Dear All, 

 As many of our villages were seriously flooded during 1998 & 2007 and now many have flood teams. I believe the information would be appropriate as an article in your newsletters or web site,

 WCC invite you to the Warwickshire Flood Summit, taking place on Saturday 1st April in Stratford-upon-Avon. The event will start at 10am and will finish around 4:30pm.  Building on the successes of the 2014 and 2015 Flood Summits, we are looking to engage with even more members of the public with the 2017 event, by making it an open public event.

 The main objectives of the event are three-fold.

1. To raise awareness of flood risk and promote realistic expectations of the role of Flood Risk Management Authorities, leading to action on the part of residents and businesses, therefore leading to greater resilience.
2. To let people know that they are not alone, through displaying the positive community resilience work that has been achieved throughout the county.
3. To gathering views from the public, especially with respect to the implementation of the Warwickshire Local Flood Risk Management Strategy one year after its adoption by Cabinet in April 2016.

 The event will be held in two locations within Stratford.  Firstly, in the Stratford Arts House (Rother Street, Stratford, CV37 6LU) we will have stalls from various partners of ours, split into various themes (planning and development, maintenance, community resilience etc).  Here, people will have the chance to speak to staff from the various agencies (EA, Severn Trent etc) and learn more about what they do to manage the flood risk in Warwickshire.

 The second venue will be along Waterside, next to the RSC.  Here we will have an outside public display area.  On display will be a new temporary flood defense barrier from the Environment Agency along with one of their emergency response vehicles, a Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service boat and equipment, the National Flood Forum information trailer, and some WROC instant response vehicles.  As with the indoor exhibition, staff from the relevant agencies will be there to answer any questions the public may have. 

 At 3pm there will be a brief presentation on the theme of the Flood Summit – ‘is the Warwickshire Flood Strategy working?’ – followed by a Question & Answer session with a panel of experts from major flooding agency

 This should be an extremely productive event, with a great turnout by our partners expected, and hopefully a very strong public attendance.  We hope to see you there on the day.  

 Let me know if your attending and I will meet you there : 

 Mike Brain : mikebrain@warwickshire.gov.uk. Mobile 07980308568

 Kind Regards

 Mike

FRIENDS OF WELFORD SCHOOL (“FOWS”)

FOWS have teamed up with UK Textile Recycling to provide a recycling service for the benefit of the school and the local community.

The school has a blue clothing bank located on the playing field adjacent to Sunflowers Nursery.  Donations of clothing/textiles can be made and the school is paid per tonne of textiles collected.  This has the benefit of encouraging recycling and re-use whilst also raising money for the school.

UK Textile Recycling is a family run business based in Northamptonshire with over 15 years’ experience of recycling textiles and clothing.

The following items can be donated:

• Adult and children’s clothing
• Shoes and trainers (in pairs only)
• Handbags and belts
• Sheets, curtains and towels

All items should be clean, and placed in a plastic carrier bag in the clothing bank.  Once collected the items are sorted.  Good quality clothing is exported for use in under-developed countries.  Unwearable items are recycled into household products such as car insulation, furniture padding and artists’ painting paper.  Absorbent materials, such as cotton and linen, are cut into industrial wiping rags, and other materials, such as wool, are either shredded and made into felt, or pulled to make new yarn.

Further information can be found on the UK Textile Recycling website, www.uktextilerecycling.co.uk

We hope the all local residents will make use of this facility and help us to continue to raise much needed funds for our village school.

Thank You.

The FOWS Team

Are you interested in wild plants or would like to learn more about them? As the weather warms and the days get longer we are looking for people to help us.

The National Plant Monitoring Scheme is helping us to understand what is happening to different habitats across the UK and is set to run for a number of years. The Scheme has been running for two survey seasons and over 900 volunteers have signed up and been out surveying. One of the reasons the scheme has enjoyed such good success in attracting volunteers is because of the support of local parish councils. Many of these volunteers are new to plant surveying and have found the scheme accessible, are enjoying taking part and are exploring places to close to them and finding out new things. Volunteers are supported by materials which are sent to them, online resources and free training courses.

Do you enjoy being outside? There are still opportunities to get involved with the scheme as a volunteer. In fact the more volunteers we have the more information is generated allowing us to get an even better understanding of what is happening in the landscape.

Who we are and what we need:

This scheme is a partnership between Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI); JNCC; Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and Plantlife and is backed by the government. Volunteers are recruited and supported to survey 5 plots in a kilometre square close to where they live. The plots will be surveyed twice a year. The kilometre squares to monitor have been identified by stratified random sampling. The plants have been chosen as indicators of the health of individual habitats. There are 3 levels volunteers can participate at depending on confidence and knowledge and support will be provided both through training; web and telephone.

More help please:

 Across Warwickshire there are still 19 squares available to survey.

The live map on the NPMS website shows the squares that are available: http://www.npms.org.uk/square-near-me-public?dynamic-return_all_squares=true

To sign up please visit www.npms.org.uk or for further information please email support@npms.org.uk or phone 01722 342743.

Thank you for your support

Hayley

Hayley New

NPMS Volunteer Coordinator

Direct Dial: 01722 342743

Mobile: 07464 318949

14 Rollestone St, Salisbury, SP1 1DX

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