Sustainable Thornbury is a local community group, covering Thornbury and the surrounding villages.
We want to make our area more able to look after itself and be more resilient in the face of environmental challenges such as climate change and reducing resources such as oil and gas.
Amongst other things we have tackled waste, energy and food production as well as running two Ecofairs over the last few years. Our aim is to promote the well-being of everyone living and working in the area, by promoting greater local self-reliance and a more cooperative and inclusive community.
We are now embarking on a long term project to make the area more energy efficient locally by reducing energy needs and increasing energy production.
Meetings are held regularly (approximately monthly) depending on current activities.
Photographs on this page are kindly supplied by John Mills.
Sustainable Thornbury is open to anyone who lives or works in the area and who supports our aims. New members are always welcome.
For more information visit www.sustainablethornbury.org or email .
Thornbury has joined a network of communities across the UK who are leading the way to tackle throw away plastic at source.
The town has been awarded Plastic Free Community status by marine conservation charity, Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), in recognition of the work it has done to start reducing the impact of single-use plastic on the environment.
Registering with the SAS Plastic Free Communities movement, Emma Young pulled together key organisations and businesses in the town to put in place a five-point plan.
The objectives include; setting up a community led steering group, instigating the SAS Plastic Free Schools education programme, getting local council commitment and working with local businesses, organisations and community groups to spread the word and minimise the amount of disposable plastics they use.
"It's been great how many local independent businesses were already doing so much to reduce their single use plastic."
Many local businesses have introduced discounts on customers bringing reusable bottles and have fed back to their suppliers about how they want no plastic packaging.
Local activities have included having a display at the local library, attending an arts event at St Maty's VA School, and helping the Thornbury Litterbusters pick up litter on a monthly basis.
Many groups and organisations have become community allies such as Thornbury Radio, Thornbury in Bloom and Sustainable Thornbury.
"It's great recognition for all the local businesses showing how much they want to stop using single use plastic and how they are continuing to find new ways and initiatives to avoid it. Gaining the status of being Plastic Free doesn't mean the town is Plastic Free but it's a good start and efforts will continue to educate and inform people of the damage plastic is doing and how we can all stop this."
The Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community network aims to free the places where we live from single-use.
Using the five point plan, the aim is to empower communities to kick start local grassroots action, which can then be built upon.
The marine conservation charity, based in St Agnes in Cornwall, says it wants to unite communities to tackle avoidable plastic from the beach all the way back to the brands and businesses who create it. It says it is not about removing all plastic from our lives, but kicking our addiction to throwaway plastic and changing the system that produces it.
Rachel Yates, SAS Plastic Free Communities Project Manager, said: “It’s great to see the work that Thornbury has done to reduce the availability of avoidable plastics, raise awareness and encourage people to refill and reuse.
“We have over six hundred communities across the UK working to reduce single use plastic and the impact it has on our environment. Every step those communities and the individuals in them take is a step towards tackling the problem at source, challenging our throwaway culture and encouraging the habit and system changes we need to see.”
More information:
Emma Young, Community Lead, Plastic Free Thornbury:
Plastic Free Communities: www.plasticfree.org.uk
Surfers Against Sewage: www.sas.org.uk
Plastic Free Communities is an ambitious community initiative designed to unite and empower individuals, small businesses, local government and community groups to reduce their collective plastic footprint and protect the environment together.
Driven by inspirational local volunteers, we are building a new and exciting community movement tackling single-use plastics and plastic litter in our villages, towns, cities and rural locations.
This highly inclusive initiative, created for all ages and backgrounds, is designed to get the whole community active and do something positive to reduce the amount of plastic in the local environment.
We believe that united communities lead to cleaner beaches, streets, parks and riverbanks.
Support the new initiative to make Thornbury a fully accredited Walkers are Welcome (WAW) town. This will encourage people to access local footpaths, leaving their cars at home to enjoy nature and monitor biodiversity while improving their physical and mental health.
The initiative will do this by promoting existing and new trails such as the Heritage Trail, the Streamside Walks and the Biodiversity Ring; - something for everyone- making links with public transport, monitoring and improving footpaths.
Work has already started to achieve WAW status and a Steering Committee has been set up that represents different interests in the town. We need to obtain 1000 signatures to show that Thornbury is serious about becoming a WAW town. A form for you to sign is in the Town Hall, in the main front room on a table on the right. Please help by popping in and signing!
Image of a moth at the Meadow kindly supplied by John Mills
Sustainable Thornbury Orchard Group looks after Morton Bridge Wild Flower Meadow and the adjacent orchard, on behalf of South Gloucestershire Council.
The RHS Award winning Meadow was seeded in late October 2016; it was conceived to encourage our own native flowers and the various pollinators (Bees, Bugs and Butterflies) that depend upon them.
In the last two years yellow cowslips have produced an early, much-needed source of nectar for bees and other insects.
John Mills has been taking extensive photographs of the bees, butterflies and other insects which have benefitted from the newly created meadow habitat.
2020 was a particularly challenging year; not only did the volunteers have to contend Covid, but the Orchard suffered an outbreak of fire blight, a serious disease which can affect apples, pears, and some other members of the Rosaceae family. Thanks to swift, expert treatment the fire blight was eradicated, although the team will have to continue monitoring all the trees very carefully in future.
Image of a dock bug at the Meadow kindly supplied by John Mills
The wet weather in Spring 2021 made it difficult for Yellow Rattle seeds to germinate so after scything the Meadow the team reseeded small patches to regenerate this important wild flower. Plug plants of Scabious were also added, and large clumps of Snowdrops were divided so they could be replanted to increase coverage under the trees.
Thornbury Orchard Group have been planting trees for the Queens Platinum Jubilee and by the end of March will have planted about 70 trees or shrubs to help increase biodiversity and enhance the local environment for our community!
Do come and see the meadow and orchard. They are situated on the streamside walk, opposite the Anchor Inn, on the northern side of Morton Bridge. The meadow flowers are in bloom from April until end of August/September, when the meadow is scythed, and the trees are of interest throughout the year.
We are keen to encourage others with their own local wild-flower and community orchard projects. If you would like some advice, to volunteer with the Thornbury project, or just to be kept informed, please see our web page or e-mail or and we will reply to you.
Climate Action Thornbury and Surroundings (CATS) was set up as a separate subgroup of Sustainable Thornbury in the wake of the IPCC report released in October 2018 that said the world had 12 years to prevent climate catastrophe.
The group believes that Thornbury and the surrounding villages need to become carbon neutral by 2030. While this is well in advance of the UK Government's commitment to become carbon neutral by 2050, the group believes that there is no time to lose in getting started and that for our community a 2030 target is achievable.
The group will build on previous successes of Sustainable Thornbury and will step up the level of activity to a whole new order of magnitude.
We are taking a holistic approach and is creating action groups to work on:
In addition to the action groups above we will have people looking at:
We are currently contributing to the campaign to save Vilner Lane Wood and we also want to campaign to local developers to create meaningful wildlife spaces in their developments and also to incorporate renewable energy systems into new buildings.
With the group still being new, it is a great time to become involved. Whatever your skills or particular interests we will find a way for you to help us.
Visit our facebook page to find out more, fill out the contact form on www.sustainablethornbury.org or email . We are also on twitter.
Come along to the Sustainable Thornbury Green Drinks the first Wednesday of each month (except in January when it will be the second) from 7-9pm at Hawkes House.
The photo from our launch is courtesy of Stephen Bingham.
@mythornbury