Zero Waste project

Chew Magna Church Hall, April 23
The Chew Magna Zero Waste Project held an extremely successful Open Day on Saturday the April 23. The response was overwhelming with the Church Hall in Chew Magna full for the whole time as people had the opportunity to see the exhibition, talk to those already involved, listen to presentations and take part in discussions. As a result nearly 150 people have signed up to be part of this exciting project.

The project is split into four groups: Energy & Transport, Waste & Recycling, People & Consumption and the Converging World Group. Each group now aims to develop schemes that will move the parish, and the valley, towards the concept of a zero waste society. The Open Day included an exhibition and presentation from students at the University of Bath, Department of Mechanical Engineering. The students have conducted a survey of the parish and have produced recommendations for a transformation to renewable energy sources.

Other features of the day were local food production, fair trade, eco-tourism, the SOFA project for recycling large items and white goods, how to maximise the use of the green box recycling run by B&NES, ideas for composting, all forms of energy saving and renewable schemes, lift sharing, car pools and many other ideas. One attraction of great interest was a presentation of the architectural concept plans for the development of the Old Water Mill in Tunbridge Road as a resource for the project.

For more info contact Ian Roderick on 01275 333455 or email to ian@dovetail.co.uk .

Pensford man to direct epic balloon trip

Alan Noble

A Pensford man will be Flight Director when an Indian pilot attempts to become the first person to take a hot-air balloon to a world record height of 70,000 feet. Alan Noble, of Byemills, will be responsible for the planning and execution of the epic and dangerous flight by Dr Vijaypat Singhania, an Indian industrialist and aviator who plans to launch from Mumbai in November.

With a volume of 1,600,000 cubic feet the balloon will be nearly 20 times larger than the sporting balloons that are regularly seen in the sky over the Chew Valley. The huge envelope - the part that holds the hot-air - is being constructed by Cameron Balloons in Bristol, where Alan works. The pressurised gondola is being designed and built in Glastonbury by a team led by Alan's friend Andy Elson.

"At 70,000 feet altitude there is little more than 3 per cent of the earth's atmosphere remaining, which is why the balloon has to be so large. The air temperature will be around minus 60 degrees C. and strangely enough," says Alan, "despite the extreme temperature the pilot's blood would boil due to the low air pressure if his life support system was to fail."

During the attempt Alan will run the Flight Control Centre in Mumbai and be in constant contact with the pilot, the local air traffic control authority, and the Indian Air Force, which will be keeping the 'block' of air in which the balloon is travelling free from other aircraft.

Alan is the world's top Flight Director for projects of this type having filled the role for the successful Breitling round-the-world balloon, record attempts by American millionaire Steve Fossett, previous hot-air and gas balloon altitude records, and the first ever transatlantic balloon race.

New book of old photographs of the Wrington Vale

Burrington Post Office

A book containing about 250 old photographs of villages around the Wrington Vale, including Blagdon, Burrington and Churchill, has just been published. It is by Langford resident Stan Croker, who has been collecting old postcards of the area for nearly 20 years, but as he was born in Redhill and ran a building business in the area, he has a wealth of local knowledge draw on.

The title of the book is 'Picture Postcards of the Early 1900s, The Wrington Vale', but a small proportion of the images are old photographs rather than post cards, and the earliest of these are actually 19th century. Stan did much of the pre-press work of scanning photogrpahs and setting the text himself, after deciding to publish early last year. The idea of a book evolved out of slide shows he presented for Langford History Group and others. The 138-page book costs £11.50 and is available from local shops, or from Stan Croker, Woodland Cottage, Bath Road, Langford, BS40 5DJ.

Grebes and ducks star in new Chew lake video
Richard Brock, producer of some of the BBC's most highly-rated natural history series, is about to release a video about Chew Valley Lake. It is hoped that the video will be launched at the Chew Magna fete on May 21.

The video's running time will probably be cut down to 60 minutes from the many hours of filming that Richard has done from 1997 to 2004 at the lake, at all hours, in all seasons, all weathers and all moods - from droughts to great storms. He explains that this all arose just out of personal interest, and was never intended to be part of a major work for broadcasters such as the BBC, but that it now fits neatly into his strategy of promoting local film-making around the world to fund local conservation.

"It started in 1997, after I had just left the BBC, when there was a particularly severe cold spell, and I thought I'd go up to the lake. It was just beginning to freeze, and there was only a little bit of water left. I carried on filming throughout the year, and kept on in succeeding years, as I became more and more interested in what I was discovering. The final film will follow the succession of the seasons through the year and concentrates on the lives of four sets of characters - the Greater Crested Grebes - elegant, highly strung birds, the Coots - rather irritable neurotic characters, the male Ruddy Ducks - comically desperate in their displays and efforts to find a mate, and lastly the swans.

Much of the footage was shot, using top-end amateur cameras rather than professional cameras, at hides around the lake. Just one sequence has been recycled from Richard¹s earlier hobby film 'Moorhens: Sex and Violence on the River Chew' an epic which generated extra interest by the omission of the word 'moorhens' from publicity prior to its first screening in Chew Magna, some years ago. This was all a far cry from Richard's most acclaimed works, such as 'Life on Earth' and 'The Living Planet', fronted by David Attenborough, but was an important part of the progression away from high-profile TV blockbuster styles of production to the more conservation-led work he is doing now.

He explains: "Those series with David Attenborough were wonderful, but also frustrating in that I felt we should be promoting a higher level of concern and engagement in trying to conserve the planet and its wildlife. They inform and inspire a sense of wonder, but they don't necessarily change attitudes."

He has developed an organisation which is now addressing this problem of balancing the emphasis of entertainment with positive action for conservation. He has set up the Brock Initiative as a way of promoting local film-making to encourage and fund local conservation projects, and a number of similarly minded young film makers around the world are adopting the Brock formula. Richard himself has already done a couple of videos of the Kingsbridge area of Devon which are raising funds for local conservation, and he is now working on a film of the Ibererian Lynx, which is down to maybe a hundred animals left in the wild in southern Spain.

Another ongoing project is closer to home ­ he has been filming at Clutton, where a large pond was created a few years ago by Steve Willcox, now a B&NES councillor. He has been following the development of the pond's ecosystem as more and more species arrive and proliferate or decline according to the competition and the prevailing conditions. Richard has made 100 or so films since he left the BBC in 1995, but he hates the idea of these films sitting gathering dust when the species they celebrate are at risk, if the footage could be mobilising opinions where they count, in the localities where the wildlife exists.

He says: "I believe it's payback time for wildlife television. It can afford to. Showing the truth on BBC4 or some minority channel is not the answer. Showing it where it counts, is."

For more info about Richard's Brock Initiative, visit www.brockinitiative.org

Rowland Janes

Bike ride for Special Care Baby Unit
So what will you be doing on May 14? Catching up with the chores or maybe if you're lucky sunning yourself in the garden (fingers crossed for some warm weather). Two valley residents have very different plans for that weekend. Barry Smith of Bishop Sutton and Mark Summers of Felton will be setting off on a bike ride from Lands End to John O'Groats to raise money for the Special Care Baby Unit at St Michael's Hospital. Undertaking the thousand miles from Lands End to John O'Groats is quite a journey for anyone, but for novice cyclists Barry and Mark it will prove a real challenge.

They have been inspired to undertake this journey following Barry and his wife Lisa's experience at the hospital last summer. In June last year Lisa went into labour with twins: their daughter Elena was born with no complications but their son Archie suffered a placenta abruption and was severely deprived of oxygen. Sadly he died just two days old.

Barry said: "I can't begin to describe just how kind and supportive the staff at the unit were to all of us as a family and the high standard of care given to Archie. Some of the equipment supplied is provided by donation making life more comfortable for children and their families, so my brother-in-law Mark and I are doing this ride to raise money for the unit."

Donations can be sent to Barry at 16 Parkfield Gardens, Bishop Sutton, Bristol BS39 5XF or you can ring him on (01275) 333268. Lisa said: "We have already raised over £1,500 and are hoping this figure will go up and up."

Yes vote for North Somerset housing transfer
North Somerset Council¹s tenants have voted in favour of the council's plan to transfer its housing to the newly-formed, not-for-profit North Somerset Housing. In a secret postal ballot run by the Electoral Reform Society, 66.2 per cent of tenants cast their vote, with 76.5 per cent of these being in favour of the switch.

Commenting on the ballot, Cllr Isabel Cummings, Executive Member for Housing and Benefits, said: "I would like to thank the tenants for voting in such large numbers and for giving the proposal their support. We now have a clear mandate to move forward with the transfer to North Somerset Housing and create a better housing future. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the Tenants' Forum and Tenants' Panel for all of the hard work they have put in over the last few years to secure the best possible outcome for existing and future tenants."

Chris Perry, an independent member of the North Somerset Housing Shadow Board and its chair, added: "On behalf of the tenants, councillors and independent members on the shadow board, I would like to thank the tenants for their support. We will do everything in our power to justify that support by delivering improved services together with more modernisation and improvement works. We now look forward to working closely with the council to deliver on the promises made."