Chair: Jim S
Minutes: (Harriet J, from transcript)
Present: Jim S, Lynda S, Chris M, Joe A, Sam W, Cathy C, Alice B
MINUTES
| 1. Agenda item I Welcome and apologies Jim |
Jim welcomed everyone to the meeting, particularly those who have not come before.
Apologies were received from Harriet J, Naseem H, Tila R, Paul B, Neil W.
| 2. Agenda item II a) Minutes of the last meeting, 02/12/25 b) Matters arising from the last meeting, 02/12/25 Jim |
No comments were received on the minutes of the last meeting. Note January’s meeting was an in-person social. There were no matters arising from December’s meeting.
| 3. Agenda item III BCAG admin Jim |
Total hours spent on BCAG business and projects since the December meeting were recorded – thanks to everyone for putting in the time. Harriet to ask any core members not at the monthly meeting, for their hours.
| 4. Agenda item IV Treasurer’s report (Naseem) |
BCAG central funds stand at £2658.
| 5. Agenda item V Social media, Newsletter, publicity Jim |
BCAG Facebook: 1382 followers; BSCG Facebook: 1101 followers; mailing list subscribers: 317; voting members: 221. BATS email: 121. For info: Shed Facebook: 474 followers; litter pickers 159.
Thank you, Joe for the January edition of the BCAG newsletter.
Joe and Tila have put together a schedule for updating the website; Joe’s time for this will be covered by the Thriving in Nature grant.
Tila has been looking into options for a second BCAG banner.
Jim has purchased a long-format banner.
| 6. Agenda item VI Bridge Street Community Garden BSCG (Tila) |
Tila thanked the volunteers attending the Monday community gardening sessions (x3 sessions so far this year). She gave particular thanks to Jim for his daily check of the Garden. Jim has reported rough sleeping in the Garden; we hope the individuals are now getting the support they need.
Risk Assessments. Tila has been updating the Garden’s general risk assessment to reflect the wider range of activities now being delivered. Freelance workshop and events providers will produce event-specific assessments built on this master document. The updated documents are held online in the shared google drive folders.
Fires in the Garden. Milly led a Wild Wellbeing workshop. Tamzin supported the session and, as a first, a fire was lit in the borrowed fire bowl. The Fire Risk Assessment and Fire Safety Procedures were followed and Tamzin took on the role of Fire Marshal. The fire safety documents are in the google drive folders.
Tila has been working on the reporting phase for grants and on several new funding applications. Recently, the Garden has received: funds from Cherwell DC for refreshments and garden materials; funding from Active Oxfordshire for two wheelchair-accessible recycled plastic picnic tables; a grant from Oxfordshire CC and OxCAG to improve the rainwater harvesting system at the Garden.
Activities and events this month included:
In partnership with Sunrise Multicultural Project and St Mary’s, a 54-seater coach trip to Oxford, funded by the International Tree Foundation.
Also in collaboration with Sunrise Multicultural Project, Tila and Tamzin ran a workshop at the Sunrise Britannia Road site.
Tamzin has been delivering monthly nature-based activities at Home-Start as part of their Stay and Play programme.
Milly has been doing outreach with groups supporting older people.
Through the outreach, the Garden team hopes to build connections and encourage more people to visit the Garden.
| 7. Agenda item VII Browning Road Orchard BRO Harriet |
Harriet has arranged for the Banbury TC Park Rangers to provide a mid-February delivery of wood chippings with which to mulch the orchard trees.
| 8. Agenda item VIII Banbury Active Travel Supporters group Paul / Neil |
Thank you to Paul for his information-filled January BATS bulletin and for his update email to BATS mailing list on changes in powers by central government for councils to tackle pavement parking.
BATS held an online meeting on 28/01.
OCC and contractors have completed the work to provide a new route to the station by connecting Tramway Road to Station Approach Road, and a new route to the West side car park. BATS has been involved throughout the project.
Construction has started on the project to improve bus and pedestrian journeys into Banbury at the Bridge Street box junction. BATS has been involved in the project and is supportive of these improvements in an area currently designed to prioritise vehicular traffic flow over journeys being made by pedestrians and cyclists. Improving journey times and safety for pedestrians navigating this key pedestrian route is very welcome. The project is due for completion in the summer.
BATS continues to be involved in progress made through the LCWIP. The Banbury LCWIP is the strategic plan by OCC to improve walking and cycling in and around Banbury. The main routes being developed are the East Active Travel Corridor (M40 to Bridge Street) and the Western Active Travel Corridor (from Tesco roundabout to Springfield Avenue).
20mph speed limits have now been introduced on many residential roads in Banbury.
| 10. Agenda item X Banbury Environment Network Harriet |
Laurence from the fisheries team at the Environment Agency gave an excellent talk about the fish in the River Cherwell. Thank you, Laurence.
Lu from the Owl Conservation Project gave a talk about their work then led a fascinating workshop dissecting owl pellets. Thank you, Lu.
In a very wet planting session, the first 1,000 of the hedging plants have gone in to get the Duke’s Meadow Drive (Hedgerow Heroes) hedge underway. At least the wet conditions should help the saplings to establish. Thank you to Jess at Wild Oxfordshire and Rebecca at OCC for great support.
The water quality testing team met for Claire R from Thames 21 to give an informative presentation about the data collected over the year and other relevant new items. Thank you, Claire. Thanks also to Jim for sharing at the meeting the results of his water-related searches online, and the amazing data he has captured. Tracking the flow in the River Cherwell through Banbury, for example, since 1966, shows winter flow has doubled in volume.
Harriet attended the January Catchment Partnership meeting.
| 11. Agenda item XI Climate Action Jim, Lynda, Chris |
Jim has successfully applied for a small grant to support community resilience. He has arranged for a film and workshop event on 25th April focused on community resilience in the face of emergencies. The aim is to educate and encourage people to have the means to be self-sufficient for 72hours.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
The meeting was reminded about the amazing work of the Banbury Litter Pickers, coordinated by Steve Kilsby. Steve provided an update on the initiative which now has 750 members. The Litter Pickers welcome information about litter problems across the town and warmly welcome help with litter clearance. Bags and kit are provided by Cherwell District Council and the Council arranges pick-up of the litter collected. Joe will include an item in the newsletter promoting this valuable community service.
Sam reminded the meeting of the H@H community garden run in the grounds of BYP. She asked that BCAG promote the Banbury Harvest community garden activities; BCAG would be happy to put relevant information in our Newsletter.
The meeting discussed ways of increasing footfall in the Community Garden at this year’s Canal Festival.
A walking audit of the town is scheduled for 12th February, organised by Older People’s Voice. Jim will send Steve details of the OCC street furniture barrier audit lead so that Steve can link their data with the Banbury walking audit.
Steve sits on OCC’s focus group on wayfinding signage and welcomed input from BCAG members to feed through to the County.
Review of BCAG policies is due.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The March meeting will be online, 3rd March, 7.30pm start.
NOTE
The November meeting agreed the following guidance for responding to campaigns that fall within the remit of BCAG, and for letters to the Banbury MP:
Any member can draft a response or a letter. The draft then needs to be circulated to two others of the core BCAG group for approval. The proposer needs to be mindful that people are busy and so set a reasonable deadline for responses on their draft.