Action Groups Update - October 2025
Growing Communities Action Group
The Group was set up with the vision of creating communal areas across Berwick for people to come together to grow food, herbs and wildflowers, and so has taken over responsibility for some of the raised beds in the town centre. The Group meets on Friday mornings, to maintain the beds which are currently looking good. To enable watering of the beds at Foul Ford in the summer, discussions have started with the nearby Bank of Scotland, to see if we could take rainwater from a downpipe on the back of the building, which would be stored in a water butt on the pavement, subject to the approval of Northumberland County Council.
Transport and Active Travel Action Group
The Group was set up with the vision of Berwick being a town where there is better bus information, well-signed cycle routes and safe places to cross the road, enabling residents and visitors to enjoy and use public transport and active forms of travel. Recent work has focussed on surveys assessing bus shelter condition, and the accuracy of timetable information, and identifying an electric bike charging location in the town, all the while liaising with Berwick Town Council and Northumberland County Council.
Tweed Estuary Pollution Action Group
The Group was set up to engage with Northumbrian Water, the Environment Agency and relevant interest groups to help address the increasing stormwater overflow incidents that contains sewage, and agricultural chemical run off into the river system, which is happening due to the heavier rainfall associated with climate change. The Group continues to monitor – monthly in the summer and bi-monthly in the winter – algae in the Tweed Estuary, which gives an indication of the health of the river. This has recently been supplemented by nitrate monitoring on the Fenham Burn, south of Berwick. In both cases the sampling methodology was agreed with the Environment Agency, and we send the results to them.
Warm Homes Action Group
The Group was set up with the aim of improving the energy efficiency of the housing stock in the Berwick area, helping to make the homes warmer, and to have less of an environmental impact, through the introduction of low-carbon forms of heating. The main activity of the Group is the provision of home energy information, particularly at the Repair Café session.
Zero Waste Hub Action Group
The Group was set up with the aim of developing a more circular economy in the town, based on reducing, reusing, recycling, repairing, and remaking, to minimise waste disposal. Initially, this has led to the development of two initiatives: a a monthly Repair Café and a Tool Library.
We have developed a new form for the Repair Cafe which asks repairers if they have managed to fix the item, and also asks customers what they think of our service. This enables not just feedback to our repairers, but also evidence for potential funders as to what customers think of us. In this first month there was very helpful and positive feedback.
We have two potential new repairers, and we continue to try and find additional tool sharpeners given this service is so popular.
We are continuing to liaise with Duns Repair Cafe, and we learn from each other. We are actively supporting Morpeth Repair Café, which is in the early stages of its development
A number of Committee members met via Zoom to discuss a range of ideas to generate further Tool Library members, and volunteers, and to use member feedback when deciding on the tools we buy in the future.
We have been offered a number of tool donations, which we are currently assessing.
