A Peoples Assembly was held by Colchester Extinction Rebellion (XR) on 4th August 2019.

A further ‘Greening Colchester’ meeting was held by North Essex Eco on 28th September 2019 inviting individuals and groups to develop a plan for Greening Colchester.

Colchester Borough Council declared a Climate Emergency and set up a climate emergency task and finish group; existing group request representation from Eco Essex

Ideas for the action plan have been sorted into 6 environmental themes and are detailed in this action plan

Biodiversity

• Idea to set up a tree planting association in Colchester. Like ‘Once upon a Tree’ (Southend)

Actions
1. Biodiversity Focus Group set up 3rd October 2019

Energy

Actions
1. Energy and Housing Focus Group set up 3rd October 2019

Transport

• -Car club. Hire a car using an app. (CBC)

Actions
1. Transport Focus Group set up 3rd October 2019

Waste and Recycling

• Terracycle are now collecting cigarette butts. Could these be collected? Advised that Colchester do have bins in the town centre for butts (but not currently recycled).
  This scheme is now closed to new collectors. Tendrig Primary Recycling Scheme have been producing a returns label for some members to return this waste back to Terracycle. However, they receive no payment for this and have limited resources so may not be prepared to offer this service for Colchester. Under no circumstances should this waste be given to Terracycle collectors. 
• Can we encourage local cafes to give away used coffee grounds for compost? Posters and other resources are available through Eco Essex.
• Can we form a recycling directory for people to use to see where the various recycling points are for different items in the local area?
  This is available through the en-form page (en-form.org.uk/colchester-recycling-directory/)– perhaps we need to promote this more.
• New Terracycle collection points needed. Volunteers to collect for their locality to make it easier and more accessible for the general public. Then volunteers can drop all recycling to en-form and other Terracycle collecors weekly. Other Terracycle stations are situated across Colchester.

Actions
1. Reducing waste and recycling Focus Group set up 3rd October 2019

 

Water

Business

Actions
1. Business Focus Group set up 3rd October 2019

Life at Home

Actions
1. Life at Home Focus Group set up 3rd October 2019

Schools and Churches

Actions
1. Schools and Chrches Focus Group set up 3rd October 2019

General

• Support, networking and promotion of existing environmental organisations, groups and individuals to help strengthen efforts. Join forces to prevent doubling up.  Eco- Colchester can help with this.
  The following Facebook groups have been set up to promote environmental groups work and events to the public:
  Eco Colchester
  Eco Essex
  en-form
  The following Facebook group was set up to help Environmental groups based in Colchester to support and network with each other. Primarily sharing best practice and providing resources and information on funding, training and best practice:
  Colchester Environment Group
• Support and promotion of other useful Facebook groups such as The Give Away Group. Eco- Colchester can help with this.
• Form partnerships between different organisations, schools and the council. Councils have quite good links with the schools.
  The following Facebook groups ,serving the whole of Essex and  open to any education establishment and their staff, parents and governors have been set up to help with this:
  en-form Eco Schools
  Eco Essex Education
• Research needed into Suffolk Green Campaigns.
• Research into Climate Coalition and Show the Love campaigns and how they work.
• Contact Chamber of Commerce regarding green awards for local businesses to incentivise them.
• Can we get Eco-City status?
• Suggestions for changing Eco Essex Facebook sub ‘groups’ to ‘pages’ so you can post from the various pages making it a lot less confusing for users.
• Suggestion for changing Eco Essex from a closed group to an open one
• CBC are providing market stalls for environmental organisations. En-Form and Repair Reuse Recycle CIC already involved. Eco Essex may be interested to have a stall occasionally.
• Organising a summit between Essex Uni, Colchester General Hospital and Colchester Institute. (CBC)
• ECO Essex – Introduction to Eco Essex by Sam Pitman. Description of the 4 sub-groups of Eco Essex (Eco Essex Business, Eco Essex Education, Eco Essex Recycling Community, Eco Essex Food) ECO Essex -Suggestions for creating a website. Problems regarding this discussed, mainly funding.

Next Steps – Going forward:

-Organise ‘focus’ groups; each one addressing a particular area of concern in Colchester; e.g. tree planting focus group. Once agreed on these groups will be emailed out to volunteers for them to opt in to helping in different areas e.g. Re-Wilding, Transport, Air Pollution, Food etc.

-Once volunteers signed up, set up meetings for each ‘focus’ group.

Representatives of the following organisations were present at the ECO Colchester meeting on the 28th September:

-Alresford Parish

-Colchester Bike Kitchen

-Colchester Borough Council (CBC)

-Colchester Community Group

–Eco Colchester

–Eco Essex

–En-Form

-Essex Girls in Business

-Fingringhoe FB Group

-Keep Britain Tidy

-Repair Reuse Recycle CIC

-Route 51 Cycle Project

-WI, Climate ambassador

-Zero Waste Colchester FB Group / Rowhedge Going Greener