Profile and activity for Wendy Faulkner

Wendy Faulkner5 years ago

Wendy Faulkner5 years ago The Council land at the bottom of Queens Crescent should move away from annual/seasonal bedding to hardy perennials and wildflower planting, with areas of grassland cut and collected to encourage some re-wilding. Cut and collect approaches might also work around the play park and the cemetery. Residents in other parts of the village are likely to know of other areas where this would be appropriate.

Wendy Faulkner5 years ago There is shortly to be a meeting in Aberfoyle of folk interested in starting and being part of a community garden - a project we believe could be good for inclusive community building as well as the environment. Initially, we will use the community owned land around the Memorial Hall, but if there's enough interest we hope to lease a large plot of land for collective food production and sharing. It would be very helpful to know what support the Council could provide for this?

Wendy Faulkner5 years ago The fourth set of Alive with Nature objectives seeks to involve stakeholders, including communities and volunteers, to monitor, drive and deliver change. One suspects that this emphasis on community engagement is motivated in part by an anticipation of limited funding. Nonetheless, it is clear that the scale of the emergencies we face will require effort and change by all groups and sectors in our communities. Moreover, local knowledge and insight into economic, environmental and social history and conditions (eg, re flooding) can provide crucial inputs into developing appropriate solutions.The challenge is how to enable this level and breadth of engagement. The following thoughts are offered in a constructive spirit, hopefully to open a conversation:· In order to get significant and impact-ful community engagement, there is a crying need to raise environmental awareness, of both the CNE issues and possible solutions. The point of doing this is to inspire and motivate citizens to get involved in whatever actions make sense to people locally. It is to build a movement of people coming together to make a difference.· How to inform and motivate citizens is arguably the greatest challenge wrt to community engagement around the CNEs. It will require creativity as well as targeted outreach (to local schools, housing, businesses, youth groups, etc). Thankfully, there is also a growing body of experience to learn from and draw on as communities across the country and beyond wrestle with the challenge. · One possible approach to inspiring engagement is suggested by recent experience in Fintry, where the community has become informed and animated about nature (in general) through work on the red squirrel. Why not use red squirrels a mascot for the whole ‘Alive with Nature’ effort – a red squirrel logo on Council road signs and anywhere that relevant actions are being taken?! Because people have strong positive associations with the species, this could work symbolically to build ‘buy in’ for the CNE plan. (Why not: everyone will have a red squirrel within 500m of their door?!)· Existing community bodies undoubtedly have a role to play. For instance, Community Councils might be mandated to survey residents for inputs on CNE actions and to monitor progress around targets for CNE actions. Similarly, Community Development Trusts could be proactive and strategic in developing a more circular, green economy in their localities. More ‘bottom up’ local initiatives should clearly be supported where these exist.· However good the level of local community engagement, there will continue to be a need for significant investment and support from governmental, third sector and business organisations. For many of the changes required, it will not work to simply hand over responsibility (or trees!) to communities. Some level of funding will likely be needed as well as relevant expertise (eg, specific practical guidance on what it means to plant ‘the right trees in the right place’ in the context of different localities).

Wendy Faulkner5 years ago Alive with Nature addresses part of what’s in the Council’s CNE Plan 2021-2045 – principally improving carbon absorption, the quality of the natural environment and people’s engagement with it. I like the vision for Stirling to have “a thriving natural environment enjoyed by all”. And I think the framing of specific objectives under four themes – to enhance, connect, embed and involve – is useful.However, whilst some of the policies needed to reduce emissions in the shire are addressed in other SC documents (notably, the Active Travel Action Plan and Food Growing Strategy), those cited do not appear to address other things we could and should be doing to reduce emissions – eg, building the public transport network and service levels needed to really reduce car use, supporting local businesses and communities to audit and reduce their carbon footprint. It would be good to hear more about what else SC in doing to reduce the county's carbon footprint?I have struggled to find out what Stirling Council is actually doing around the CNE partly because of the inter-related policy strands and the various partner jurisdictions (the National Park, Forth Valley). Is there a danger that policy in this area is becoming too ‘siloed’ when we need ‘joined up thinking’ if our efforts on the CNEs are to be effective?

Wendy Faulkner

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We need proper community engagement on this across the Council area!

Naturalised areas and replacing annual bedding in Aberfoyle

A community garden for Strathard

How to build and enable the needed community engagement?

Need for a comprehensive and 'joined up' approach to the CNEs