On Saturday 21st March 2026 we co-hosted our first Local Environment Open Forum

with St Michael’s Church.

The afternoon was designed to bring people together and provide them with an opportunity to share their thoughts about the environment and their hopes about how our community might care for it better.  This might be through:

• increased awareness of what is already happening;
• finding out how to support current initiatives;
• developing something that is not happening at the moment. 

Participants in the forum were invited to share: 

• What activities they are involved in which relate to the environment;
• What they would like to be involved in;
• What changes would increase the impact of what is already being done;
• What things we could do which we are not doing;
• What big projects might be worth thinking about.

Most discussion took place within 3 groups but, to start the ball rolling, the following people shared news of what they have been involved in.

Jennifer Rendell spoke about the Church of England’s target to be net carbon zero by 2030 and the work of St Michael’s Church that focuses on environmental stewardship and caring for the planet. As part of this the church has replaced halogen bulbs with LEDs; holds services with smaller congregations in the chancel to avoid having to heat the whole church; has left some areas of the churchyard unmown over the summer months to increase biodiversity; installed bird boxes and a solitary bee house; uses waterproof paper in place of lamination for posters and use fairly traded food, drink and cleaning products where available

Eleanor Williamson spoke about the work of Carbon Neutral Aldbourne since 2019 and its work within groups taking steps to increase biodiversity locally (planting trees and working with the Parish Council over management of the verges); steps to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels (car sharing and increasing access to  ev charging points); use of the Community Garden in Whitley Road to promote local produce (growing vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers that everyone is free to enjoy); promoting reuse and recycling of goods to reduce the amount of stuff going into landfill and running a repair network which helps people repair rather than replace goods when they break. 

Gavin Davies, North Farm Manager, spoke about the variety of steps being taken on the farm to reduce its carbon footprint and the measures taken to increase wildlife; reduce use of chemicals, improve soil health, reduce methane output and use of own grown cattle feed. Many of the measures being taken were new to people as shown by the number mentioned on post-it notes – see below.

Rob Warren, Flood Warden, gave an overview of the water situation in the village and the steps which are underway to overcome the problems which occur in the winter months. He spoke about the drains, the gulleys and the prevalence of disused wells and springs. 

Valerie Hood, Allotment Association, spoke about the village allotments and the availability of plots of different sizes.

Emily Best spoke about the Aldbourne Wildlife Group which is open to anyone who wants to share their experiences with and sightings of local wildlife using the Aldbourne Wildlife website. She described some of the projects that they are involved in including the house martin/swift towers; the peregrine nesting platform and conducting surveys of the wildlife in the churchyard often involving local children.

Following a period of group discussion people were invited to write post-it notes listing ideas that were new to them or inspired them and to highlight additional initiatives that had not been mentioned.  The results were as follow: 

Informal discussion then followed for the last 30 minutes in which people connected with others who wanted to talk more about a particular topic. Those specifically identified were:

• Swift boxes – working together as a village to identify suitable locations and encourage more people to install bird boxes;
• Short circular footpaths for dog walkers;
• Where to take specific items for recycling;
• A potential project to encourage the dabchick (AKA Little Grebe) back to the village;
• Advice and support for people wanting to make their garden more environmentally friendly. 

In conclusion hope was expressed that conversations would continue beyond the meeting so that projects could be pursued further with a greater number of people thereby caring for the environment and growing our community. 

Useful resources mentioned:

https://www.carbonneutralaldbourne.co.uk/
https://arocha.org.uk/
https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/
https://impact-tool.org.uk/
https://www.aldbournewildlife.com/