Community

Could you help maintain the footpaths in the Fairfield Ward or the Belbroughton Ward?

Full training will be provided. Flexible volunteering.

Interested? Contact the Parish Clerk
http://fvca.org.uk/directory/belbroughton-fairfield-parish-council/

How long does litter take to rot if we carelessly throw it away?

Two Weeks – Apple Cores

Although this is a rapid decomposition time, throwing away cores and other pieces of fruit can encourage rodents.

Four Weeks – Paper towels, paper bags, newspaper

With these items, decomposition time can vary enormously depending on how they are disposed of.

Six Weeks – Cereal boxes, banana skins

Banana skins can take longer than this to decompose if the weather is cold, as the skins are designed to protect the fruit inside. They are full of cellulose which is the same material from which cellophane wrappers are made.

Two – Three Months – Waxed cartons, cardboard

With such items, the decomposition time will vary depending on the thickness of the carton.

Six months – Cotton clothing

Of all textiles, cotton is the most biodegradable. Cotton can be composted and if the conditions are damp and warm enough, a piece of light cotton clothing can biodegrade in as little as a week.

One Year – Light woollen clothing

Light woollen clothing such as pullovers and socks. Wool is a natural product, so when it decomposes it releases into the soil useful nutrients such as protein keratin.

Two Years – Orange peel, plywood, cigarette ends

Cigarettes contain more than 600 ingredients, of which the longest lasting is cellulose acetate which takes a very long time to biodegrade.

Five Years – Heavy woollen clothing

Ten to Twenty Years – Plastic Bags

Many newer bags are designed to decompose when exposed to sunlight, though the majority are made from high density polyethylene. This is made with refined petroleum and it is not easily decomposed. The natural micro – organisms in soil don’t recognize the chemicals as food, so don’t break them down.

Thirty to Forty Years – Nylon, Carpet, Disposable Nappies

While they are convenient, disposable nappies are pretty toxic items, even if they haven’t been used, as they are treated with many chemicals.

Fifty Years – Tin cans, Car tyres, trainers, leather.

Seventy-Five to Eighty Years – Crisp Packets

With many packets made from metallised plastic film, they last a ridiculously long time.

One Hundred Years – Plastic Ring Holder

These are particularly hazardous to animals, as the rings can get trapped around their necks and choke them.

Two Hundred Years – Aluminium Drink Cans

It is more beneficial to recycle aluminium as it can be done indefinitely and the energy of recycling cans is far lower than creating new ones. Twenty recycled cans can be made using the same amount of energy it takes to make one new can and recycling just one can, can save as much energy as it takes to power a television for three hours.

Five Hundred Years – Plastic Bottles

Petrochemical products like these never fully biodegrade and the chemicals will remain in the soil.

One to Two Million Years – Glass Jars and Bottles

It could well be that these may last indefinitely. Glass is mainly composed of silica, which is one of the most stable and enduring minerals on the planet. The greatest problem with waste glass is that it is breakable and shards can do serious damage to creatures who eat or lick any food or drink residues.

And Even Longer – Batteries

While the thin metal casings break down eventually, the chemicals inside such as zinc, lead and mercury stay in the ground and can be extremely toxic.

A new app designed to encourage dog owners and wider communities to take responsibility for tackling dog fouling in their local area has been launched.

Pooper Snooper, a free smartphone application and website aims to build public awareness and inturn increase social pressure on dog fouling, and to identify problem hotspots to allow for better targeted enforcement activities.

To achieve these aims, the mobile app, designed by Natural Apptitude, enables you to quickly and accurately record the locations of dog fouling on an interactive map, providing an overview of dog fouling hotspots. Any dog fouling incidents that are cleaned up can be marked as resolved, and bin locations can be recorded within the app, with a “find nearest bin” function helping you locate bins in unfamiliar areas. To help raise public awareness you can share your records along with an overview of dog fouling in the local area, on Twitter and Facebook. The app also has a gamification element to encourage sustained public engagement via the inclusion of leader boards and personal profile pages on which a user’s stats appear.

Natural Apptitude CEO, Dave Kilbey, said: “Our main hope for Pooper Snooper is that in years tocome it will actually cease to be necessary. A dog poo free environment may seem like fantasy, but it shouldn’t be that way. We hope that Pooper Snooper can start to turn the tide on this modern-day scourge by actively engaging people with the problem and by raising awareness of the sheer scale of the issue. Ultimately, what is required is a cultural shift around dog fouling; from tacit acceptance to zero tolerance, regardless of where it takes place. Dog poo is not only unpleasant, but a form of hazardous waste that can have serious repercussions for the health both of humans and livestock.”

The supporting website enables local authorities and other interested parties to see dog foulingincidents on an interactive map based on local authority boundaries. This is designed to further raise public awareness and promote engagement on the issue. Anyone can export the data to enable enforcement effort to be targeted where most required.

In Bristol, about four tonnes of dog faeces is produced every day and on average there are 11 to 26 faecal deposits per kilometre of pavement. Evidence has found these are concentrated around schools and in the first 300 metres of paths in parks and nature reserves.

Councillor Steve Pearce Cabinet member with responsibility for waste, said: “Dog fouling is simplynot acceptable, and we need to see everyone taking responsibility for our city and how it looks. We hope that this initiative will go some way towards addressing dog fouling in Bristol and help to change the attitudes of those who think it is appropriate to leave dog mess on the streets for anyone to stand in.”

For more information, go to https://poopersnooper.app/

Proposal to increase the capacity of Fairfield First School

Worcestershire County Council is proposing to expand the school buildings at Fairfield First School to provide sufficient accommodation for an increase in the Published Admission Number of the school from 23 to 30. The current capacity of the school is 115 and the proposed capacity will be 150.

As part of any proposal of a community school that would result in an increase in the capacity of the school by more than 30 places and 25%, a formal consultation must take place.

Have Your Say

In accordance with the guidance document from the Department for Education – Making ‘prescribed alterations’ to maintained schools (April 2016), a further consultation into expansion of Fairfield First School is now underway in which anyone with an interest can express their views. The Public Consultation (Autumn 2018) document can be viewed on the County Council website at http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/schoolconsultationsYour comments are most welcome and can be made using the online form which is also available via this website link.

A hard copy of the consultation documents can be obtained by contacting: Bosko Medakovic, Capital Accommodation Officer, County Hall, PO Box 73, Worcester, WR5 2YA. Telephone 07983965299 or email bmedakovic@worcestershire.gov.uk

Representations in response to the consultation must be received by noon on Friday, 7th December 2018.

Letter from Head Teacher School Expansion Letter from Head

Public Notice School Expansion Consultation  Public Notice Expansion of Fairfield First School

Consultation Overview Formal Consultation Proposal Document

Your generosity raised £278.00 for Libby Mae’s Little Angels at August Afternoon Tea at the Village Hall.

50 people enjoyed elegant finger sandwiches, delightful cakes and glasses of Prosecco. Charlotte & Richard from Libby Mae’s gave a presentation, which moved many people.

Thank you to everyone for supporting this event, including the people behind the scenes – organising the event, delivering flyers, baking cakes, making sandwiches and to Fairfield Post Office for acting as our “box office”- and to those people that dug deep in their pocket to help raise a fantastic amount of money for FVCA’s nominated charity.