It was marked on Saturday, March 21st by a concert in the village Memorial Hall given by Skipton Brass who played a programme of wildlife friendly music specially devised by conductor Adrian Austin and band member and ecologist Gordon Haycock. The concert was hosted by Addingham Civic Society and Addingham Beer Festival provided refreshments.
AEG founder members Rick Battarbee and Jan Hindle write: “We came together in early 2016 as a very small group, part of Addingham Civic Society. Full of zeal we set out our “green vision” and began by building an email contact list of supporters in the village.
“Our first project was concerned with attempts to change Bradford Council grass cutting regimes of roadside verges and village green spaces allowing wildflowers to establish, grow and set seed.
“We conducted a questionnaire survey of owners of houses with solar panels, a questionnaire survey of residents who had been affected by the 2015 Boxing Day flood, and invited Jon Grey, of the Wild Trout Trust, to assess the condition of our becks for trout.
“We raised concerns about plummeting hedgehog numbers nationally and in the village, we started monitoring village bird populations and, with our volunteers, scouts and beavers, organised a major clean-up, collecting litter, much of it old and partially buried, from across our green spaces.
“A major fillip in the early days was our success, working together with the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, in winning a £20,000 grant to fund work on the becks, focussing on flood risk and water quality. We called it the 4Becks project, and it was the start of our “Beck Stewards” programme which continues today.
“In 2021 we helped to create “Climate Action Addingham” (CAA) a village working group established by the Parish Council and Civic Society. Its aim is to bring all residents, community groups and businesses in the village together to promote more sustainable ways of living, focusing on energy, waste, water and nature. We now with CAA and other groups organise an annual “How green is our village” meeting in November each year to review progress.
“AEG now has over 400 members, a facebook page with more than 1000 followers, an active and committed volunteer group of almost 100 and a children’s group, the Saplings.
Last year, a typical year, our achievements in numbers included, in no particular order:
• Running 12 pop-up refill stalls in Mt Hermon Chapel
• Collecting and analysing water samples from 54 sites along our becks
• Planting 100 trees at Marchup Heights, Silsden Road
• Planting 1276 trees and hedge plants at Hardwick House Farm on Addingham Moorside
• Planting 75 trees on the river bank at the back of St Peter’s Church Hall
• Removing over 100 redundant plastic tree guards
• Managing two community allotments
• Organising one Jumble Trail with 40 stalls
• Running 11 Saturday morning Saplings sessions for children
• Sorting and cleaning 150 mason bee cocoons
• Commissioning three wildlife greetings cards and one Christmas card
• Collecting over 40 bags of litter from our green spaces by our six litter wardens
• Organising an annual litter pick with cubs and scouts
• Managing ten wildflower mini meadows, around the village and helping with the establishment of two on the Moorside
• Bashing thousands of invasive Himalayan balsam plants over 25 sessions
• Publishing two walks, one a local geology trail by Will Varley and one a Moorside Environment Walk as a contribution to Bradford City of Culture
• Monitoring bee and butterfly populations by walking 10 fixed transects monthly
• Receiving bird records from over 30 residents and walking five monthly bird transects
• Surveying 10 homes for energy efficiency with our thermal imaging camera
• Organising two month-long displays in the village Hub
• Setting up a new bat group, and establishing three transects
• Delivering leaflets on “using water wisely” to every home (2000 of them) in the village in July
• Delivering leaflets on “reducing carbon footprints” to every home in September
“We and everyone in the village have done and are doing quite a bit, and the village is on the move, but is it enough? Is it fast enough? The answer is mixed.
“Our carbon footprints remain stubbornly high and are not any different from the national average, our household waste recycling rates don’t seem to be improving, most of our invasive species are here to stay, and our becks are still as polluted as they were ten years ago!
“On the other hand, water quality in the Wharfe should improve following Yorkshire Water’s major investment in sewage treatment infrastructure at Low Mill and elsewhere along the river, the spread of invasive Himalayan balsam in the village is under control, residents are fully committed to recycling household waste and to the general principle of recycling, many wildflower mini-meadows attractive to pollinators have been created and the numbers of electric vehicles and solar panel installations are steadily increasing.
“And there is also much more awareness amongst the wider public about what needs to be done and how to do it.
“So as we look forwards to the next ten years we will continue our work with our wonderful volunteers and other groups in the village and in the region, remain optimistic and keep moving towards a greener future.”
For more information about AEG visit: https://www.addinghamenvironmentgroup.org.uk/
For more information about CAA visit: https://www.climateactionaddingham.info/index.php/
