Rauceby Online : Rauceby Little Footprint Initiative : Initiatives

PROJECTS

The Projects that the Rauceby Little Footprint Initiative are presently developing are as follows:

Walled Garden and Orchard Project - Steering Group
The key members of the steering group for this project are the following:

Pearl Wrigley - wrigley.d@sky.com
John Keal - kpuffin18@aol.com
Iain Harkess - iain.harkess@btinternet.com

Objective:

The aim of this project is to encourage improved health and wellbeing and to reduce the community’s environmental impact by allowing people to shop for food locally, reducing the need to travel to Sleaford and other local towns for food shopping and to access locally grown fruit, vegetables, plants and flowers.

The Locavores Project would also hope to have an impact on wider communities by providing opportunities for groups in the community (such as people with learning difficulties or mental health problems, school aged children and older generations) to gain experience and build a range skills through active involvement in the various elements of the project as volunteers, work experience and employees. The project would also provide a local, practical example and model of community enterprise for Lincolnshire and nationally.

Outline of the Project:

The project will focus on the production of fruit, vegetables, plants and flowers by bringing back into production a local Victorian walled kitchen garden and orchard in South Rauceby. The walled kitchen garden and orchard will be leased by the community from a local land owner for an initial period of 25 years. Whilst its boundaries are still in good order, the walled kitchen garden has been out of productive use for many years and the orchard is now largely non existent. The project will seek to re establish the garden and orchard and to use its produce as the centre piece for the development of a community store and market place. It will also make links with local farmers to expand the available produce through the walled garden market place. Produce will be for sale to members of the local communities, visitors and other outlets such as local pubs and schools, potentially through a ‘veg. box’ scheme.

The project will involve the development of new local facilities such as a store/meeting place and the garden would showcase the best of current environmental, ecological and organic approaches to growing food as well as eco technologies around water harvesting, power generation and building.

The project will be developed under the wing of a social enterprise, set up specifically to run and manage the programme. A steering group has been established to develop the early plans and action. Whilst the engagement of local people, either as volunteers, providers of scarce skills and as consumers, is key to the project, it is already clear that the project will require significant horticultural and project management capacity. It is envisaged therefore that the project will be staffed by a mixture of volunteers and employed staff with the latter becoming ultimately sustainable through the income generated by the project.

At this stage it is envisaged that the project will be developed in two phases. These are described in the following sections.

Phase One: May 2009 – November 2009

By the end of Phase One we will have:
• Re-planted and re-established the orchard
• Fully surveyed the walled garden and drawn up plans of existing land and resources
• Carried out research on other walled garden developments
• Researched and established the Social Enterprise element of the project management
• Carried out consultation and research events to establish community interests, skills, volunteering capacity and local market for produce
• Generated an income stream for short term and longer term funding
• Employed a head gardener/project manager
• Developed outline plans for Phase 2 and made presentations/applications to longer term funding sources.
• Trialled local market place for cider and other readily available local produce
• Established a community compost scheme.

Phase one has two linked strands of work. Firstly, there is the practical development of part of the local resource – namely the orchard. This will demonstrate to both local people and future funding partners the ability of the local project to deliver a significant change in a relatively short period of time, using in part local knowledge, volunteers and resources. Secondly, the detailed planning which will inform the development of Phase Two and the generation of bidding documents.

The redevelopment of the Orchard will involve:
• obtaining advice and the services of horticulturalists, tree surgeons and orchard specialists,
• plant hire and hire of driver
• purchase of trees, materials for fencing and staking, soil improver,
• research visits to other Orchards and walled gardens,
• a series of communication and local consultation events
• purchase of composting structures/containers.

The surveying and development of the planning documents will involve:
• access to legal and financial advice for setting up Social Enterprise and lease for land
• market research of Rauceby and surrounding area, local business and authorities such as schools, NHS, social services etc
• technical surveys involving structural engineers, surveyors and architects, geophysical survey, soil testing and drainage and water supply, utilities assessment
• access to gardening/horticultural advice
• access to planning advice on potential buildings development and site access
• Access to advice on alternative resource managements such as grey water harvesting, eco toilets, solar energy, glass house design, bio mass heating for green houses.

Phase Two: January 2010 – January 2011

By the end of Phase One the project management will have applied for funding and will know of the likelihood of the significant development funding being available for the development of the walled garden and community store. The foundations and detail of the plans will be in place and there will also be a store of contacts and research available to support the project’s move from planning into implementation. An identified exit strategy will have been defined and formulated to ensure the project's movement away from development funding streams towards sustainable financial independence. Significant new strands of work will include a communications and consultation strand and media management and marketing strand.

To download a guide to this project then go to downloads.

Lives Type Group - Steering Group

The key member of the steering group for this project is the following:

Ben Clark - rachandbenclark@btinternet.com

Objective

Will involve the setting up of a first responders group in the community. It will be run along similar principles as the Lives Project and will enable volunteers to attend local medical emergencies prior to the arrival of emergency medical teams. Volunteers required to participate in this steering group.

Footpath Link and Road Calming
Action plan being developed. Volunteers please to participate in this steering group.

Objective:

Will look into establishing a footpath link between Rauceby Drove and The Railway Crossing by Ralph Dears Petrol Station and will also be concerned with road calming in the villages to ensure safety for all ages of walkers and cyclists.

Waste Recycling
Action plan being developed. Volunteers for steering group.

Objective:

Will look into ways of making Rauceby more responsible for its own waste management and in the process to earn money for the community and its projects by selling its recycled waste to recycling organizations.

Social Enterprise Store Project
Action plan being developed. Volunteers for steering group.

Objective:

Will look into whether there is a need in Rauceby for a Community Store. It will be run as a social enterprise and all profits will go back into other community based projects. The store will sell locally grown produce.

Farmers Market Project - Steering Group
The key member of the steering group for this project is the following:

Jonathan Hoare - jonathanhoare@mac.com

Market planned to start in April of 2009. Volunteers for required steering group.

Objective:

Will look into setting up a regular market at the Village Hall. The market will occur twice a month and will sell locally sourced produce. Proceeds from the sale of goods and pitch charges will go to the social enterprise.

Energy providers project - Steering Group
The key members of the steering group for this project are the following:

Jonathan Hoare - jonathanhoare@mac.com

Daniel Sumpton - dsumpton@live.co.uk

David Webb, SustainNK Email - David_Webb@n-kesteven.gov.uk

Objective:

To work with our local energy provider to ascertain how they can assist with the development of the RLFI project. Initial contact made with Eon. Meeting arranged between RLFI Chairman, Vice-Chairman, SustainNK, LCC and Eon represenative. Then action plan to be drawn up and implemented after initial meeting.

Efergy Smart Meter Trials Project - Steering Group

Core Membership group - To discuss this project please contact the Chairman, Jonathan Hoare at the above email address.

Objective:

The purpose of this project is to undertake regular energy audits and to encourage both awareness of how the participants consume energy and how they can make simple changes to their consumption thereby saving money and helping the environment. It is hoped that by being part of such an initiative that people may take a more active role in the initiatives supported by the RLFI. This initial audit will collate readings through the month of December. This data will enable the RLFI to take an average of our community’s energy consumption and compare that average to the national average. The participants will be asked to fill in a questionnaire at the beginning of the trial and at the end. There was also a village get together on Wednesday the 26th November with a quiz and an opportunity for the villagers to offer their views on the RLFI projects and to offer their own ideas for future projects, the details of which can be found in the Feedback section. Another event like this is being planned for 2009. The results of this trial will be made available as a model for other communities to use on completion of the first trial in January of 2009.

Biodiversity Audit Project – ‘Nature on your Doorstep - Steering Group
The key members of the steering group for this project are the following:

Jonathan Hoare - jonathanhoare@mac.com

David Webb, SustainNK - David_Webb@n-kesteven.gov.uk

Margaret Haggerty, Lincolnshire Biodiversity Partnership - MHaggerty@lincstrust.co.uk

Objective:

The purpose of this project is to carry out regular biodiversity audits to ensure the community is aware of the species around them and to actively seek to protect and make the most of them. It will include the involvement of a variety of local professional bodies who will collate the evidence and will require community involvement. The event is planned for the 16th May 2009.

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