Melksham Environment Group (About)
Next Event - 25th October 2024Transport User Group relaunch - 14:30 and 18:30 at the Melksham Campus - all welcome. We have plenty of ideas and no preplanned outcome. Melksham has an impressive record over the last decade with improved public transport (some setbacks, mind!) but still has a long way to go in some ways
Update - 12th October 2024
Several Members joined friends from Bradford-on-Avon, Devizes, Colerne and Urchfont in meeting our new MP, Brian Mathew, to help let him know our concerns and approaches and how he can assist in the constituancy and wider. Brian has a substantial and deep environmental knowledge already, but yet at the same time can be most effective in his work with the deeper knowledge, support and help of the electorate of all views and political persuations.
Update - 13th September 2024
Very successful committee / founding structure meering last night. Appointemnts are Shirley as Chair, Gill as Sectretary, Sue (subject to her confirmation) as Treaurer, Graham as Project Manager, Nate, Miriam and Mike forming the rest of the committee. We are going with the constitution as laid out on this site initially, tuning as we go on, but that structure gives us what we need for bank account, group insurance, etc. We also agreed to have a modest membership fee, with each of the committee present seeding the group to cover the first year's insurance. More in Gill's excellent minutes, at https://www.mkmeg.org.uk/minutes/20240912.pdf
Big "Thank you" to all the members who helped at the food are river festival, where we reached a lot of people with our leaflet; thanks also to the Town Council for hosting us on this occasion
Next Committee Meeting - 18:30 on 9th October. Constituency wide meeting with MP on 12th October. Please ask via info@mkmeg.org.uk if you would like to join the committee.
Update - 30th August 2024
Upcoming events in Melksham
12th September 2024 - Open MEG Committee meeting
25th October 2024 - Melksham Transport Group
Update - 24th August 2024
Come and chat to us at - founding committee members will be at the Melksham Food and River Festival on 31st August and 1st September, our leaflets on the Town Council stand. Our founding general meeting on 12th September.
Update - 14th August 2024
Short Domain name https://www.mkmeg.org.uk added
Facebook group moved to https://www.facebook.com/groups/mkmeg
Offered a place to help promote MEG at Food and River Festival 31.8 and 1.9
Committee / planning meeting 12th, 13th or 19th September
Update - 7th August 2024
Moved site to new server - under test
Update - from 20th July 2024
We had a successful walk in the Melksham Carnival Parade last weekend, handing out around 1000 leaflets (on the 'greenest' paper on offer) introducing the groupan suggesting to people how the could be kinder to the environemnt and have things work really well and indeed better for themselves.
Navigate panels of the brochure via https://www.mkmeg.org.uk/brochure.html
Update - 6th July 2024
Congratulations to Brian Mathew on his election as the new MP for the Melksham and Devizes Constituency, and our thanks to Michelle Donelan for all the hard work she has put in for us in recent years.
The Melksham Environment Group team will be meeting during the coming week and will be at the Melksham Carnival on Saturday 13th July.
* A priority of the new government is to "Set up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean energy firm to create jobs, cut bills and invest in clean energy"
* On 17th July, the King's Speech will include a bill to "Set up Great British Railways ..." and the manifesto promises to "Create a new rail passenger watchdog to improve standards"
* On housing, the manifesto promises to "Reform the planning system and reinstate local targets to help build 1.5 million homes over five years" and talks of "fast tracking the approval of brownfield sites and release some 'low quality' green belt for housing.
We will have a further update for you by the time the Melksham Carnival parades. Further manifesto summary ((here)).
27th June 2024
The majority of candidates and almost 80 members of the public attended our hustings last night at Spencer Sports and Social Club. A very useful evening. Recording of hustings at ((here))
25th June 2024
Live stream will be at https://www.facebook.com/share/p/JcCMs1sNJ2K3WWgw/?mibextid=WC7FNei
21st June 2024
Hustings publicity out and you'll see it in all sorts of places. Our HOG (Hustings organising group) meeting frequently online.
Press - see ((here)) for our press release
Full details - see ((here)).
12th June 2024
Our non-selective hustings is a GO! for 26th June 2024.
Decision made - all candidates contacted and the majority will be there. Venue, chair, format all fixed. See ((here)) for details.
5th June 2024
A general election has been called for 4th July, and at the time of writing five candidates (PPCs - Prospective Paliamentary Candidates) have declared themselves as standing. Yesterday evening, we liaised with representatives of key environenmental groups in Bradford-on-Avon, Devizes, Calne, Colerne and Urchfont to discuss with a view to arranging a hustings at which all candidates will be invited to answer questions concering their policies and actions should they be elected, with a skew at the hustings towards environmental issues. Format, venue, date, hosts all discussed (and much already tentatively agreed, with options and candidates approached overnight). We are delighted to have the support and active involvement of the folks who have previously organised and run a hustigs in this area - we are all very much coming together as a team in the constituency.
Our Melksham admins can be reached at hustings@melkshamenvironmentgroup.org.uk (and phone contacts, etc, included in candidate approaches already made). We welcome the addition and involvement of other groups in the constituency, and of any other candidates for the seat as we are still a couple of days from closure of nominations.
This news page and a follow up item will be posted here as things become clearer over the next week.
From our draft constitution
Objectives
The purposes of the Group is:
To educate, inform, inspire, involve and empower all those living, working or visiting the Melksham Community Area in averting, mitigating or adapting to, the Climate Crisis.
To work towards these aims, the Group will operate ... [internet presence]
The group works on a partnership ethos and aims to fulfil its aims through and with the established community organisations such as (but not limited to) town, parish and unitary councils and their subgroups and committees within the Melksham Area. The group will also work in close liaison with other ike minded groups in the wider parliamentary constituency and next tier authourity area in which we are located
The group plans to be a permanent contributor to its aims, updating as appropriate through avenues the commitee agrees. It may also arrange and join events that may be of interest to current and potential members and publish information about relevant events arranged by third parties.
