Lunchtime Meeting - 12.45pm - Speakers Dawn Meadows and Jon Lill of Oswestry CEC - Zoom

Oswestry CEC was represented by Dawn Meadows and Jon Lill.

Hello everybody,

We are writing to let you know what is happening to OCE now. We were appointed directors at an Extraordinary General Meeting on 6^th December, and in addition several new Members joined.

The OCE’s new project is very similar to the Regal/BeWise project, i.e. the setting up and running of a community centre for all the inhabitants of Oswestry and its surrounding villages and hamlets.

The climate emergency and its related loss of biodiversity is the defining issue of our time, so OCE’s focus for this new project is on the kind of community centre that helps build community resilience and adaptation for a sustainable future. These kinds of community centres, nowadays usually known as climate emergency centres, are beginning to spring up all over the UK – several are already up and running, and many others are looking for a building, setting up as a legal entity, raising funds, etc.

The group aiming to set up a climate emergency centre in Oswestry is fortunate to have been able to take up the offer of taking over Oswestry Community Enterprise, and we are very grateful to Ingrid and the other directors for giving us this opportunity.

So, what do climate emergency centres do exactly, you are probably asking!

Essentially, they provide a building that acts as an inspirational hub for the benefit of the planet and the people. Each one is different of course, because no two towns or cities are the same, so each will seek to fit in with the needs and requirements of its local community, with the aim of lessening the impact of climate change and loss of biodiversity, and of making the community better able to meet these changes.

For instance, we ourselves are considering the establishment of a zero-waste shop within Oswestry’s CEC space, with a vegetarian/vegan café running alongside it. The café may also provide simple but healthy meals for those finding it difficult to meet the costs of feeding their families; with energy bills likely to rise by another 50% in the spring, this is a situation that will affect many more people in and around Oswestry than before. And of course, Covid continues to have its impact on society.

We imagine too, giving houseroom to the fixperts of that wonderful new institution Repair Café, along with a Repair-Revive-Upcycle clothing & textiles workshop; a toy library and a tool library; space for an eco-business start-up, or a local craftsperson with a young apprentice; maybe there’s space to learn about vegetable gardening, from window boxes to no-dig and permaculture; and there’ll be room for talks and demonstrations, for meetings between local groups and with experts on green energy, home insulation, solar panels, etc providing information and support.

We imagine a space to support local issues, develop stronger community relations and build solutions to the climate and biodiversity crisis - we imagine an environmentally focussed, versatile community space where we can all share information, knowledge, and resources to support and encourage each other in the years to come.

We hope you will continue to support us, as you did the Regal/BeWise project, and we welcome any of you who want to help us find, refurbish, and/or run a building, or run an activity in the space. Together we can make Oswestry a fair, resilient, and sustainable community that’s better able to deal with the impacts of climate change.

You can contact us about OCE’s climate emergency project at oswestrycec@gmail.com and we also have a Facebook page at Facebook.com/Oswestrycec .

Let’s join together to make change happen now!

With best wishes for 2022,

Directors:
Jon Lill (Chair)
Jood Gough (Treasurer)
Dawn Meadows (Secretary)