The dramatic beauty of North Yorkshire’s landscape and its rural economy is enough to focus minds on the importance of protecting the natural environment and that is exactly what happened in Kirkbymoorside, many years ahead of widespread national recognition of the issue.
Kirkbymoorside Environmental Group was formed shortly after the turn century. It has become a cornerstone of society. They have developed from simple initiatives such as handing out low energy lightbulbs in an age when they were still a novelty to getting the community designated as a Transition Town and many other steps to raise awareness about environmental issues.
The group was able to achieve the status of a friendly, unregistered charity in 2015. A number of sub-groups were also formed. This increased attention on issues such as encouraging local power generation, sustainable transportation, and other environmental issues.
There have been successes, including challenging proposed cuts to Moorbus service. This provides a lifeline to residents who live in areas without transport links. This was successful, and later Moorbus services were expanded.
A Repair Café was established several years ago, meeting once every two months. It was very popular but it was forced to shut down by illness and the coronavirus epidemic.
The Environment Group’s June Emerson said it was hoped the sessions could be restarted and a search has been launched for volunteers willing to run it.
“We had a couple of people doing sewing, a computer chap and a couple of people who were good at mending more or less anything, it was very good,” she said.
The group also hosted Give or Take sessions for a decade prior to the pandemic. These sessions allowed people to donate items and others to pick up useful items.
The group plans on reviving those events, which were very popular and saw people queue for entry, in April with Sunday, April 24 earmarked for the event.
“They have been a terrific highlight in Kirkbymoorside,” said June, “with people coming quite a long way to visit. People would queue to get in.”
The group is also open for new opportunities. Currently, they are in talks with major landowners in order to preserve more semi-mature trees in hedgerows. This would increase the impact of wider tree planting efforts in the area.
More information is available at Website of the Kirkbymoorside Environmental Group
Captions: Nelly Trevelyan is seen here mending a plate metal toy at the ‘repair café’, which the Environmental Group is looking to reinstate.
After a campaign that involved the Environmental Group, the Moorbus service was saved.