Author: Lesley Webb

Somerset Waste Partnership Services (SWP)
No collections on the Summer Bank Holiday Monday 30 August, means recycling and rubbish services are one day later all week, including Friday pick- ups on Saturday 4 September.
The changes affect collections of recycling, refuse and garden waste, as well as assisted collections. Residents should sort and segregate materials, ensure no recycling – especially food – is in the rubbish bin, and put all waste containers out by 7am.
Recycling sites remain on their usual timetables, with all 16 sites open 9am-4pm on the Bank Holiday Saturday and Sunday weekend. 12 sites will be open 9am- 6pm on Bank Holiday Monday: Bridgwater, Minehead, Taunton, and Williton.
All kerbside collections return to their usual schedules from Monday 6 September.

SWT Council Business Bulletins

Benefice Newsletter 27th August 2021

Police Beat Newsletter AUG 2021

Thank you to everyone who attended Showcase Timberscombe last Saturday. We hope that everybody who attended found it worthwhile. The winner of the free draw for the hamper of local produce was Carl Hobbs.

Attendees took the opportunity to have their say on a number of issues and the Parish Council will be working through their suggestions at their next meeting in September.

60% of those who voted felt that the often damaged village tough should remain in its present position. The Parish Council will now approach ENP and SCC to discuss the best way of repairing the trough, protecting it from future damage and improving its appearance.

SUNDAY AUGUST 29^TH

Meet on Brewers’ Green at 3pm

Local ecologist Graham Boswell, who has been conducting a biodiversity survey for the parish over the summer, will lead a two hour walk on public footpaths to the famed Timberscombe Oak, looking at wildlife habitats along the way.  The views will be fabulous and the pace will be easy, but there’ll be some trudging up the hills and over rough ground: bring water, dress for the weather and wear sensible shoes.  Children are welcome but must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Any questions: please ring Caitlin on 01643 841310 or email cait@globalnet.co.uk

 There is no charge for this event, which is hosted by the Parish Council.

To many people, our village is looking wonderful: lush and green as a tropical rain forest.  To others, parts of it are beginning to look, well, untidy, as our No-Mow May initiative has continued through June and on into July, with Brewer’s Green a mass of wildflowers – or weeds, depending on one’s point of view.

Something we can agree on is that there is a global environmental crisis.  Climate change is affecting everyone: we’ve seen in the news the horrors of the deadly and unprecedented heatwave in Canada and the American North-West, with temperatures of over 49 degrees recorded in British Columbia and the heat and associated wildfires killing hundreds of people and unimaginable numbers of animals and destroying many square miles of forest.  Biodiversity loss is accelerating: insects make up the vast majority of the species on Earth and our planet’s health depends on them, so their disappearance is especially concerning; many of us can remember scraping bugs off the car windscreen when we were children, a chore unknown to today’s youngsters.  And here at home, our lovely River Exe is contaminated with micro-plastics, as are most of the Earth’s waterways.

Governments have been slow to respond to the growing crisis.  However, in 2020 the UK Parliament declared a Climate and Environmental Emergency.  Somerset County and District Councils soon followed suit, along with many other councils, and Parish Councils began signing up too, among them Timberscombe PC.

So, as signatories to the Climate and Environmental Emergency Declaration, what have Timberscombe PC been doing to follow the Government guidelines to encourage practices to mitigate climate change, to manage ‘gardens, parks and public open spaces’ for biodiversity, and to encourage our community to work towards a sustainable low-carbon future?

• We have hosted around 40 representatives of Parish Councils from across West Somerset for a workshop about climate change run by Mark Ward from West Somerset Together.
• We have applied for and received a grant from Somerset County Council’s Climate Emergency Fund to carry out a biodiversity survey of the parish. This survey is currently underway; plans to launch it with a public event had to be abandoned due to covid restrictions, but we plan to hold some nature walks with our ecology experts as well as a public presentation and workshop in the Autumn.  The survey is looking at habitat; promoting biodiversity starts with promoting good habitat for insects and other animals to flourish.  (Let us know if you’d like your wildlife-friendly field or garden surveyed!)
• We have been invited to be part of a Somerset Wildlife Trust project offering support, advice and funding to communities wishing to develop green initiatives.
• We took part in No-Mow May, a national project encouraging us all to leave our mowers in the shed to give our native flowers a chance to bloom. (See: plantlife.org.uk )  We also planted wildflowers on the Green and on the roadside verges (and encouraged some parishioners who had been doing their bit with some great guerrilla planting).
• We are hosting a Timberscombe Showcase event in the village hall on August 21^st to promote groups, activities and services within the village and the surrounding area and provide an opportunity for people to find out what’s going on and give feedback about anything new they would like to see.
• Covid restrictions meant postponing our plans for a village survey and update of the existing parish plan to include more environmentally significant factors; however, this will soon be going ahead.

Which brings us back to Brewer’s Green!  Beautiful and untidy.  Beautiful in its untidiness.  Beautiful in its wildflowers that provide food for the insects upon whose survival we all depend.  We hope everyone can enthusiastically support all the community efforts to encourage environmental awareness and promote biodiversity in our parish.

The Parish Council, July 2021