Minutes of General Meeting of Linlithgow Climate Challenge 07.12.09
Minute Sec - Thanks to Rose.

Present: 18
Apologies: Peter Roberts, Chris Milne, Peter Fairweather & John Buckley

Alan is to send out the minutes of the previous meeting for approval. (they are all online)

The following were discussed:

The Wave, Glasgow 05.12.09
Approximately 7,000 people marched between 11am -12.30pm. It was reported by William to be quiet and orderly. Although all the NGOs had placards, there were no other banners like ours. There were speakers at the beginning and end, and several organisations had information tents to browse. Elizabeth said she had photos for Alan to put on the website.

Tree o’clock
Mel reported that 1,400 trees were planted in 20 minutes. Kirsty said they were filming for “Landward” BBC2 11th Dec. The planters were entertained by the Rugby Club Ladies choir singing carols.

Ride Planet Earth
Dave spoke of a major cycle ride ending in Copenhagen; letters were to be handed out to the politicians.

Tokyo TV
LCC were part of an 8 mins slot on Japanese TV last week, having been filmed on energy an audit, at the farmer’s market and in the LCC shop. The recording can be viewed on our website.

Carbon Footprints of Linlithgow Primary Schools
The children of Linlithgow Primary Schools laid their carbon footprints artwork on the Peel recently. The footprints are to be handed to Ed Miliband.

Treasurer’s Report
Following the recent film night some more, very welcomed money has just come in to offset the large expense of these events.

Energy Saving Group
George reported that we had done 3 out of 7 areas. 34 audits were being analysed – 50% of these had already installed cavity wall insulation. Storage in the loft was preventing some people insulating the top of their house adequately. Some thermal imaging had been undertaken revealing interesting detail like under floor heat loss. There are another 4 areas to do, so unsurprisingly, this project is still under budget.

Food and Gardening
Mel reported that the bare rooted fruit trees project was ongoing and there will probably be a meeting in January for pruning.
She is hoping for a local food event in February and would welcome any ideas on this.
The successful Harvest Feast will hopefully be repeated next year.
Mel explained Community Supported Agriculture C.S.A. may be a possibility – described as “a box scheme with more commitment”, people would sign up, for 1 year, to work on the farms during the busy periods.
William asked about gleaning the fields after vegetable crops had been harvested and was told he would probably have to queue behind the sheep!

LADAS
Kirsty said the Leisure Centre site was off as far as using it for allotments; Doomsdale was contaminated and Beecraigs very stony and too far away for most people. She suspected that local farmers were not keen to offer land in case they couldn’t get us off in order to sell the land for housing when the time was right. The other option is the Poor House site at St Michael’s hospital which also has difficulties. Kirsty is trying to identify small plots of land around the town that might be suitable. Apparently Clarendon House is not available. It was suggested that another estimate is obtained for the roadway at Kettilstoun.

Transport
Jenny talked about the signed cycle route that is to be defined in the Springfield area.
She also said that she had applied for £5,000 from Cycling Scotland for her Bike Trailer Scheme.
Jenny and Dave spoke about the proposed car park on the Edinburgh Road. This was felt to be less than ideal without some adjustments.
They also mentioned trailer hire from Beecraigs.

Renewables
William reminded of the showcase event in March and that the potential venue at Cross House was to be visited this week. The display was to include the idea of Peak Oil in that we need to do something domestic as well as large scale applications. The event was to be family friendly.

Waste
Rose said the Kitchen Canny Project is on going and hoped to find the second 100 volunteers after the holiday period, as well as chasing up the stragglers from the first 100.

Temporary Shop
The shop, previously Astrantia, will only be available until the end of December 2009. Alan is asking for other options after Christmas, but other groups are now interested in getting their own access.

Resilience - LCC Newsletter
Alan said he had a new draft in progress and welcomed any input from members.

The formal part of the meeting was concluded. This was followed by mulled wine and delicious home baking produced mainly by Alan’s wife Margo, although George brought a memorable banana cake. Thanks to the cooks and to Alan’s hens for the eggs!
The evening continued with a festive quiz, which included some intricate origami.
Thanks to Dorte for the huge time and effort that went into the preparation of the quiz, the paper folding and the prize nibbles.
Our irrepressible William rounded off the evening with a surprise party game to finish on a high note.
The meeting finished at 9.45pm