My thanks go to everyone who has supported our activities throughout the year including: school visits, manning the FoE stand at events, helping out at the Climate Change Roadshow, preparing articles for the newsletter and helping printing and distributing the newsletter. It is very much a group effort and it is very encouraging to see such great support!

Over the past year our activities have focused predominantly on climate change although not exclusively so.

We decided that the newsletter would be distributed as a hardcopy to all members as well as being available electronically. The aim was to ensure that everybody had access to it when it was published. There has been a wide range of articles published in the newsletter and I would encourage anyone who has a topic they would like to write about to do so. We need a steady stream of articles so any contributions are very welcome! My thanks go to all the contributors over the past year, to Jon Buckingham for designing and Angie Moran for printing the newsletter and to everybody who devoted their evenings stuffing envelopes.

We decided that in addition to our formal meetings that we hold informal members social evenings at public venues rather than individual's houses. The aim was to encourage as many members as possible to come along and join in. So far we have run three such events at Alveston, Kingswood and Tytherington. Members who have spoken at these social events include:

• Jerry Harding: Soil Association/organic food
• Tony Harding: GM foods
• Rosemary Caldicott: Sustainable Tourism
• Alan Pinder: Carbon saving in the home
• Stuart Shales: Deriving energy from the Severn Estuary

Again I would like to encourage any member who has topic they would like to discuss to bring their suggestions forward. We are looking in to the possibility of increasing the frequency of these social events maybe to monthly.

Schools Activities

One area that members of South Gloucestershire Friends of the Earth have been considerable involved in is visits to local schools, both primary and secondary, to run events, give presentation and run stalls etc. Much of this has been on the theme of climate change and what we can do about it. Schools visited include:

• Elm Park, Winterbourne
• Rangeworthy
• Mangotsfield
• King Edmunds Community School, Yate
• The Ridings, Winterbourne
• The Castle School, Thornbury: “Goodbye Cool World” event

It is very encouraging to see that our local schools are interested in climate change and other environmental issues. In many respects it is a very useful way to get the message across. Pupils tend to be very attentive and engage in these activities; then they influence their parents!

The Climate Change Roadshow held at the Parish Hall, North Street, Downend on Saturday 23rd June was our big event this year. My thanks go to Geoff and Mark Payne for arranging the venue and to everybody else involved. The list of names is extensive. It was very encouraging to see that a relatively small group such as ours can put on such an impressive event! Credit goes to all involved for making the Climate Change Roadshow so successful. The event included a number of external organizations including The Green Shop, Centre for Sustainable Energy and SunTiles. There was a wide range of activities for visitors to join in including: home carbon footprint calculators, children's carbon emissions quiz, the Al gore film ‘an Inconvenient Truth' and there was an interesting and extensive display of art on a theme of climate change and the environment from Elm Park, Rangeworthy and Mangotsfield schools. A very impressive event and ‘well done' to all involved!

Several members have been involved in the media through television interviews, press releases, newspaper articles etc. One issue that has been very much in the press over the past few months is the fate of Oldbury nuclear power station. The station has had several problems and is due for decommissioning in the next few years. Furthermore, there have been incidents including a fire. Jon Buckingham, Angie Moran and Alan Pinder have all appeared in media interviews on this matter.

There is an extensive list of other activities that members of South Gloucestershire Friends of the Earth have been involved in. Below I list some and I apologize for any that I have omitted.

Our climate change stands have been used and manned by members at events for Yate Heritage Day, SW Liberal Democrats conference in Bradley Stoke, CPRE event at Tockington and the Friends of Kingswood Park Fun Day. Stuart Shales and Alan Pinder are members of the South Gloucestershire Council's Environment Partnership. Several of the group are members of the South Gloucestershire LA21 forum. Alan Pinder is also very much involved in the Oldbury Power Station decommissioning and end user discussion and consultative fora. South Gloucestershire Friends of the Earth continues to support MARINET (Marine/Coastal Information Network) for local groups within FoE and we thank Christine Harding for her hard work on this. Additionally, several members have been involved in canvassing local MPs on a variety of issues including climate change and the Severn barrage.

In conclusion to this report, which is a summary of the Coordinator's report presented at the AGM, it has to be said that despite the relatively small size of our membership that South Gloucestershire Friends of the Earth is an active and very hard working group. The list of events and activities is extensive and it is very encouraging to see members involved in so many aspects throughout the year. My thanks go to everyone for their support – it is a group effort!

Stuart

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