PLASTIC BAGS

At present there is a move for the Society  to support the campaign to do away with the supply of plastic bags by, particularly supermarkets.

Under are comments from one of our Members

Katrinka has picked up on a Horsham District Council initiative to make the District Plastic Carrier Bag free. The Council has employed a Project Officer to work with communities to make this happen. In a broader national context there is a groundswell of activity from large shop chains, such as M&S and the Coop, to offer bags for life and start to charge 5p for plastic carriers.

From the Storrington Conservation Society perspective, I feel that our involvement could be justified on the grounds that fewer carried bags being thrown away would lead to the Village being less rubbish strewn. This will lead to a greater sense of pride in the Village.

Although it could quite rightly be said that a campaign such as this goes beyond the Conservation Society's remit I feel that we should consider becoming involved. In particular if we see ourselves as a campaigning organisation this could be a fairly easy campaign to take on because we would be pushing on an opening door. This could be regarded as an easy win for the society and would come nicely on the heels of our success in securing the extension to the Riverside Walk.

Whatever we decide to do about the plastic carrier bag problem it would be worth considering what should we campaign for next? I personally think that it should be phase 3 of the Riverside Walk. However this will be a long term project and we might like to think of some shorter term projects to keep Storrington Conservation Society in the public eye.

Here in Storrington, traders have been quite active in providing alternatives to plastic carriers. For example Truffles gave away free cloth bags to anybody who spent more than £5 and Tesco sell long life bags. I feel we should congratulate the shops that are taking positive steps rather than castigating those who are not.

Should we choose to campaign for a plastic carrier bag less village we can decide how we support the campaign. This could at one level just involve promoting the concept in the Parish Magazine and Your Storrington Magazine or, at another other level we could co-ordinate a much larger campaign such as the one conducted in Henfield. Amongst other things, in Henfield, this involved securing grants to provide every household in the Parish with a ‘Henfield Bag’. This is a hessian bag which can be used instead of plastic bags. Small traders who are not part of a large chain sell these bags to customers in their shops.

I would not suggest that we took the same approach as they did in Henfield but we could possibly go for a half way house.

The key questions for us as a Society are should we get involved in the plastic bag campaign and if so in which ways?

On this subject it is felt that the decision of Horsham District Council to employ an

"Reusable Campaign Officer" at a large salary is considered a complete waste of Council Tax Payers money bearing in mind the large sums being spent by the National Government on the same subject.

What we now would like is to hear are your views

ADVANCE NOTICE OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

On Saturday, October 25^th, the Storrington Conservation Society will hold its AGM and Ploughman’s Lunch at 12:15 in the Village Hall. The speaker this year is Chris Hare, well known to the area for delighting audiences with his brilliant talks on local history well illustrated with slides and songs. This time, his subject is Climate Change, and he will be speaking frankly about his former work with the West Sussex County Council in his role as Climate Change Officer.

 The Ploughman’s Lunch often includes a delicious homemade soup from sisters Pat and Beryl and always plenty of wine. The lunch is available at 12:15, the brief AGM follows when the Society will be electing a new Chairman, and the talk usually starts at 1:30 pm. It’s important to call chief caterer Beryl Beard on 01903 74 33 70 if you plan to attend