SAVE DARTINGTON

CAMPAIGN group Save Dartington’s spokesman and chair of planning at Totnes Town Council Georgina Allen explains the ongoing effort to preserve the iconic Dartington Hall’s great Estate. S AVE Dartington is a campaign group set up in November 2019 in response to the firing and gagging of the last CEO Rhodri Samuels and the subsequent decision by the Dartington trustees to sell several fields in the village for development. We were very concerned at the direction of travel of the Hall and their public claims of near bankruptcy needed answering. It’s been a complicated and difficult campaign. There are about 1,800 people in the Facebook group and roughly 8,000 people have signed our petition. We have had articles in the Independent, the Times, the Western Morning news and the Daily Mail. There has been a lot of interest and an encouraging amount of help and engagement. There have been meetings of several hundred people, we’ve been on the radio, discussed on air and quoted widely. Originally our aim was to get the trustees to open up to the community. We hoped they would hold back from the sale of the fields and discuss with us other routes, less disastrous for their neighbours, but which would help them with their financial woes. We wanted them to continue in the spirit of Rhodri Samuel’s approach, which was to include the community as much as possible and to be transparent in their approach. Sadly that was not to be the case. I think it’s fair to say that most of the core group of campaigners, those who came forward at the beginning, have come to the conclusion that the trustees as a group need to change. We have no faith in those who are there any more, so our focus has shifted from trying to work with them to solve their financial issues together, to the position that unless the executive group go, Dartington will lurch from bad to worse. We haven’t reached that conclusion easily. The key thing in my mind about this group is the decision we made right from the start that we would not be a group who would demonstrate or oppose those at Dartington Hall; we wanted to work with them, we were very clear about that. We wanted answers to serious questions of course. Not one of us thought much of the management at DHT that’s fair to say, but we wanted to improve the relations between the Hall and the community and help solve the financial mess they had created and that was our primary goal. Dartington was too lovely, too important to let fail without a fight. We have spent a lot of time, energy and effort trying to do this. We originally approached the Chair Greg Parston to ask for a meeting, but there was no response until a group made up of XR and another campaign group Don’t Bury Dartington Under Concrete demonstrated outside the Trustees meeting and were eventually asked in and a further meeting was agreed. An experienced accountant in the group had constructed a memorandum of financial questions designed to help give a fuller picture of the Trust’s accounts and this was sent to Greg Parston in the hope that we as a group could help. The letter was never shared to the other trustees. In our first meeting, we asked again for some answers to these queries and also suggested some ways that the Trust could help finance itself. We were a very professional bunch with a lot of contacts that the Trust might have made use of, but it was clear at the meeting that the trustees were just going through the motion and our suggestions fell on deaf ears and our questions remained unanswered. This has been the pattern since then. We ask questions and suggest things, they ignore us. It turned out later that of course, despite denials to the contrary, the Trust were finalising the deal with Baker Estates, that their promises of limited eco style houses were inaccurate to say the least and that their financial situation was not quite what they were making out. They had also been approached by another local builder offering millions for one of the other fields, but for reasons known only to them, they had turned him down. One of our number began to investigate old business deals and sales by the Trust. Everyone knows that DHT has been living off its assets for over 50 years, but as Greg Parston put it, they now have nothing left to sell. They will continue to sell off land we believe, until there is no more land to sell either. After a few more letters and representations were

ignored, we went to the charity commission. A lawyer, an expert in equal rights and an investigator put together a letter of notice and then the nearly 30 page complaint. It is depressing reading, a list of mistakes made, people and businesses ignored. It paints a picture of a Trust contemptuous of local people, totally isolated and far too willing to sell off what they wanted to keep the illusion of Dartington as a great estate, alive. The charity commission promised to keep an eye on them. We then heard that the Trust had been keeping tabs on some of the people in the group and had created a list with personal information on it, which they attached to an all staff folder. This was a clear and alarming breach of data protection, which the press quickly heard about and which we went to the ICO regarding. Our hopes of working with the trustees had obviously disappeared and it was no surprise to hear that the fields in the village had been sold to a mass developer. The campaign is now focussed on two areas. We have one group working on issues of air quality in the village, talking to lawyers and SHDC officials and trying to limit the damage the development of the fields will cause and the other group is still looking to bring the Trust back from the brink. There is no financial plan going forward that we can see and as a planning officer from SHDC said to us, ‘the plan I believe is to continue to sell and continue to build and to do that until there is nothing left’. We very much hope that this is not the case, but the evidence we have to accept, points that way. l Visit the Facebook page Save Dartington and sign the petition to Save Dartington Estate here: https://www.change.org/p/dartington-hall-trustsaving-dartington-hall-estate/u/26730698

OUR gardening expert JOA GROWER offers summertime advice for gardeners to make the best of the longer days.

Reconnect’s Organic Gardening column is written by Joa Grower of Growers Organics. Visit www.growersorganics.com for the online shop, or call 01752 881180. H ERE we are, Summer at last. Way back in April I didn’t think it was ever going to stop raining! So, what do we need to get on with over the next few months? Well, by now all your vegetable plants will probably benefit from an extra feed to give them more strength to produce their crops. Organic feeds can be purchased from quite a lot of garden centres or DIY stores now and we (Growers Organics that is) certainly stock a few. Or you could be adventurous and make your own! Both comfrey and nettles make great liquid feeds. First get a large bucket or water barrel and fill it with either nettles or comfrey and then fill it to the top with water. Place a lid or a piece of wooden board on the top and leave it to stand for at least 2 weeks, then it’s ready to use. Be warned your mix will be very smelly and I would recommend that you wear rubber gloves when using it. Your homemade fertilizer is particularly great for your fruit bearing crops, so that of course includes tomatoes, peppers, aubergines etc. When you feed the tomatoes, always water them first before adding a liquid feed. If you don’t water first, the feed will just run straight through the dry pot and be wasted. Tomatoes will need to be tied up to stakes so they don’t keel over with all that lovely fruit. The fruit will start to turn red by the end of July. Keep taking out those side shoots too. These are the small shoots that appear just above the leaf; not the flower trusses, which you’ll see half way between each leaf. Potatoes will need to be earthed up to increase the crop. If they’ve got blight you must take off all the affected leaves (this goes for tomatoes also). Burn the leaves or get rid of them, but don’t put them in your compost heap, or it will spread. Brassicas (summer cabbages, kales, kohl rabi, cauliflower and calabrese) are most in danger from the Cabbage White butterflies. So if you see them hanging around your crop, check to see if they have laid their eggs on the underside of the brassica leaves and, if so, remove them as soon as possible. Else they will hatch into masses of tiny caterpillars, who will in no time strip your plants bare! We always net our brassica crops to keep the Cabbage Whites out. While protecting your Summer brassicas, you could start thinking ahead to your winter brassicas, (winter cabbages, kale and purple sprouting). Plan ahead where you want them to go and start clearing those beds in preparation. They can be planted from as early as July onwards, so get them in as soon as you’ve got the space. If you’re buying your plants from us at market or from the nursery, don’t worry we’ll have them ready for you in time! Don’t forget that the brassicas need plenty of space between them (about 30-45cm) as they’ll grow quite big. You can always plant some quicker growing crops in between them. Plants such as lettuces and kohl rabi will be harvested long before the larger brassicas are ready. Extra feeding for Summer days EARLY June is still okay for sowing or planting courgettes, cucumbers and squash seeds or even better to get a head start, purchase ready grown plants (we have quite a few different varieties.) Take care not to over water them at this stage and always water around the plants rather than directly onto the foliage. Start to apply an organic foliar feed when flowers and small fruits begin to appear. With courgettes try not to let the fruits get to big and pick regularly otherwise the courgettes will turn to marrows, which is fine if marrows are what you want! Winter squashes are a bit different. If you want to produce just a few large fruits, pinch the growing tip out when your plants has set about 6 small fruits. Otherwise just let them do there own thing and you should end up with an abundance of smaller squashes, just right for baking whole in the oven. After harvesting in the autumn leave them out in the sunshine to dry out properly before storing. Have fun in your vegetable garden and enjoy all the food you grow! And don’t forget the rubber gloves when handling the comfrey/nettle liquids! Seasonal squashes and courgettes Flowering Comfrey

Help for our struggling insect pollinators W E all know that pollinating insects like bees are crucial to our survival. An ambitious plan to help our bees, butterflies, hoverflies and other pollinating insects has been launched by Buglife. The Devon B-Lines mapping, funded by Defra, aims to connect some of the county’s best remaining wildlife sites through targeted wildflower habitat creation, linking the moors to the coast and towns to the countryside. Working with partners including our local authorities Buglife have mapped out a network of potential wildflower habitat – called B-Lines, and inviting farmers, landowners and the public to get involved in creating new pollinator habitat, and practically restoring wildflower-rich grasslands. Bees and other pollinators are disappearing from our countryside because of a lack of wildflower-rich habitats. Three million hectares, 97%, of the UK’s wildflower-rich grasslands have been lost since the 1930s. Creating rivers of wildflower pollinator habitat will help wildlife move across our countryside, saving threatened species and making sure that there are plenty of pollinators out there to help us grow crops and pollinate wildflowers and enable them respond to threats such as climate change. Sarah Jennings, County Ecologist at Devon County Council said: “We all rely on pollinators and know that we need to take urgent action to help restore their habitats across Devon. B-lines help us take forward the Get Devon Buzzing initiative as part of a network of action across England. B-lines will also form part of the wider Devon nature recovery network map which is being developed by the Devon Local Nature Partnership.” Ed Parr Ferris, Conservation Manager at Devon Wildlife Trust added: “B-Lines identifies key networks where wildflower-rich restoration will be beneficial and is one part of a wider network being developed to restore nature, called the Devon Nature Recovery Network. I would encourage everyone to get out and restore existing wildlife habitats and create new native wildlife habitat.” Richard Knott, Ecologist at Dartmoor National Park said: “The project demonstrates how Dartmoor’s wildflower-rich grassland habitats, already the focus for local projects such as ‘Moor Meadows’, are contributing as part of this wider network through Devon and beyond.” l If you have land which you are interested in restoring to wildflower-rich grassland, or if you would like to get involved in other ways, please get in touch with Buglife – www.buglife.org.uk

Help to make families’ food go further D O you know the difference between the Use By and Best Before dates? Do you know if you can safely reheat last night’s leftover rice? Are you fed up with throwing away mouldy bread? Well Recycle Devon are offering the answers in a digital book called ‘Have Your Food & Eat It’, a digital book created by Recycle Devon to help families make food go further. In the UK, we throw away 6.7m tonnes of food a year – that’s a third of the food we buy, even more when we panic buy and it all goes out of date. Nearly half of that is fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, dairy, rice and pasta. Recycle Devon believe a family of four could save you as much as £800 a year with the book’s guidance. Here are their top tips: Shop smart – write a shopping list, look for food with the longest use by date and buy local, seasonal food. Meal planning – planning your meals will save you time and money and help you make the most out of the food you buy. Be a freezer hero! You can freeze pretty much everything – milk, hard cheese, bread and much more! Some items change texture once defrosted so they may be better suited for cooking with instead. Know your dates – it’s best to plan your meals around “use by” dates and freeze any food that won’t be used in time. “Best before” dates refer to quality (ie flavour or texture). Portion size - portion planning will make sure you only cook what you need. The book is packed with facts, tips and advice, it’s the ideal go-to for making your food go further and money last longer. Whatever food you love, this book can help you waste less and save you money with ease. l Download your FREE copy of ‘Have Your Food And Eat It’ at tinyurl. com/tg2dgmk. l For more food saving ideas and recipes, visit www.recycledevon.org.

IN these uncertain times local initiatives are always seeking financial support to help tackle the coronavirus emergency. Local group Yealm Community Energy (YCE) has made available £48,000 from the Community Benefit Funds of the solar farms it manages, Newton Downs and Creacombe, near Yealmpton, to support local initiatives. £10,000 has been made available immediately with £2,000 allocated to each of the five parishes of Brixton, Holbeton, Newton & Noss, Wembury, and Yealmpton supported by YCE. Applications for these funds are invited now via the YCE website. So far funds have been allocated to Holbeton Covid-19 Emergency Food Welfare Group, and Newton and Noss Coronavirus Emergency Fund. As efforts to overcome the virus continue, a further £20,000 will be made available for additional support measures as needed. A third tranche of £18,000 can also be made available if it’s needed. If these funds are not required for coronavirus mitigation they will be used to support other local community projects with an emphasis on energy efficiency and sustainability. Andrew Moore, Director, Yealm Community Energy, said: “This pandemic is the biggest national emergency most of us are likely to see in our lifetimes, and it has been inspiring to see the local community come together to support one another. We know that even a small amount of money can make a big difference in the hands of local people, and we hope that these community funds generated by our solar projects will not only be used where they are most needed to provide immediate assistance, but also help with the longerterm recovery in the Yealm community area.” YCE expects to launch the first community solar investment offers this summer, allowing local people to have a stake in their local green energy generating assets, and resulting in additional community benefit funds over the lifetime of the two solar farms of £3 million. l See www.yealmenergy.co.uk/service/community-fund for more information.

Yealm solar farms offer Covid funds

Donations needed for those in hardship E XETER Community Energy (ECOE) who assist hundreds of people across East and Mid-Devon, Teignbridge and Torbay are seeking donations for their Healthy Homes Hardship Fund. The fund helps them to support low income and vulnerable households during the Covid-19 crisis with requests for basic necessities such as fridges or cookers, dealing with missing food boxes, broken boilers, and other emotional difficulties for low income and vulnerable households. Tara Bowers, Chair of ECOE said: “With winter now gone, we are starting to witness a whole new level of poverty and issues. The current Covid-19 crisis brings challenges to us all, especially to those who are already vulnerable or struggling financially.” Many vulnerable households already find life difficult in Devon and this is being compounded by difficulties in getting to shops or getting deliveries. Without the right help to deal with the conditions created by Covid-19, residents who are economically vulnerable and insecure may find themselves battling illness, hunger and debt. Vulnerable groups already at greater risk face further barriers such as lack of internet access and increased social isolation. The Healthy Homes team have since lockdown seen a threefold increase in the level of requests for support from their Hardship Fund. “Low income households would normally go to a charity shop, or use local recycling/reuse options when their fridge or cooker breaks down, but with social distancing restrictions in place and charity shops closed, these families have little to no options”, explains Gill Wyatt, project manager at Healthy Homes. “Unable to afford to buy new appliances they are turning to us for a solution.” ECOE are seeking donations for their Healthy Homes Hardship Fund to help them quickly respond to requests for basic necessities for low income and vulnerable households such as electric heaters, fridges, washing machines, cookers, fuel vouchers and basic repairs. Gill added: “During the past three years, we have seen too many examples of extreme poverty and we know that in many situations just a small grant can make all the difference to a struggling household. Donations no matter how small can help us to make a real difference in the local community.” l All donations can be made via the Just Giving website at https://www. justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ecoe or by calling ECOE on 0800 772 3617.

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