Congleton Sustainability Group meeting minutes, download the full meeting minutes HERE.
Highlights include:
Dane Valley Community Energy.
No real change from the last meeting. Still waiting for wall renovation to take place.
Issue around Derwent Engineering and when they would be able to commit to the work. Still hoping for Spring 2018 but could be more like Spring 2019.
Community Share drive will be dependent on the above time table.
Extraction permissions have been sent to the Environment Agency, full planning application should go in by the end of the year.
Next newsletter should be out soon.
Neighbourhood Plan.
Monday 13th November is the last day of the 6 week consultation process. The steering group will then meet to discuss the results of the consultation and add anything significant before forwarding to Cheshire East to prepare for the Regulation 15 stage.
The final stage to adoption will be a public referendum. This completed document will include a delivery plan of actions which will help some of our long term project planning.
The Old Saw Mill .
Café. This is going very well and showing a 600 to 700% on last year when first opened. More staff have been taken on both paid and volunteers.
PR /Events. Harriet is working towards her NVQ Level 3 and making great progress getting our message out to the general public with some god turnouts resulting for our recent activities.
Partnership. PA wished to record OSM’s thanks to The Partnership for its financial support in the extra power sockets and equipment required to meet our energy demands with all that is now going on at the centre.
AJ, Cider & Vinegar/ CSG relationship. PA /DJ reported on the substantial growth in both production and overheads since taking the drink production in house. The upfront purchasing of bottles, labels and various pieces of equipment that was previously the responsibility of the outsourced juicer has had to be met by OSM. Two directors have loaned the OSM close on £5000 which will need to be paid back through sales/ 2017/18 profits.
Once this has been completed then an agreement will need to be reached between OSM & CSG on the level of profit that should go towards future operating costs and towards CSG projects. PA, DJ & PR are working on a paper which will lead to a PENCE per bottle agreement (30p/40p) which will then be annually negotiated.
CSG will need to draw up a list of potential projects (possible ideas drawn for the emerging NH Plan) which can then be made public and meet our community promise to use AJ to improve our environment.
Storage for the product is an issue, the Community Store at The Park has no space available, if anyone is aware of places that may be of use please let the production team know.
DJ shared a recording document with the group. This shows production Volumes, Dates and Batch Codes by Product on one spreadsheet, with Sales by Batch Code, Type and Quantity on another. This will be vital information for various reasons as the “business” grows and accurate stock and sales figures become a requirement.
Green space / In Bloom – P.Pinto.
MG. Major successes for Congleton In Bloom, with Gold and Best Small Town in the North West, which once again puts us into the Britain In Bloom National Competition. So plenty of new ideas and commitments for 2018. PA stated that The Rossendale Trust involvement at OSM may offer an opportunity for work with them on improving the environment in the around the area local to OSM.
Next Meeting:-
Mon 4th December 2017 , The Old Saw Mill ,10.00am
