which could have a significant impact across England if widely adopted. Andrew then provided guidance on neighborhood plans, emphasizing the importance of identifying sufficient building areas to leverage control over development. #### Neighbourhood Planning and Environmental Policies The group discussed neighbourhood planning and environmental policies, with Andrew suggesting that an environment manual could help address specific matters that cannot be directly included in a plan. Frank emphasized the importance of reaching out to wealthier individuals who can afford to make environmental changes, rather than focusing only on those struggling with fuel poverty. Penny shared insights about Weymouth's neighborhood plan experience and mentioned an upcoming scrutiny of allotments, expressing interest in learning from other parish approaches to allotment management. The conversation ended with brief discussions about red kites in the area and technical issues with the call. *** #### Chat: 00:31:22 Penny Quilter: Need Rights to Roam like Scotland \ 00:33:08 David Newman: How about managing land through a neigbhourhood plan? \ 00:35:39 Penny Quilter: Whitebeams doing well \ 00:36:10 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Trees in Corsham - we are currently finding that Whitebeams in particular are coping particularly well with the current conditions. \ 00:38:06 Penny Quilter: Do goats eat Gorse - being used to clear allotments in some places \ 00:38:41 Emma Stephens: we have 16 dexter cattle who eat young gorse. I suspevt goats would eat it bu tthey probably eat a lot more as well. \ 00:38:59 Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: Does anyone know of an effective ways of controlling thistles in wilderness areas? RHS says chop them every mid-July. Big job \ 00:39:28 Jane Carr: Reacted to "we have 16 dexter ca..." with 😊 \ 00:43:15 Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: We are supporting a good variety of rare bees. All our clippings (usually once a year but sometimes more is left to decay in one or two corners - very good heaps for reptiles and hedgehoogs etc but we stor it dry and is left fairly open by blackthorn clippings etc \ 00:46:09 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: At our nature area we created a dead hedge in one corner where we put the wildflower meadow grass cuttings. All collected by hand by volunteers. \ 00:46:21 Jane Carr: Reacted to "We are supporting a ..." with 👍 \ 00:48:09 David Newman: It is better to burn wood than oil or gas. Hence the way few households in Kenya need gas or fuel oil for cooking, using more efficient stoves. \ 00:55:07 Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: Reacted to "At our nature area w\..." with 👍
### 00:56:39 Frank Deas, Killearn: this is a Scottish organisation but similar may exist down south and works for areas like memorial gardens where wilderness would never be acceptable
01:00:11 Jane Carr: Reacted to "..." with 💚 \ 01:00:35 Frank Deas, Killearn: To paraphrase the lemon aphorism "If your scrub gives you brambles make bramble jelly" better still twin your scrub with a community orchard and make apple and bramble jelly. \ 01:02:01 Jane Carr: Replying to "To paraphrase the le..." Sadly, the patch I'm talking about is on an old tip so I wouldn't want to eat anything from it ..... :)
01:02:09 Frank Deas, Killearn: Community thermal imaging schemes can be quite small/local and good for motivating people to become involved - starting with draught busters but right up to full scale retrofit \ 01:03:28 David Newman: A garden hedge competition with prizes? \ 01:05:30 Graham Stoddart-Stones: No dig gardening by Charles Dowding \ 01:06:13 Jane Carr: Reacted to "Community thermal im..." with 💚 \ 01:06:18 Jane Carr: Reacted to "A garden hedge compe..." with 💚 \ 01:06:24 Jane Carr: Reacted to "No dig gardening by ..." with 💚
### 01:07:56 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Corsham local plan with environment section (3) [sppnp-corsham-neighbourhood-plan-made.pdf](sppnp-corsham-neighbourhood-plan-made.pdfhttps://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/media/548/Corsham-Neighbourhood-Plan/pdf/sppnp-corsham-neighbourhood-plan-made.pdf?m=1574688239180)
01:08:04 Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Thanks everyone but I must dash \ 01:08:33 Jane Carr: Reacted to "Corsham local plan w\..." with 👍
### 01:09:45 Frank Deas, Killearn: a couple of really good local farms that we try and champion up here. worth finding who your local farm role models are - 01:09:49 Frank Deas, Killearn: 01:11:14 Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: An environment manual for the village is a great help. You can put very specific matters in it which cant go into a plan - but which gives developers and planning officers guidance about whet the plan actually means 01:11:39 Jane Carr: Reacted to "An environment manua..." with 💚
### 01:12:35 Penny Quilter: [Weymouth Neighbourhood plan ](https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/w/weymouth-neighbourhood-plan?p_l_back_url=%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DWeymouth%2BNeighbourhood) *** #### Audiotranscript: 135 \ 00:19:18.890 --> 00:19:24.289 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: What I'm going to try and show today is that I think most people are on track for 136 \ 00:19:24.750 --> 00:19:38.589 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: doing the best that they can for climate action, climate change. But I think there are some actions which are less well known about than others, even though they're much more effective. So we're going to discuss today 137 \ 00:19:38.950 --> 00:19:47.209 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: what we can do about that. So I'm going to go over the standards, just to make sure that everyone sees them as the standard actions to be taken. 138 \ 00:19:47.460 --> 00:19:50.230 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And hopefully this is a useful list, if nothing else. 139 \ 00:19:50.820 --> 00:19:52.539 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And then… 140 \ 00:19:52.850 --> 00:20:06.359 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: we'll go and talk about what are the most effective actions, where we're going to focus on the impact, not the sort of public visibility that is much more appealing to people. So, lots of people like planting trees, but planting trees is not necessarily 141 \ 00:20:06.500 --> 00:20:09.469 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: The most effective way of combating climate change. 142 \ 00:20:09.720 --> 00:20:11.640 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: At least not for another 100 years. 143 \ 00:20:12.690 --> 00:20:24.469 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, we're going to follow what's known as the impact principle. I think what is the largest impact of what we're doing? Because a few actions simply produce most of the emission reductions that we can get around. 144 \ 00:20:25.360 --> 00:20:27.400 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, the… 145 \ 00:20:28.180 --> 00:20:39.960 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Following pictures are designed along this pyramid design, where the top of the pyramid, or the inverted pyramid, is where you want to spend the most amount of effort and time. 146 \ 00:20:40.130 --> 00:20:52.379 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: in achieving things, and I don't think there are any great surprises here. The middle of the pyramid will show that medium actions, and the bottom bit is the bit that don't really deliver as much as one could be doing. 147 \ 00:20:53.520 --> 00:21:00.790 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, we're going to talk about individuals, parishion Town Councils, community organisations, and nature recovery. 148 \ 00:21:01.430 --> 00:21:02.670 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And the… 149 \ 00:21:02.820 --> 00:21:13.029 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Climate impact pyramid. I'm sorry about the lack of color on the left-hand side, I just didn't have the time to divide the pyramid into three sections, but the high-impact actions 150 \ 00:21:14.930 --> 00:21:21.720 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: all pretty well known, and we're talking about individuals here, so… fight… Much less often. 151 \ 00:21:22.090 --> 00:21:29.589 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: In-store heat pumps and anything like solar energy is, much to my surprise, considered to be a medium impact. 152 \ 00:21:29.860 --> 00:21:33.059 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: But insulation is the greatest impact. 153 \ 00:21:33.180 --> 00:21:37.329 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Obviously, reducing your car use unless you have an electric vehicle. 154 \ 00:21:37.450 --> 00:21:45.180 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And, as everyone knows who's seen the People's Emergency Briefing, you're going to have to switch to a plant-rich diet. 155 \ 00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:47.199 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: If we're all going to survive. 156 \ 00:21:47.400 --> 00:21:53.800 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, fewer cows for eating, Greens. 157 \ 00:21:54.720 --> 00:21:56.660 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: No surprises there, really. 158 \ 00:21:57.070 --> 00:22:11.510 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Parish councils, I didn't come up with a pyramid for them, because clearly it's felt that the major influence of parish councils is to influence people's thinking, to bring together people, show people what can be done. 159 \ 00:22:11.660 --> 00:22:19.189 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And then help manage the local land that belongs to the parish, or its community land, or whatever. 160 \ 00:22:19.580 --> 00:22:28.780 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: But, a lot of the actions you're going to be seeing are put together better by community organizations, who are often part of 161 \ 00:22:29.280 --> 00:22:31.760 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Linked with parish councils. 162 \ 00:22:32.420 --> 00:22:37.530 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: But they're the ones who seem to get the volunteers moving more effectively. 163 \ 00:22:37.880 --> 00:22:40.100 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And the big impact for them is 164 \ 00:22:40.300 --> 00:22:53.090 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: getting people to change their social norms. So, you know, just the habit of changing from reducing their car use to increasing the number of public transport trips they take, getting people involved. 165 \ 00:22:53.740 --> 00:22:55.339 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: All those sorts of things. 166 \ 00:22:55.710 --> 00:23:01.339 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: really where… The community organisations can really play a part. 167 \ 00:23:04.140 --> 00:23:20.990 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And then, having gone through those three types of individuals, parish councils, and community organisations, we're going to spend a lot of time talking about the nature recovery period, or pyramid, I'm sorry, because this is where I found, for me, the highest number of surprises. 168 \ 00:23:22.540 --> 00:23:37.549 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, we're all involved, I'm sure, or we know about rewilding and wetlands and ponds. What I hadn't realized, which I'll get to in a second, is that the biggest container of carbon around is the soil itself. 169 \ 00:23:39.670 --> 00:23:50.410 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Reduced mowing has the impact on not only reducing our costs and putting much less toxic fumes from tractors and motor mowers. 170 \ 00:23:50.840 --> 00:23:58.660 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: But you also get a double whammy of, increasing the the wilding. 171 \ 00:23:59.720 --> 00:24:00.560 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So… 172 \ 00:24:01.850 --> 00:24:09.919 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Hedges and wildflowers and habitat connectivity. I think we all know about making, sort of, holes in your fence for hedgehogs. 173 \ 00:24:10.540 --> 00:24:13.130 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And there's a big… 174 \ 00:24:13.540 --> 00:24:21.159 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: government-funded program on at the moment to encourage more hedgerows to be increased. So if any of you are farm owners or landowners. 175 \ 00:24:21.530 --> 00:24:25.229 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Then you can get paid to increase your hedgerows. 176 \ 00:24:27.210 --> 00:24:37.759 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And, as we're all probably are aware, the fancy part of gardening, the ornamental planting and the beautiful formal lawns, don't have a very large impact upon climate. 177 \ 00:24:39.810 --> 00:24:47.360 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So… It's this statement that really bothered or surprised me. It's the soil itself 178 \ 00:24:47.620 --> 00:24:50.640 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Beneath the plants that is storing the carbon. 179 \ 00:24:51.320 --> 00:24:57.150 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And, as a general rule, a mature oak can contain several tons of carbon, but 180 \ 00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:09.930 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: a meadow, or wetland, or a scrub habitat can store even more over time, and often does so more reliably. So I'm sorry to just be reading this out, but I thought it was a point worth mentioning. 181 \ 00:25:12.320 --> 00:25:21.409 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So then you come on to the question of, if you're going to be following the wilding or the tree planting, what are you going to do? What are the best ones? 182 \ 00:25:21.950 --> 00:25:36.200 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, I'm not going to read them all out, I'll just leave them here, and of course, this presentation will be put up on the knowledge base for anybody who wants to download it, or to make a note of these particular species. 183 \ 00:25:37.060 --> 00:25:43.249 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: The second point was the one that, again, surprised me, that many ecologists now regard scrub. 184 \ 00:25:43.330 --> 00:25:57.659 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: It's one of our most undervalued habitats, because these are largely hedgerows and places do a lot about building soil carbon, supporting the insects and the birds, resilient to storms, which sounds very useful. 185 \ 00:25:58.210 --> 00:26:02.890 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And can dip… develop naturally. 186 \ 00:26:03.670 --> 00:26:04.609 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: You bet. 187 \ 00:26:05.410 --> 00:26:12.810 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: I thought the bottom line was also a surprise to me, that allowing scrub succession could be more effective than cutting rows of trees. 188 \ 00:26:12.970 --> 00:26:30.290 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And of course, it's a lot quicker, you know, your scrubs are going to get going straight away, and the plants will be growing quickly, whereas the trees are going to take 100 years or so before they become really effective at having locked up carbon. I mean, they've obviously been locking up carbon during that time. 189 \ 00:26:31.010 --> 00:26:35.270 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: But, I think Tristam has a feeling about the first 20 years. 190 \ 00:26:35.460 --> 00:26:40.909 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: When you're not doing as much as they will be doing during the next 20 or 40 years. 191 \ 00:26:42.900 --> 00:26:45.540 \ tristram cary: And what's, what's the definition of scrub? 192 \ 00:26:45.540 --> 00:26:46.080 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Broke. 193 \ 00:26:48.630 --> 00:26:55.300 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: That's a great question. It's, it's like one of those things, you know it when you see it, don't you? But, 194 \ 00:26:56.650 --> 00:26:59.679 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: I should think Heathland? Would that work? 195 \ 00:27:00.390 --> 00:27:08.770 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: It's a good question. I'll look it up for you, Tristan, because I don't actually… haven't thought about doing that definition. 196 \ 00:27:08.770 --> 00:27:14.719 \ Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: There is one very quick definition, Tristram. It's what everybody else wants to destroy. 197 \ 00:27:17.030 --> 00:27:20.550 \ Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: Really, it is. We have a real problem over this in the village. 198 \ 00:27:20.830 --> 00:27:21.680 \ tristram cary: Good. 199 \ 00:27:22.310 --> 00:27:30.499 \ Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: I've even had a bit of scrub near my house, destroyed by the man who comes around and squirts weed killer over everything. 200 \ 00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:31.770 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Ouch. 201 \ 00:27:33.790 --> 00:27:34.810 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Dizzy. 202 \ 00:27:36.620 --> 00:27:39.279 \ tristram cary: Jane… Graham, Jane wants to make a comment. 203 \ 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:42.280 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: She wants to help. 204 \ 00:27:42.670 --> 00:27:50.740 \ Jane Carr: I'm in Lidney, and if you go over the A48 south of Lydney, there's where the old Lydney dump used to be. 205 \ 00:27:50.920 --> 00:28:00.639 \ Jane Carr: And that is a fine example of scrub. It's just… it's just absolutely been left, because it was the dump it stopped. 206 \ 00:28:02.700 --> 00:28:12.109 \ Jane Carr: And now it's got… Short, shrubby trees, brambles underground, you know, low down, it's… 207 \ 00:28:12.290 --> 00:28:21.340 \ Jane Carr: Areas of grass where the rabbits eat the grass, it's… Wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. 208 \ 00:28:22.130 --> 00:28:24.990 \ Jane Carr: And yes, and people want to destroy it. 209 \ 00:28:26.280 --> 00:28:31.960 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Because it doesn't look good, because it doesn't feel good, or the rambles upset you? 210 \ 00:28:32.450 --> 00:28:36.120 \ Jane Carr: Nothing upsets me, I think it's wonderful. 211 \ 00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:46.010 \ Jane Carr: And there are, orchids in there, just orchids galore. I think one of the biggest troubles here is that, yes. 212 \ 00:28:46.630 --> 00:28:58.880 \ Jane Carr: to… I love that area. I call it Teasel Park because it was one of the first few plants that grew were teasels, so it was just like there were teasel everywhere. 213 \ 00:28:59.100 --> 00:29:09.330 \ Jane Carr: And I used to be on the, Lidney Town Council, and, I think it's because… 214 \ 00:29:10.230 --> 00:29:27.100 \ Jane Carr: It could be used. There's this thing that says that here's this piece of land, we could use it for something. And so, there was a group of, cyclists wanted to go in and build one of these enormous, 215 \ 00:29:27.280 --> 00:29:32.080 \ Jane Carr: Racing tracks up on… up on stilts, so that it's like a 216 \ 00:29:32.520 --> 00:29:40.970 \ Jane Carr: You know, you know, going up and down and, and everything. But we, we managed, we managed to knock that on the head. 217 \ 00:29:41.140 --> 00:29:44.749 \ Jane Carr: I think the trouble is, is that… 218 \ 00:29:45.760 --> 00:29:53.579 \ Jane Carr: If it's… what we really need is we need something that's good for wildlife, but can also be good for human beings. 219 \ 00:29:53.760 --> 00:30:06.920 \ Jane Carr: And in which case, some management is needed. So this area that used to have a lot of grassland, most of the grassland is now covered in brambles. 220 \ 00:30:07.040 --> 00:30:11.900 \ Jane Carr: There's… there's Cornus, there's Hawthorne, there's… 221 \ 00:30:12.230 --> 00:30:24.120 \ Jane Carr: So many trees coming, but unless we keep the brambles back slightly, unless we make some kind of path so that we can walk through it… 222 \ 00:30:24.230 --> 00:30:31.680 \ Jane Carr: It's just going to be an impenetrable thing, which is wonderful for wildlife, but… It… 223 \ 00:30:32.550 --> 00:30:36.570 \ Jane Carr: You know, one of the… One of the… 224 \ 00:30:37.210 --> 00:30:51.309 \ Jane Carr: One of the things about land that we should be doing is it's not just for wildlife, it's also for our own mental, sanity to have a place where we can go that is wild, that's not manicured, that's… 225 \ 00:30:51.430 --> 00:30:57.390 \ Jane Carr: green and… and… And we can see the wildlife. 226 \ 00:30:57.780 --> 00:31:04.319 \ Jane Carr: So, I, it's, it's, it's… it's a bit of a… it's a bit of a conundrum, really. 227 \ 00:31:05.480 --> 00:31:14.700 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well, it's a wonderful contrast with, sort of, the stately homes, where you go and see everything manicured and beautiful and gorgeous, but not an animal to be seen. 228 \ 00:31:14.700 --> 00:31:15.310 \ Jane Carr: Absolutely. 229 \ 00:31:15.780 --> 00:31:16.460 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And then… 230 \ 00:31:16.460 --> 00:31:17.020 \ Jane Carr: be it. 231 \ 00:31:17.690 --> 00:31:18.410 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So I think… 232 \ 00:31:18.410 --> 00:31:23.919 \ Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: Well, what you need is a nightingale. We're trying to get a nightingale on ours, that will turn it. 233 \ 00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:30.350 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Or it'll certainly be romantic, you know? 234 \ 00:31:30.350 --> 00:31:34.539 \ Jane Carr: If you look at MEP and places like that, they're still managed. 235 \ 00:31:34.770 --> 00:31:41.280 \ Jane Carr: they've still… they've put, I think one of the big things for NEP is the amount of, 236 \ 00:31:43.370 --> 00:31:56.110 \ Jane Carr: big… yeah, I can't… sorry, I'm very tired, and I can't think straight, but big eating animals. So I think there's… there's… there's cows, or buffaloes, or longhorn cattle, or something, there's pigs on there, because they… 237 \ 00:31:56.340 --> 00:32:04.580 \ Jane Carr: maintain the place without having to go in with a scrub cutter, or a lawnmower, or what have you. They… 238 \ 00:32:05.250 --> 00:32:10.700 \ Jane Carr: It's just much more natural if you've got, big wildlife in there. 239 \ 00:32:11.300 --> 00:32:15.530 \ Jane Carr: Doing it, but that will never happen anymore, sadly. 240 \ 00:32:15.530 --> 00:32:28.989 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: I think what you've been saying supported my statement that I thought the parish councils have the job of managing the land to the best of their ability, particularly if it's not particularly owned by anybody. 241 \ 00:32:29.300 --> 00:32:33.969 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Or they can persuade whoever does own it that, actually, it's good to let it 242 \ 00:32:34.160 --> 00:32:45.539 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: follow some of the paths that we're laying down in this session. So, what I hope I've done is given people ideas of specific types of 243 \ 00:32:45.640 --> 00:32:50.040 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Grassland and wildlife that really help 244 \ 00:32:50.380 --> 00:32:54.870 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: The soil do its job of storing carbon. 245 \ 00:32:55.030 --> 00:33:07.630 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And I throw in the idea that we've recently had discussions about the job that worms do to help the land recover, and certainly where I am in the Isle of Wight, they are 246 \ 00:33:07.810 --> 00:33:28.280 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: going hell for leather with worm farms to increase what they consider to be very depleted land. It's been agricultural used for so many centuries that the land needs… the land itself, the ground itself, needs a bit of a boost, and they're hoping the worms are going to do that. 247 \ 00:33:28.350 --> 00:33:31.639 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And in passing, I'm sure most people here have seen 248 \ 00:33:32.020 --> 00:33:36.440 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: 6 inches of soil, but if you haven't, it's a 90-minute 249 \ 00:33:36.770 --> 00:33:52.320 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: pastime of delight, it really is, to sort of see how important those first six inches are. And I also think that part of, or a major part of our job, and certainly I should have put on the parish council screen, is the education. The people 250 \ 00:33:52.620 --> 00:33:58.230 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Can be led to recognize that Land is… looks… 251 \ 00:33:58.490 --> 00:34:11.849 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: By our definition of untidy and not perfect, and doesn't look good, then it could actually still be doing a lot more good than all the most beautifully trimmed lawns and rose bushes and so forth. 252 \ 00:34:12.380 --> 00:34:15.500 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, there's an educational aspect to all of this. 253 \ 00:34:17.159 --> 00:34:18.440 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: Kevin, a couple of points, sorry. 254 \ 00:34:18.449 --> 00:34:20.399 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Graham, can I just jump in? 255 \ 00:34:20.589 --> 00:34:21.650 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: He's good. 256 \ 00:34:21.790 --> 00:34:28.479 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, so I just wanted to go back to your list of trees a second. I just wanted to kind of point out that… 257 \ 00:34:28.650 --> 00:34:34.599 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: You know, we also need to consider what trees to plant today that are actually going to survive in this climate for the next 20 years. 258 \ 00:34:34.870 --> 00:34:37.399 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: 20 years, let alone the next 100 years. 259 \ 00:34:37.409 --> 00:34:38.799 \ Jane Carr: Yes, absolutely. 260 \ 00:34:38.940 --> 00:34:40.889 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: And I would just say that… 261 \ 00:34:41.150 --> 00:34:51.960 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: a very, very small sample, very local to where I am, that, you know, we've been planting oaks and hearth and that stuff, and they've been really struggling, but we found that white beams in particular. 262 \ 00:34:52.199 --> 00:35:02.730 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: have been coping very, very well in our local area with these conditions. Surprisingly well compared to the other trees. So that was… that is something that I would recommend. 263 \ 00:35:03.100 --> 00:35:05.030 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: At the moment, in terms of treatment. 264 \ 00:35:05.030 --> 00:35:11.490 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Can I ask you if you… could you just put that comment into the chat, please? Because I'll pick it up from there. 265 \ 00:35:12.290 --> 00:35:22.429 \ Emma Stephens: Can I add a comment to that as well, though? I just had a meeting yesterday regarding trees for some landscaping around a solar park development. We actually have 120 acres of common that we 266 \ 00:35:22.630 --> 00:35:34.679 \ Emma Stephens: If you looked at it, you would say it was scrub, but actually, it's really heavily managed, and it has to be in order to stop the trees from taking over, so we'd probably spend £20,000 a year managing the land. 267 \ 00:35:34.990 --> 00:35:39.839 \ Emma Stephens: But white beam, it looked at some white bean yesterday, and they are lovely trees. 268 \ 00:35:39.990 --> 00:35:53.180 \ Emma Stephens: But they also drop branches quite easily, so you have to be a bit careful about where you put them, because if they're near footpaths or roads, they can become dangerous. We looked at one where some very large boughs have just fallen off of it. 269 \ 00:35:53.860 --> 00:35:56.219 \ Emma Stephens: So that is another consideration. 270 \ 00:35:56.220 --> 00:35:58.860 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: That's really useful, thank you very much. 271 \ 00:35:59.020 --> 00:36:06.939 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Good, but I'll add these comments in, as… Right, where were we with? 272 \ 00:36:07.060 --> 00:36:07.599 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Oh my god. 273 \ 00:36:07.600 --> 00:36:13.510 \ Emma Stephens: I actually looked up what scrub is, because, you know, you're right, you know what it looks like, and in fact, if you looked at our comment, that's what you say it was scrub. 274 \ 00:36:13.880 --> 00:36:27.859 \ Emma Stephens: But the definition says it refers to a type of terrain or ecosystem defined by dry, open land primarily covered with low-growing, woody vegetation, such as shrubs, bushes, stunted trees, and grasses. And that is what our commons and SSSI, 275 \ 00:36:28.540 --> 00:36:29.200 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right? 276 \ 00:36:29.200 --> 00:36:46.170 \ Emma Stephens: It's mostly, emergent silver birch and gorse, a lot of heather, and lots of other plants as well. Obviously, much rarer plants in the marshy areas and things, but a lot of these plants on this list. But if you look at it, primarily what you see are little clumps of, 277 \ 00:36:46.530 --> 00:37:00.690 \ Emma Stephens: young silver birch trees and a lot of gorse. But the gorse takes such a lot of management, we have to, every year, we're cutting and burning acres, several acres of gorse, in order to maintain 278 \ 00:37:00.940 --> 00:37:08.399 \ Emma Stephens: The differentiation, because if you just need the gauze to grow, it'll just take over, and then there's no space for wildlife at all, so… 279 \ 00:37:08.580 --> 00:37:16.900 \ Emma Stephens: In order to leave corridors between the gorse and, also to create fire breaks, we have to really manage that and cut it quite heavily. 280 \ 00:37:17.350 --> 00:37:20.810 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Wow, you can see where your costs are coming from. Yes. 281 \ 00:37:20.810 --> 00:37:24.199 \ Emma Stephens: Yeah, well, it is. Contractor costs are… we have, 282 \ 00:37:24.340 --> 00:37:32.409 \ Emma Stephens: really effective working party system, where in the winter, between October and March, at least once a month, we have about 25 volunteers. 283 \ 00:37:32.560 --> 00:37:38.709 \ Emma Stephens: Who are… some of them are chainsaw trained, and some of them work for… in similar jobs, so they come and… 284 \ 00:37:38.910 --> 00:37:44.099 \ Emma Stephens: They have probably… we calculated last year, they saved us about £23,000 285 \ 00:37:44.220 --> 00:37:47.549 \ Emma Stephens: Worth of work by, volunteers doing the work. 286 \ 00:37:48.010 --> 00:37:48.770 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Wow. 287 \ 00:37:48.930 --> 00:37:50.120 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Fantastic. 288 \ 00:37:50.940 --> 00:37:57.660 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Moving on then, ponds appear to be particularly effective at, 289 \ 00:37:58.440 --> 00:38:05.259 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Carbon storage, and the plants, of course, that they, support around their borders. 290 \ 00:38:05.510 --> 00:38:21.059 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, I know we were building a nature reserve in my old village in Somerset, and they insisted that we have at least two pods up there, one in each of opposite corners, just because they do so much good. 291 \ 00:38:21.420 --> 00:38:24.940 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So again, having included a plant list, I hope that's helpful. 292 \ 00:38:25.990 --> 00:38:36.859 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Then, how do we stop the carbon that is trapped in the soil, or these plants, from going back to the atmosphere? Or stop it from going back to the atmosphere? 293 \ 00:38:37.810 --> 00:38:38.820 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So… 294 \ 00:38:39.860 --> 00:38:48.080 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Again, I've listed the actions here, but you need to leave the roots in the ground, minimize the digging, that should be good for the volunteers. 295 \ 00:38:48.530 --> 00:38:55.520 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Use mulch and compost and allow leaf litter to remain, and we've already mentioned reducing the mowing frequency. 296 \ 00:38:56.100 --> 00:39:01.100 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And the beauty is, provided it's not touched by any of the things that we've mentioned. 297 \ 00:39:01.210 --> 00:39:05.720 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Above, then the soil carbon can remain for a very long time. 298 \ 00:39:06.540 --> 00:39:15.310 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: If you already have mature vegetation, then there's a lot of carbon, in a tree, 299 \ 00:39:15.680 --> 00:39:29.490 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: But, preserving the existing habitat usually beats replacing it. So if you've got your 120 acres, or whatever it was, of scrub, or moorland, or heath, whatever you wanted to call it, it sounds like 300 \ 00:39:30.050 --> 00:39:36.010 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: It's better to keep it a scrub than it is to start producing trees there, unless, of course, they become a renewable 301 \ 00:39:36.300 --> 00:39:39.750 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Source of income in years to come. 302 \ 00:39:39.750 --> 00:39:48.559 \ Emma Stephens: acid heathland, so we don't want mature trees, the trees are removed, but actually, we can't leave any organic matter on it either, because it's nutrient poor. 303 \ 00:39:48.680 --> 00:39:57.159 \ Emma Stephens: So, because of the types of plant that grow there, anything… any vegetation we take off the common has to be removed from the common. We can't leave it there. 304 \ 00:39:58.450 --> 00:39:59.689 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: That's interesting. 305 \ 00:39:59.910 --> 00:40:02.869 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So there's legislation about that, isn't there? 306 \ 00:40:03.630 --> 00:40:10.449 \ Emma Stephens: It's all done in conjunction with Natural England, and we get a payment through from the Rural Payment Agency. 307 \ 00:40:10.890 --> 00:40:16.659 \ Emma Stephens: So, natural England write a plan, a 10-year plan with us. 308 \ 00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:21.220 \ Emma Stephens: About how we're going to manage the common, and then… We follow that. 309 \ 00:40:22.110 --> 00:40:22.520 \ tristram cary: So. 310 \ 00:40:22.520 --> 00:40:23.090 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Good. 311 \ 00:40:23.090 --> 00:40:28.089 \ tristram cary: Sorry to interrupt, but can I just understand, when you remove stuff from the heathland, what happens to it? 312 \ 00:40:28.840 --> 00:40:35.570 \ Emma Stephens: Most of the gauze that is removed, we contract contractors who cut by hand. 313 \ 00:40:35.650 --> 00:40:51.209 \ Emma Stephens: And they burn it on site, so because they're cutting by hand and feeding the fire fairly, we have a fire burning license as well. We, they feed the fire fairly slowly doing that. The fire burns hotter, and more of it is vaporized, disappears. 314 \ 00:40:51.270 --> 00:40:58.609 \ Emma Stephens: Anything else that's, like a grassland that's cut, we have to take the clippings elsewhere and put them somewhere else. 315 \ 00:40:59.200 --> 00:41:02.780 \ tristram cary: And they get burnt in the end, and all that carbon's returning to the atmosphere, then? 316 \ 00:41:02.780 --> 00:41:14.239 \ Emma Stephens: Well, no, they don't get burnt. We have an area on the side of a car park where… so we've got a playing field area, which is on the commons, so all the grass clippings from that go into a compost area on the side of a car park. 317 \ 00:41:14.530 --> 00:41:28.390 \ Emma Stephens: So where possible, we would… the problem with the gorse is it's extremely hard to deal with, because it's so big and prickly. So actually… and actually getting, vehicles into the areas where you're removing it from is not always possible. 318 \ 00:41:28.720 --> 00:41:36.490 \ Emma Stephens: So, it's extremely hard to remove that elsewhere, but even if you took it elsewhere, disposing of gorse is pretty difficult. 319 \ 00:41:36.930 --> 00:41:39.690 \ Emma Stephens: Most of what we remove is gorse. 320 \ 00:41:40.870 --> 00:41:51.530 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, and how large is the compost area? I'm thinking that there are places around the world that are using their compost heaps as sources of heat for heating houses and so forth. 321 \ 00:41:51.530 --> 00:41:53.589 \ Emma Stephens: Yeah, it's not that big. 322 \ 00:41:53.590 --> 00:41:54.809 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Love me. 323 \ 00:41:55.250 --> 00:42:03.479 \ Emma Stephens: How big is it? It's probably 15 foot long, I suppose, 20 foot long, and 6 feet wide. 324 \ 00:42:03.930 --> 00:42:08.339 \ Emma Stephens: I'm not actually sure what they do with it when it's rotted down. Put it somewhere. 325 \ 00:42:08.740 --> 00:42:10.689 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And very, very, very high. 326 \ 00:42:11.570 --> 00:42:14.680 \ Emma Stephens: No, it's not very high, it's, like, the palate, really. 327 \ 00:42:15.310 --> 00:42:16.800 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Oh, right. Okay. 328 \ 00:42:17.260 --> 00:42:24.810 \ Emma Stephens: We only mow the playing field, so it's not, you know, a lot of the common that's being mowed. Most of the common is heather. 329 \ 00:42:24.970 --> 00:42:30.630 \ Emma Stephens: And, they want to encourage that, so… 330 \ 00:42:30.750 --> 00:42:35.050 \ Emma Stephens: That's just left. And then the areas of gorse are cut and burnt. 331 \ 00:42:35.540 --> 00:42:45.180 \ Emma Stephens: And most of the rest of it… if we cut trees down, they're left on site for habitat, and because the carbon is retained for longer as they rot down slowly over time. 332 \ 00:42:45.520 --> 00:42:51.429 \ Emma Stephens: So anything, like a tree that was cut down, either, if it's a lot tree, it'd be logged and piled up. 333 \ 00:42:51.560 --> 00:42:56.279 \ Emma Stephens: Or they would just leave a whole tree lying on the ground as a habitat. 334 \ 00:42:57.940 --> 00:42:59.610 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Interesting. Thank you. 335 \ 00:43:00.720 --> 00:43:07.730 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Okay, so… my next slide has the first item of avoiding burning. Bad luck. 336 \ 00:43:08.330 --> 00:43:17.550 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Routine scrub burning, not suggested, recommended, but I guess you're being very careful with that course. 337 \ 00:43:19.660 --> 00:43:21.600 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: can you hear that? 338 \ 00:43:25.220 --> 00:43:29.010 \ Emma Stephens: It's a local farmer with his tractor, just trying to get past someone outside my house. 339 \ 00:43:29.620 --> 00:43:30.360 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right. 340 \ 00:43:30.360 --> 00:43:36.719 \ Emma Stephens: I think the problem is that the disposal options are limited for gorse. 341 \ 00:43:36.980 --> 00:43:38.160 \ Emma Stephens: And… 342 \ 00:43:38.730 --> 00:43:43.349 \ Emma Stephens: We have had a lot of discussions this year, because there are residents who aren't happy about the smoke. 343 \ 00:43:43.840 --> 00:43:44.260 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes. 344 \ 00:43:45.300 --> 00:43:48.979 \ Emma Stephens: But, which is… poke that away. 345 \ 00:43:50.730 --> 00:44:01.889 \ Emma Stephens: Because, because, because of the way they're asked to burn it. So, we had an incident last winter where a different contractor loaded the fire with his mechanical digger. 346 \ 00:44:01.900 --> 00:44:14.490 \ Emma Stephens: And he put a lot of gorse all at once, which produced a huge amount of smoke, and that's actually really not a very good way of doing it. So, by burning it, cutting it by hand and burning it, they are more effective at, not creating smoke. 347 \ 00:44:17.970 --> 00:44:19.290 \ Emma Stephens: Sorry about this. 348 \ 00:44:23.130 --> 00:44:24.649 \ Emma Stephens: Got stuck, he couldn't get past. 349 \ 00:44:26.110 --> 00:44:27.100 \ Emma Stephens: Yeah… 350 \ 00:44:27.550 --> 00:44:28.090 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: That's… 351 \ 00:44:28.090 --> 00:44:38.330 \ Emma Stephens: the Natural England management plan is to do that, but there is very little option, really, but we have looked at other options of where to do it, where to put it, and what to do with it. So we could chip it. 352 \ 00:44:38.500 --> 00:44:38.930 \ Jane Carr: Huh. 353 \ 00:44:38.930 --> 00:44:48.100 \ Emma Stephens: But getting a chipper into the site where the gauze needs to be cut isn't always possible, and then you've got to get the gauze out of where it is to the chipper. I mean, you've got, like, 3 acres of… 354 \ 00:44:48.450 --> 00:44:52.240 \ Emma Stephens: Cut levels. That's gonna take a lot of bandpower. 355 \ 00:44:53.040 --> 00:44:56.120 \ Emma Stephens: So really, it's a case of what… how do you deal with it? 356 \ 00:44:58.220 --> 00:44:59.230 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Typically. 357 \ 00:44:59.230 --> 00:45:02.969 \ Jane Carr: If it was chipped, could it then not… could you not have just the small 358 \ 00:45:03.300 --> 00:45:11.219 \ Jane Carr: area of the common… I understand that you're taking it away, you don't want to drop it down, because you want the infertile, 359 \ 00:45:11.360 --> 00:45:13.850 \ Jane Carr: land for… 360 \ 00:45:13.970 --> 00:45:26.539 \ Jane Carr: for what it's… for what you're trying to keep it as, as it were, but could there not be a corner somewhere, like you've got a playing field in a corner, could there not be a corner where shredded course got. 361 \ 00:45:26.540 --> 00:45:33.409 \ Emma Stephens: We're still gonna get the gorse out of where it is to that area, that's the problem. You can't get the machinery in to where it is. 362 \ 00:45:38.280 --> 00:45:39.920 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Complicated stuff. 363 \ 00:45:39.920 --> 00:45:40.810 \ Jane Carr: Yeah. 364 \ 00:45:40.810 --> 00:45:47.729 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, item 4 here on the screen is of particular interest to Tristram, who is watching how we… 365 \ 00:45:49.260 --> 00:46:02.289 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: improving the strength of wood with modern, chemical works so that buildings can become much higher, but wholly made of wood. So we've got skyscrapers in, I think Stockholm is the last one I saw. 366 \ 00:46:02.810 --> 00:46:03.760 \ tristram cary: Come on. 367 \ 00:46:04.010 --> 00:46:11.690 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Where they are actually using timber in buildings much higher than you'd imagine timber could be used, so the, 368 \ 00:46:12.130 --> 00:46:17.920 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: The best place to use timber, if you've got it, or a tree, if you've got to remove it, is to use it for many things. 369 \ 00:46:18.270 --> 00:46:25.500 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And the worst of the lot is the… Set prior to it. So… 370 \ 00:46:28.020 --> 00:46:36.659 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And if you've got wetlands, you want them to remain wet as much as possible. Very difficult in these hot, long summers, I know, but… 371 \ 00:46:36.950 --> 00:46:44.220 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: That stores… exposes the stored organic matter to oxygen, and off you go with large quantities of carbon. 372 \ 00:46:44.470 --> 00:46:48.880 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So… The weather really is against us in many ways. 373 \ 00:46:51.370 --> 00:47:02.280 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, if you wanted to sort of summarize where we are at that, you want to try and protect existing mature habitats with all their trees, because there's massive amount of carbon in those trees. 374 \ 00:47:02.280 --> 00:47:11.570 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Restore wetlands so that they are producing all of those plants around the edges and the insect and amphibian life. 375 \ 00:47:11.810 --> 00:47:18.079 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And I know I'm just going to read this, it's all self-evident to you, but, 376 \ 00:47:18.280 --> 00:47:26.010 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: I did like that last statement. The most effective carbon capture technology available to us parish council is healthy soil. 377 \ 00:47:26.590 --> 00:47:31.920 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And it sounds, Emma, as if you're well on the way to working with that, and certainly in 378 \ 00:47:32.040 --> 00:47:33.180 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: With it. 379 \ 00:47:33.530 --> 00:47:41.629 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: the trials that are being run on the Outer White with what worms can do to help restore the health of the soil, will keep you posted. 380 \ 00:47:44.300 --> 00:47:56.760 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: I think the last slide is just to say that there are lots of things for groups to do, individuals to do, community organisations to do, listed on the Great Collaboration website. 381 \ 00:47:56.810 --> 00:48:06.619 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: So if you're not familiar with the opening page, you can go down to this Go button, and clicking on the dark green to the left produces a whole list of them. 382 \ 00:48:07.130 --> 00:48:10.100 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Options, and you just select the one that you want. 383 \ 00:48:10.630 --> 00:48:23.029 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And, if people sign up as individuals, and they leave a postcode, then the reports for the appropriate parish council are available from the website. 384 \ 00:48:23.050 --> 00:48:30.660 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: on what commitments are being made by individuals of your area, in your area. Just the idea, of course, is that you can harness 385 \ 00:48:30.730 --> 00:48:34.400 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Their actions and help them to work more effectively together. 386 \ 00:48:34.740 --> 00:48:38.059 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Rather more than Big Brother is watching what you're up to. 387 \ 00:48:38.430 --> 00:48:39.780 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: But we can see. 388 \ 00:48:40.570 --> 00:48:47.129 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And that's as far as I got this year, or this round, so let me stop sharing. 389 \ 00:48:48.290 --> 00:48:53.369 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And come back to seeing people. Oh, look at the hands, fantastic! Frank, you look like you're first. 390 \ 00:48:53.370 --> 00:49:16.709 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: Right, thanks. And really, there's just nuances on what you were saying. So, on trees, one thing that wasn't on your list, but willow and alder for remedial planting and riparian situations, to strengthen riverbanks and to provide shade in rivers for aquatic species, we found a really significant add-on. And in some areas that are getting too boggy, I know that sounds unlikely for you down south, but it still happens up here. 391 \ 00:49:16.710 --> 00:49:19.640 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: They can help dry up the land slightly. 392 \ 00:49:19.640 --> 00:49:21.690 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: The… the… 393 \ 00:49:21.780 --> 00:49:40.510 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: pond planting you were talking about, we were also trying to encourage developers who are doing housing schemes, when they've done their suds, to look at things like yellow irises in the suds, because while they're not permanently wet, they're often wet, and native irises seem to flourish in that. 394 \ 00:49:40.550 --> 00:49:51.480 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: Emma's thing about not leaving the uprisings behind. Absolutely, and we've been fighting constant battles with the Council. The Council wants to improve biodiversity and look at wildflower meadows. 395 \ 00:49:51.850 --> 00:50:06.090 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: the challenge there is if you don't do cut and collect, the nitrogen from the grass cuttings goes straight back in and strengthen the grass, and wreck everything else. So we need cut and collect. We also, and I say this as someone who's got… not blaming you in England, but one of the challenges is. 396 \ 00:50:06.090 --> 00:50:28.260 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: everyone thinks wildflowers, and they see this picture of a classic English countryside meadow with corn flowers and poppies, and isn't that wonderful? And it's never going to look like that, and we've got to educate people as to what a wildflower area actually does look like, and why the richness is in diversity in the flowering at different times, and so on. Having said that, moving away from ornamental plants. 397 \ 00:50:28.260 --> 00:50:35.549 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: We've finally managed, and it happened on cost grounds rather than anything else, but the council's given up the idea of bedding plants, and doing bedding plants. 398 \ 00:50:35.640 --> 00:50:49.749 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: But there's an organization we have called Beds for Bees that works with community groups and advises them on suitable perennials that will give them nice displays at particular times, but will give good ground cover, will thicken out. 399 \ 00:50:49.860 --> 00:50:57.180 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: And are very pollinator-friendly, so they will be good in a sort of wider sense. And last couple of points. One is. 400 \ 00:50:57.420 --> 00:51:08.629 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: when we're talking about… I know your focus was on community land. We've got some good farmers, and the problem is they are literally ostracized and pilloried by their fellow farmers. 401 \ 00:51:08.930 --> 00:51:21.019 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: You know, farmers who are doing the right thing are not popular amongst other farmers, whether it's a kind of, no, no, no, we've been doing this for generations and we don't want to change, or whether it's because they recognize that that's actually the direction of travel. 402 \ 00:51:21.020 --> 00:51:33.929 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: But we have farmers who are doing some great. We talked about mixed livestock grazing, where you put in your heavy cattle and your pigs, and they root around, and they disturb, and they help regenerate soil, and that's tremendous. 403 \ 00:51:33.930 --> 00:51:46.579 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: I spent, 3 hours last night at a farm up in Argati, where… which was one of the first in Scotland to introduce beavers, and I spent 3 hours watching a beaver pond and seeing the beavers at play. But… 404 \ 00:51:46.580 --> 00:52:05.659 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: there were literally death threats for the farmer when he introduced them in 2020, because the other farmers are anti-weaver, on principle. It's just one of those things. So we need to, as communities and as individuals, lionize our farmers who are doing the right thing to give them the confidence to try and do that and promote that. 405 \ 00:52:05.660 --> 00:52:13.929 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: And then the last one I would just mention is, when we're talking about grasslands, we're trying to get greater awareness of the concept of ancient grassland. 406 \ 00:52:14.100 --> 00:52:29.509 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: So if you've had grassland that's been continuously grazed, so they've not used, they've not plowed it, they've not used additives, they've not done anything else for 100 plus years, not only is it incredibly carbon-rich in its own right, but it will probably be incredibly mycelium rich as well. 407 \ 00:52:29.540 --> 00:52:42.860 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: And you'll get these incredible fungi crops, and they have a multiplier effect on the amount of carbon that's then held within the soil, so it's a really good news story. But we had one in one of our neighboring villages where we managed to actually intervene, but 408 \ 00:52:42.860 --> 00:53:05.709 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: The farmer was all set… he was fed up doing sheep grazing, which his family had been doing for hundreds of years. He was all set to plow it up and put in trees, because he could get a grant for doing that, because everyone knows trees are good. Trees are the right thing to do, and we had to disrupt that. Luckily, there's a really good Dutch ecologist near us who did the surveys and found that with 20-plus species of waxcap, so it's the richest waxcap site in Scotland. 409 \ 00:53:05.710 --> 00:53:09.729 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: it's now going to be a SSSI, so that particular one's been nipped in the bud. 410 \ 00:53:09.730 --> 00:53:19.459 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: But there's a general trend that we need to try and help people understand, as you were saying at SARCM. Trees are good, but they're not the only way of doing biodiversity. 411 \ 00:53:19.460 --> 00:53:19.840 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Hmm. 412 \ 00:53:19.840 --> 00:53:33.710 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: But, but there are, there are good news stories out there. I live in a comparatively recent development that Tiger Mickel did in Scotland of 36 houses. At the edge, there were wilder areas. They did some sort of, sort of planting native hedging, but not particularly good. 413 \ 00:53:33.800 --> 00:53:52.609 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: Three years ago, I got together with the conservation volunteers and eight families in the development, and we planted 780 hedging quips and young trees, over the course of a weekend. The kids loved it, they were so enthusiastic, it was a lesson for them, and we're now beginning to see some of that coming through as 414 \ 00:53:52.610 --> 00:53:58.130 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: untamed scrub, or wilderness, whatever you want to call it. So, there's lots of stuff, and I think… 415 \ 00:53:58.130 --> 00:54:09.339 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: That was a really good presentation, Graeme, in terms of kick-starting it and making us rethink how we do it, and then we just localize the message and localize the impact into what we're… what works best in our area. 416 \ 00:54:10.460 --> 00:54:17.660 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: You're just highlighting how crucial this education bit is, is the poor old farmers getting lionised? That's awful. 417 \ 00:54:18.470 --> 00:54:27.999 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Okay, well, thanks very much, Frank. I'm not quite sure, Sue, why you got displaced by David, but would Sue like to go first, as a matter of courtesy? 418 \ 00:54:28.000 --> 00:54:38.769 \ Sue Burton: Don't worry, it was, my small points from me. So, I picked up on your original list about education. 419 \ 00:54:38.840 --> 00:54:52.840 \ Sue Burton: and the basic things, the list of what the town parish councils can do. And I wanted to highlight the difficulty of messaging, because we find ourselves 420 \ 00:54:52.900 --> 00:55:08.049 \ Sue Burton: having to say the same thing, because we have to keep saying the same message. Example, in our town council, the clerk suggests so-and-so plant, so we say, well, is that native? 421 \ 00:55:08.230 --> 00:55:28.090 \ Sue Burton: Oh, no. Okay. Could we have an example of a native one, and then the experts come in? So, I want to build in that we need to think about what to do in relation to climate change, and what trees should be used and suggested, but we find ourselves having to 422 \ 00:55:28.100 --> 00:55:35.070 \ Sue Burton: stick with the same message, otherwise we're not getting anywhere, and I find that balance difficult. 423 \ 00:55:35.280 --> 00:55:44.730 \ Sue Burton: We've managed to shift from, No Mo May to slow-mo Summer. 424 \ 00:55:44.750 --> 00:55:54.669 \ Sue Burton: And that's been… I took some convincing, but it actually has been adopt… at least setting our example 425 \ 00:55:54.670 --> 00:56:08.210 \ Sue Burton: We're… I'm down in the south, in East Sussex, and it's a good… to do what's right for your environment, your climate is the right thing to do, and I was convinced. And I… 426 \ 00:56:08.220 --> 00:56:10.349 \ Sue Burton: I think we're getting there. 427 \ 00:56:10.420 --> 00:56:21.339 \ Sue Burton: The bit that I'd like to ask about, and you… we're highlighting, we're going back to soil, how… how do we know, how can we… 428 \ 00:56:21.530 --> 00:56:38.070 \ Sue Burton: look after our soil. So we've… the emphasis on this particular presentation is think about your soil, what have you got? What are you doing to look after it? We had some hints there, but how do we know? How can we tell our residents 429 \ 00:56:38.490 --> 00:56:45.620 \ Sue Burton: Our soil is like this because we've got that. We've done that. 430 \ 00:56:46.100 --> 00:57:00.130 \ Sue Burton: So, that's my question, really, after all those comments, which I've really loved the presentation. I'll definitely go back and look at the slides earlier on about the individuals and all that. That's great, great, the impact stuff. 431 \ 00:57:01.040 --> 00:57:05.730 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Does anyone have an answer for Sue's question about the quality of the soil? 432 \ 00:57:06.690 --> 00:57:19.579 \ Emma Stephens: I was gonna… sorry, I was gonna suggest to Jane about her patch of land that, there are lots of local groups with lots of very expert knowledge, like wildlife trusts or Natural England. You could always ask for advice about 433 \ 00:57:19.720 --> 00:57:22.400 \ Emma Stephens: Your particular location, and… 434 \ 00:57:23.300 --> 00:57:33.829 \ Emma Stephens: if you've got a patch of land which you want to leave to be more wild, it probably will still need some management, otherwise you'll just end up with brambles. So, 435 \ 00:57:34.510 --> 00:57:38.679 \ Emma Stephens: having some advice about what's… what it would be suitable for. I mean, certainly. 436 \ 00:57:39.000 --> 00:57:51.250 \ Emma Stephens: And talking about soil on our common, the common has very little soil, because it's… it's on chalk, and it's mostly… it'll grab on… it's mostly very thin, but we actually scraped some of the soil away in great big, like, 250 long 437 \ 00:57:51.330 --> 00:58:00.000 \ Emma Stephens: Scrapes, because there's a particular rare butterfly on the common which needs bare earth, or bare, gravel and chalk to… 438 \ 00:58:00.100 --> 00:58:02.860 \ Emma Stephens: Come and do its thing on, what it does to it, but… 439 \ 00:58:03.360 --> 00:58:09.059 \ Emma Stephens: So, I'll just look out for local people that can give you advice. There are people out there. 440 \ 00:58:09.430 --> 00:58:11.020 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Plenty of them, yes. 441 \ 00:58:11.310 --> 00:58:19.030 \ Sue Burton: I'm sorry, Graham, could I come back with an… I'm interested to hear comments on soil, but could I come back with another point? I'm sorry. 442 \ 00:58:19.300 --> 00:58:20.890 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Don't suit. 443 \ 00:58:21.340 --> 00:58:36.370 \ Sue Burton: Thank you. Is that, being patient with me? We, in our town council, we purchased, from our Biodiversity Data center, the, our Civil Parish's data, 444 \ 00:58:36.530 --> 00:58:39.180 \ Sue Burton: information, 445 \ 00:58:39.220 --> 00:58:59.900 \ Sue Burton: And that was useful, paid about £80 for it, but it's a very high-level, data, but it, in the, in the data, the SSSIs haven't been inspected, looked at, at all for 20-odd years. The whole data is not very up-to-date, just eventually 446 \ 00:59:00.240 --> 00:59:09.420 \ Sue Burton: thinking of doing, of purchasing for their parish, you know, it's a start, but also very difficult for a layperson to really interpret. 447 \ 00:59:10.870 --> 00:59:13.730 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Thanks, Sue. David, you've been very patient. 448 \ 00:59:19.250 --> 00:59:20.309 \ David Newman: Yes. 449 \ 00:59:20.600 --> 00:59:29.399 \ David Newman: C… Looking at the… High, medium, low-impact things you did. 450 \ 00:59:29.600 --> 00:59:37.519 \ David Newman: From the perspective of an urban parish with no land, It leads to different things. 451 \ 00:59:38.200 --> 00:59:47.280 \ David Newman: The biggest impact here would actually be getting the social housing Cup providers. 452 \ 00:59:47.510 --> 00:59:48.939 \ David Newman: to speed up 453 \ 00:59:49.310 --> 01:00:02.289 \ David Newman: retrofitting their houses, which I have to do by 2030 to get it to Grade C, but it would make a lot of difference to do it earlier and go beyond C. 454 \ 01:00:02.440 --> 01:00:10.369 \ David Newman: They're very good on new houses, but they're actually bad at maintenance, let alone retrofitting the old ones. 455 \ 01:00:11.240 --> 01:00:12.120 \ David Newman: The what? 456 \ 01:00:12.310 --> 01:00:16.159 \ David Newman: Now, the parish council can't do that, we don't own them. 457 \ 01:00:16.390 --> 01:00:23.060 \ David Newman: But we can… we could do things that would encourage it, Such as… 458 \ 01:00:24.550 --> 01:00:32.160 \ David Newman: Giraffe Busters, which has worked in other places, that's only a small effect, but people learn about it. 459 \ 01:00:32.320 --> 01:00:36.229 \ David Newman: And the thing that… Some other groups have done… 460 \ 01:00:36.390 --> 01:00:43.730 \ David Newman: Visits to houses with solar panels and heat pumps and so on, so people learn about that. 461 \ 01:00:44.050 --> 01:00:54.010 \ David Newman: And then on a bigger scale, it comes to the district and county councils, like setting up a heat network here, because we're not far from a car factory. 462 \ 01:00:54.400 --> 01:00:57.920 \ David Newman: So that's beyond what we can do at our small scale. 463 \ 01:00:58.980 --> 01:01:05.689 \ David Newman: On the biodiversity side, we don't have much land. We do actually have a nature park. 464 \ 01:01:06.180 --> 01:01:13.019 \ David Newman: And we did actually have a local group, Nature in the Leeds, bring around an ecologist. 465 \ 01:01:13.170 --> 01:01:16.810 \ David Newman: And the suggestions are to not do everything at once. 466 \ 01:01:17.170 --> 01:01:24.860 \ David Newman: But cut some of the brambles, and leave the other ones for their biodiversity. Do it the other way around next year. 467 \ 01:01:24.990 --> 01:01:28.850 \ David Newman: Find places to stick a few benches for people to sit. 468 \ 01:01:29.250 --> 01:01:31.830 \ David Newman: Arrange things for people to look at. 469 \ 01:01:32.410 --> 01:01:35.740 \ David Newman: At all the Marshalliers we have here. 470 \ 01:01:36.120 --> 01:01:41.639 \ David Newman: But we don't… it's not a large-scale thing, so these are all small-scale initiatives. 471 \ 01:01:42.490 --> 01:01:43.090 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well… 472 \ 01:01:43.090 --> 01:01:47.389 \ David Newman: And the question I have… It's how can we 473 \ 01:01:49.230 --> 01:01:55.159 \ David Newman: Mitigate or ameliorate climate change through a neighbourhood plan. 474 \ 01:02:01.310 --> 01:02:14.590 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: I don't think I can give you a one-minute answer on that one. I'm very glad you asked that question, and I'll try and find some answers. But I don't know. Joanie's laughing, only Joanie's got a point to make. 475 \ 01:02:15.990 --> 01:02:23.820 \ Jane Carr: I just wanted to… it's a little bit in answer to Sue's question, I think that… 476 \ 01:02:24.910 --> 01:02:33.679 \ Jane Carr: I think that, the town and parish council land and scrub land and that sort of thing is… 477 \ 01:02:33.980 --> 01:02:41.019 \ Jane Carr: Kind of one situation, but actually encouraging, your local people 478 \ 01:02:41.140 --> 01:02:44.980 \ Jane Carr: to all the things that were actually on Graham's list. 479 \ 01:02:45.110 --> 01:02:48.280 \ Jane Carr: To… in their own garden, because if we all 480 \ 01:02:50.050 --> 01:03:06.880 \ Jane Carr: create gardens that are good for wildlife, then… even if 50% or even 20% of us create gardens for wildlife, rather than gardens for flat lawns and, petunias, 481 \ 01:03:07.280 --> 01:03:18.440 \ Jane Carr: it would make a vast area over England, if all that… so, leading your… leading your individual householders 482 \ 01:03:18.490 --> 01:03:31.669 \ Jane Carr: Onto… for instance, there's a… there's a… and then that's to do with no dig, and, composting and mulching, and that just builds the worms. 483 \ 01:03:31.740 --> 01:03:33.360 \ Jane Carr: In your goal, because the… 484 \ 01:03:33.570 --> 01:03:49.149 \ Jane Carr: Our gardens, we kind of want to be fertile, because what we're growing in our gardens are… well, I grow a lot to eat in my garden, so what we're growing in our gardens, we want pretty flowers, we want, and we want food to feed ourselves, whereas 485 \ 01:03:49.540 --> 01:04:05.529 \ Jane Carr: Emma's kind of situation, or wildflower meadows and that sort of thing, it's the infertility you want. So, there's where, when you're mowing, you need to take the cuttings away, so that they don't re-feed 486 \ 01:04:05.530 --> 01:04:12.619 \ Jane Carr: The land so that you can get the, the meadow plants that would be, 487 \ 01:04:12.850 --> 01:04:21.120 \ Jane Carr: that we'd be growing, in a meadow. We've got a wonderful… I'm in the forest of Dean, and we have, a Dean Meadows Society. 488 \ 01:04:21.120 --> 01:04:34.289 \ Jane Carr: And they've got… they've encouraged so many different landowners, to make meadows on their land. But it's very different things that we do, in different areas, and… 489 \ 01:04:34.790 --> 01:04:38.599 \ Jane Carr: Certainly encouraging… encouraging, 490 \ 01:04:38.910 --> 01:04:58.029 \ Jane Carr: people to… gardeners, to do the no-dig method of gardening, and in fact, if you look up no-dig gardening, you'll find a chap called Charles Dowding, who does wonderful little videos and how to make new gardening beds 491 \ 01:04:58.120 --> 01:05:10.249 \ Jane Carr: Just by putting down cardboard and a bit of compost on top, instead of trying to dig up all your turf and that sort of thing, which just… it keeps lots of carbon in, and is very good for awareness. 492 \ 01:05:11.410 --> 01:05:12.240 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Wow. 493 \ 01:05:14.990 --> 01:05:18.350 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: I'm just going to… I'm just typing a note. 494 \ 01:05:19.600 --> 01:05:22.600 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Frank, would you like to roll on, please? 495 \ 01:05:23.370 --> 01:05:28.510 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: No, I think my point's been answered, so I'll withdraw. 496 \ 01:05:28.510 --> 01:05:32.690 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Okay, we're on to Andrew, then. 497 \ 01:05:33.270 --> 01:05:45.880 \ Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: So, just a quick one on neighbourhood plans. The first thing that's very, very important is that you must, in your neighborhood plan, identify sufficient areas for building. 498 \ 01:05:45.880 --> 01:06:01.760 \ Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: be your allocation of houses, because that gives you a lot of leverage with developers not to touch things that you don't want to be touched. And the second thing that we've done is we've gone through NPPF and the local plan. 499 \ 01:06:01.790 --> 01:06:15.599 \ Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: And what we've done is selected various environmental policies from them, and we have simply interpreted them in terms of the village, you know. 500 \ 01:06:15.840 --> 01:06:17.000 \ Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: So that… 501 \ 01:06:17.530 --> 01:06:18.210 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: deadly. 502 \ 01:06:18.730 --> 01:06:24.130 \ Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: That's pretty well all I think that you need to do in the neighborhood plan. 503 \ 01:06:42.420 --> 01:06:48.160 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Look, this is what I'm gonna do. 504 \ 01:06:48.510 --> 01:07:05.140 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: Actually, just quickly picking up on something, I think it was, what David was saying about, retrofit schemes and getting community housing involved. I do sometimes kind of fall out with some of my colleagues, who I respect hugely, who are working in this area in Scotland, because 505 \ 01:07:05.310 --> 01:07:16.980 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: We have the concept of a just transition, and the concept of making sure that no one gets left behind, and the concept of focusing on the people who will struggle with fuel poverty is really, really important. 506 \ 01:07:17.200 --> 01:07:26.559 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: But the big difference will come from the people who have the discretion to keep paying the fuel bills, but choose not to, because they worry about the environment. 507 \ 01:07:31.370 --> 01:07:37.529 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: all the community schemes that we do, I don't think are going to have the impact that we're looking for. 508 \ 01:07:37.690 --> 01:07:48.590 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: So I do think we need to try and reach out and get those who are well enough off that they don't really have to worry about food waste, or about flying, or about anything else, and get them to change their minds. 509 \ 01:07:48.950 --> 01:07:51.799 \ Frank Deas, Killearn: Or at least become involved and change some of their minds. 510 \ 01:07:52.800 --> 01:08:04.650 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And I think that's going to become more and more important over the years, as the groundswell from the People's Emergency Briefing, I think, grows. This will all be part of it, but absolutely. Penny, you've been very patient. 511 \ 01:08:05.160 --> 01:08:06.970 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Would you like to go now, please? 512 \ 01:08:07.580 --> 01:08:09.860 \ Penny Quilter: Thank you. I was just… 513 \ 01:08:10.080 --> 01:08:21.499 \ Penny Quilter: Couple of points, really. One about allotments, which is my favourite subject, but just to say, about neighbourhood plans, Weymouth have had one, 514 \ 01:08:21.939 --> 01:08:27.430 \ Penny Quilter: what's the word? Approved, you know, last year. And, 515 \ 01:08:27.609 --> 01:08:43.819 \ Penny Quilter: there was a lot we couldn't put in, a lot of things that the community wanted around, you know, environmental targets and protections for land that couldn't be put there. So it's… we started off with grand sort of ambitions and… 516 \ 01:08:43.830 --> 01:08:52.229 \ Penny Quilter: and hopes, that had to be watered down to sort of fit with the current, you know, MPPF, which is, you know, it's good on some things, but it hasn't got everything. 517 \ 01:08:52.229 --> 01:09:04.020 \ Penny Quilter: And one of the ways we got round it is we developed something called a set of environmental targets that the council had as a document that was referenced in it, but we couldn't 518 \ 01:09:04.020 --> 01:09:13.689 \ Penny Quilter: say… put it as part of the policy, we could only have it as a… an ambition, and it included a target for the standard of soil, and how 519 \ 01:09:13.740 --> 01:09:23.630 \ Penny Quilter: sites were left when developers moved off, so that might be of interest to have a look at. It's a rather large document, but… 520 \ 01:09:23.750 --> 01:09:27.250 \ Penny Quilter: You can pick and choose the bits, if you're doing. 521 \ 01:09:27.250 --> 01:09:30.410 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Are you gonna add… are you gonna add that to the chat? 522 \ 01:09:30.410 --> 01:09:34.340 \ Penny Quilter: I can do, yes. And then the other one is really just… is… 523 \ 01:09:34.430 --> 01:09:43.409 \ Penny Quilter: What's… I'm just a resident, but I do work quite closely with the Council, and we're going to have a scrutiny of our allotments 524 \ 01:09:43.500 --> 01:09:55.770 \ Penny Quilter: Coming up. Literally, it's just been approved and said that we can. Partly because of the frustration of, people like myself who are keen. 525 \ 01:09:55.770 --> 01:09:56.210 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Fuck. 526 \ 01:09:56.220 --> 01:10:16.000 \ Penny Quilter: Charles Dowding and No Dig and permaculture, which is all about working with nature and the land and keeping the carbon, you know, locked in. But our allotments are very much, very denuded. The quality of the plots is very poor. 527 \ 01:10:16.930 --> 01:10:20.569 \ Penny Quilter: And there's a lot of pressure on people to sort of… 528 \ 01:10:20.980 --> 01:10:26.739 \ Penny Quilter: Dig it up, get it cultivated, rotate it, and plant it in rows. That feels so… 529 \ 01:10:27.940 --> 01:10:46.090 \ Penny Quilter: well, just painful, I just get very obsessed about it. So I just want… the question is, is that… is anybody doing anything with allotments in any of the parishes, and is there anything that we could learn from, you know, as we go into a scrutiny, sort of process, which I've never been in before, but I'm hoping we will be included as… 530 \ 01:10:46.330 --> 01:10:47.460 \ Penny Quilter: Part of it. 531 \ 01:10:48.150 --> 01:10:49.199 \ Penny Quilter: Thank you. 532 \ 01:10:52.090 --> 01:10:53.709 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Don't you, Gary, please. 533 \ 01:10:54.030 --> 01:10:56.089 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: And thanks, Benny. 534 \ 01:10:56.970 --> 01:11:03.220 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, I just wanted to respond to Frank's, post about the red kites in Argaty, just to say that, 535 \ 01:11:03.870 --> 01:11:12.649 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: I spent many years living in Bonny Bridge, just down the road, and never saw a red kite in my life. I've moved to North Wiltshire, and I see them pretty much every day now. 536 \ 01:11:12.950 --> 01:11:15.960 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Wonderful. 537 \ 01:11:16.310 --> 01:11:19.000 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, they're a big success in the, in this… 538 \ 01:11:19.190 --> 01:11:26.260 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: this area of the country between… and they're now in Somerset as well, they've spread into Somerset. You'll be seeing them quite soon, I believe, Andrew. 539 \ 01:11:26.730 --> 01:11:27.240 \ Emma Stephens: We don't know. 540 \ 01:11:27.900 --> 01:11:28.710 \ Emma Stephens: capture. 541 \ 01:11:30.650 --> 01:11:38.210 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Okay, well, thanks, Andrew, for your comment about the neighborhood plan. Again, people will pick up on that. 542 \ 01:11:38.450 --> 01:11:41.100 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Back to Penny, and I'm gonna have to say… 543 \ 01:11:41.100 --> 01:11:42.259 \ Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: We have kites. 544 \ 01:11:44.360 --> 01:11:51.769 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: I'm just announcing in advance, I'm gonna have to leave in 4 minutes, but, you're very welcome to stay on if someone else will host. 545 \ 01:11:51.890 --> 01:11:54.809 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Penny, you've dropped your call, so… 546 \ 01:11:55.270 --> 01:11:57.990 \ Penny Quilter: I left… I hadn't put my hand down, sorry. 547 \ 01:11:58.290 --> 01:12:00.770 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Oh, that's right. Well… 548 \ 01:12:01.550 --> 01:12:11.439 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: I'm very grateful for all your attendance, and particularly the ideas and the conversations that you sparked. Brilliant, thank you very much. Is there anything else that anyone else wants to add? 549 \ 01:12:11.700 --> 01:12:14.159 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Before I start running for trains. 550 \ 01:12:16.260 --> 01:12:27.950 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: No, well, you've been a wonderful audience, thank you very much. I would love to tell you what I'm going to be talking, or what someone's going to be talking about next week, but I don't know yet. We live in such a well-organized society here. 551 \ 01:12:28.220 --> 01:12:32.779 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones: Take care, everybody, thank you very much for your time, and enjoy the heat as best you can. 552 \ 01:12:32.780 --> 01:12:34.350 \ Sue Burton: Yeah. Bye, everybody! 553 \ 01:12:34.350 --> 01:12:35.120 \ Jane Carr: Everybody! 554 \ 01:12:36.250 --> 01:12:36.775 \ Jane Carr: Bye! *** #### Markdown copy of presentation: ## Efficient Climate Change Actions **Great Collaboration Banter Session 125**\ **24 June 2026**\ **Graham Stoddart-Stones** *** ## The Big Idea > *"The actions people talk about most are often not the actions that matter most."* Popular "feel-good" actions such as recycling and planting individual trees are usually far less effective than actions that significantly reduce emissions or increase long-term carbon storage. *** ## Aim of the Presentation What can individuals, parish councils and community organisations do to combat climate change **most effectively**? The presentation first establishes common principles before exploring some of the less obvious, but more effective, actions. *** ## Most Effective Climate Actions ### Focus on impact, not visibility. *** ## The Impact Principle A relatively small number of actions produce the majority of emissions reductions. *** ## Topics Covered * Individuals (particularly homeowners) * Parish and Town Councils * Community Organisations * Nature Recovery *** ## Individuals — Climate Impact Pyramid ### ★★★★★ Highest Impact * Fly less * Install heat pumps * Improve insulation * Reduce car use * Adopt a more plant-rich diet ### ★★★★ Medium Impact * Install solar PV * Buy renewable electricity * Reduce food waste * Repair rather than replace ### ★★ Lower Impact * Recycling * Reusable shopping bags * Turn off standby appliances * Planting individual trees *** ## Parish Councils Key roles include: * Influence * Convene * Demonstrate * Manage land for nature *** ## Community Organisations — Climate Impact Pyramid ### ★★★★★ Highest Impact * Change social norms * Local influence * Policy engagement ### ★★★★ Medium Impact * Community energy * Repair cafés * Tool libraries * Shared transport ### ★★ Lower Impact * Awareness posters * Occasional litter clean-ups * Token tree planting *** ## Nature Recovery Pyramid ### ★★★★★ Highest Impact * Rewild habitats * Create wetlands * Create ponds * Increase soil carbon * Reduce mowing ### ★★★★ Medium Impact * Native hedgerows * Wildflower planting * Improve habitat connectivity ### ★★ Lower Impact * Ornamental planting * Isolated trees * Formal lawns *** ## Soil Stores Most Carbon Most carbon within healthy ecosystems is stored **beneath the vegetation**, in the soil. A mature oak stores several tonnes of carbon, but: * Species-rich meadows * Wetlands * Scrub habitats can often store even more carbon over time through soil accumulation. *** ## Best UK Plants for Long-Term Carbon Storage ### Large Native Trees * English Oak * Sessile Oak * Beech * Small-leaved Lime * Sweet Chestnut These species can continue accumulating carbon for centuries if left standing. ### Scrub (Often Under-Appreciated) Examples: * Blackthorn * Hawthorn * Gorse * Dog Rose Benefits include: * Building soil carbon * Supporting insects and birds * Storm resilience * Natural regeneration Allowing scrub to develop naturally may often be more effective than planting rows of trees. *** ## Meadows and Long Grass Species-rich grassland stores large quantities of carbon underground. #### Grasses * Red Fescue * Crested Dog's-tail * Meadow Foxtail #### Wildflowers * Bird's-foot Trefoil * Oxeye Daisy * Common Knapweed * Yarrow Deep root systems continually increase soil organic matter. *** ## Wetlands and Ponds Among the most effective habitats for carbon storage. Typical plants include: * Common Reed * Reedmace * Yellow Flag Iris Waterlogged soils slow decomposition, allowing carbon to accumulate. *** ## Preventing Carbon Returning to the Atmosphere Carbon remains stored only while ecosystems remain healthy. ### 1. Increase Soil Carbon Actions include: * Leave roots undisturbed * Minimise digging * Apply mulch and compost * Leave leaf litter * Reduce mowing Soil carbon may remain stored for decades or centuries. ### 2. Protect Mature Vegetation Protecting a century-old tree generally stores more carbon than replacing it with a sapling. Conserving existing habitats is usually better than replacing them. *** ## Additional Measures ### 3. Avoid Burning Avoid: * Bonfires * Burning garden waste * Routine scrub burning ### 4. Use Timber Wisely If trees must be removed: **Better** * Buildings * Furniture * Long-life products **Worse** * Firewood * Biomass fuel ### 5. Maintain Wetlands Draining wetlands exposes stored organic matter to oxygen, rapidly releasing carbon. *** ## Carbon Storage Hierarchy 1. Protect existing mature habitats 2. Restore wetlands 3. Rewild grassland and scrub 4. Plant appropriate native trees 5. Plant ornamental trees 6. Annual flower displays > **"The most effective carbon-capture technology available to a parish council is healthy soil."** This reflects modern ecosystem science and challenges the common assumption that tree planting alone is the answer. *** ## Further Information The presentation directs viewers to the Great Collaboration website: **Individuals Toolkit** Users are encouraged to explore the **Individuals** and **Councils** sections for practical actions and commitments. *** ## Thank You
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