As we begin this new year, our group goes from strength to strength.  We have new members joining every month, established projects and an ambitious work programme under development.

Later in this newsletter, you will read about our plans for an Energy Fair in April and HuG 2 in June. Our Youth Engagement team has fantastic plans to provide a week-long festival of events in our local schools, and we are starting to look into the practicalities of one (or more!) Repair Cafes in the Moorlands.

Members recently visited a repair café in Macclesfield to see how it runs and will shortly visit the Buxton café.

Our Nature team are as busy as ever with their various projects - more details later. We plan to take MCA on the road this year - taking our message to community groups across the Moorlands, to learn more about their hopes and fears.

We aim to be the true representative group for the whole of the Moorlands when it comes to the Climate Change and Biodiversity Emergencies.

As we grow, we always need more people to get involved in our projects. I hope you find this newsletter of interest. If you have not yet joined MCA, please do so - membership is £10/£5 per year. We are still mainly meeting via Zoom, but we hope to be able to restart our face to face meetings soon.

We had a fantastic year last year, despite Covid and the challenges that brought us all. Our HuG event was so well supported, and then we welcomed the wonderful Camino-to-COP walkers, followed by our biggest ever demonstration of people power in our Totally-Globally Day of Action - our contribution to the coordinated global action launched during COP 26.

We are still trying to engage with SMDC, but sadly our emails, letters and phone calls go unanswered.  That Net Zero deadline of 2030 is not going to change, but the longer the council delays making real changes and investment, the harder that challenge will be for all of us.

Thanks to Nigel Williams for Chairing the group for the last two years, and welcome to Alison McCrea as joint Membership Officer and Mark Johnson as Secretary.

With hope,

Mike Jones, Chair MCA