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Published: 23 October 2024

Mike and Mark both attended the annual Staffordshire Climate Expo at Uttoxeter Racecourse in September. Ably organised by the Globe Foundation, keynote speakers at the event included Michaela Strachan and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, to whom Mike gave a sustainably-foraged recipe for blackberry whiskey. There was a great range of stalls and attendees and both Mike and Mark made new contacts for MCA and swapped progress and ideas with old friends.

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Published: 23 October 2024

A great day was had by one and all: talking about the Nature in Your Neighbourhood project, playing our Land Use Game, exploring greenhouse gases (in the pink buckets) and of course making wonderful wildlife masks. Huge thanks to Belinda Hargreaves for organising such a tremendous event and also inviting us to have a stall.

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Published: 23 October 2024

MCA has always worked hard to engage the local farming community, to understand their concerns and, where possible, work with them on understanding what's needed in the transition to different forms of agricultural practice.

We are regular stallholders at the Leek and District Agricultural Show and many of our members attend the smaller, more locally focussed events, such as Ipstones and Manifold Shows. But none of us go as far as Phil Barks, himself of farming stock, who is a long-time member of the organising committee of Ipstones Agricultural Show. Here is Phil taking a well-earned break from hammering in stakes and chasing runaway cattle.

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Published: 23 October 2024

MCA’s Repair Cafe went on tour again in late August, with a very busy day at Warslow Village Hall. Many faces new to the Repair Cafe and lots of happy customers. Here’s volunteer Bill with a freshly-mended toaster.

And it was full steam ahead at September’s packed Foxlowe Repair Cafe as customers brought clothes, bikes and household items (including this kettle) for repair. Next month’s October 19th Repair Cafe at Haregate Community Centre co-incides with International Repair Day and there will be be tea and cakes on offer!

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Published: 23 October 2024

MCA held its 2024 AGM at the end of August and after all the formal bits there was lots to discuss. We have such a range of existing projects on the go but also talked about our ideas for the future. These include the possibility of building on the success of the Repair Cafe to establish a Library of Things (though we are keenly aware of the substantial organisational capacity this would require). A visit to Transition Buxton’s Library of Things to learn from their experience is planned for late October.

We are also exploring the idea of holding the first ever Youth Eco Forum (in 2025) in the Moorlands, possibly in conjunction with Staffordshire Moorlands District Council. Again this would build on the success of our Wild Week events, but requires a lot of work. Moira and Sally have already done a remarkable job in putting together a robust structure and draft plan and benefit greatly from sharing the experience of friendly groups across the county border. As always, we have talked to local people (including surveys) to get their views on the ideas, as well as collect ideas of their own! 

On the way in and out of the Quaker Meeting House, we were able to admire progress on the ecobrick planter being built in their garden - since completed!

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Published: 24 August 2024

Yet another fantastic day at the Leek Show, this time our third visit with an MCA stall.  It was a great opportunity to promote Nature in Your Neighbourhood, the Moorlands Connect campaign and of course invite visitors to play the Land Use Game, which triggers conversations about the best ways (or not?) to use land.  The idea was based on the Royal Society's Land Use Challenge, an online interactive game that provides scientific feedback on your choices. Better still, you can assess them on different targets, such as food production, carbon capture, water quality and biodiversity. Their extra dimension is the concept of multifunctional land uses, such as agroforestry, as well as single ones, such as grazing or forestry. 

It's always valuable to talk to farmers, so some of our group made a beeline for the Young Farmers stall and we also distributed many of the Farm of the Future: Journey to Net Zero guides that had been provided for us by the Royal Agricultural Society of England. In addition, we took up the invitation from the organisers to deliver two short talks in the theatre marquee - one by Mike Jones on the Repair Cafés and one by Alison McCrea on Nature in your Neighbourhood. We can't claim to have attracted huge audiences, after all it's the first year they've done it, but we did benefit from coming after the flower arranging talk and having the stage graced with a wonderful floral display. Our grateful thanks to all the volunteers who helped on the day.