At our meeting on 11.8.2018 we had a brief EGM where Rebecca Jenkins took over as the new Chairperson. Rebecca’s contact details are

ra.jenkins@gmail.com

There is a vacancy for a secretary on the committee still.

Good news - Since the AGM Rebecca Jenkins has come forward and agreed she would be happy to become our future Chair person. We are delighted she has agreed to join our committee and she will be working alongside Geoff until the end of this years programme. We will then hold an extra meeting to formally appoint her.

Rebecca has always had a great interest in the hill. When Geoff and Chris and Rebecca were training as Community Champions Rebecca proposed a project on the hill at the same time as Geoff but then took on another project as she did not want to duplicate Geoff's plans. She has always stayed in touch with the activity on the hill. We welcome having someone young and keen, who will continue with the work Geoff has started. We are sure everyone will continue to support Rebecca in this role.

We are still open to anyone coming forward to take on the secretarial role but at least the future is starting to shape up for next year.

Charter Fair Day

We had a clear winner at the judging of our photographic competition at the Charter Fair.
Lee Chapmans sunset over the rocks was chosen by the public as their favourite.

All the visitors to the stall commented about how difficult it was to decide on their favourite due the high quality of the entries. We thank all those who participated.

Lee has received a voucher for a canvas print of his picture, kindly donated by Max Spielman of Rugeley.

Friends of Etchinghill -     A letter from the Chairman

As we head towards our AGM on May 24th, I feel I need to make all members and supporters aware that to date no one has come forward to take on the roles of Chairman and Secretary.

Chris and myself have had the pleasure of performing these voluntary posts for the past seven years.

We stated at the last AGM that we would be standing down in 2018 although we are happy to remain on the committee and offer help and assistance to the new officials. We felt that it would be a good time to pass on the roles to ensure the group has sustainability and because everything is set up and in place. 

Having achieved so much as a community group it would be a shame for it to fold. I don't want to pressurise anyone to take on a role they don't want. I accept that busy lifestyles mean possible candidates feel they have insufficient time but I still hope there are two people out there who will give it a go. If no one comes forward - then the present committee presumably would become caretakers until the end of this year when all our planned activities finish and the group would then disband.

Our achievements as a group are too numerous to mention but in a sentence, " We got our beauty spot back". I am sure the legacy would live on for a few years but it is unlikely that the group would re-form if it finishes. The difficult part is setting up the group, getting people interested, gaining funding, opening bank accounts, agreeing a constitution, arranging dates etc. All this has already been done. The group has achieved networking and respect. All this is in place .....but it could be lost.

If you feel you would like an informal chat- no arm twisting - give us a ring on 07792814607 or come along on May 12th to the litter pick and speak to me,

Thank you in anticipation,

Geoff Brookes

Chairman

Keep sending in the photos to our Facebook page for the photographic competition. The winner will be receiving a prize from Max Speilman in Rugeley who have kindly agreed to print up a canvas of the  winning photo.
 Please see the Friends of Etchinghill Facebook page and send in your pictures or vote for those you like best.

Amanda Milling thanks

Amanda Milling came to the hill to see members of our group and representatives of the Trustees to share our joy at resolving the issue with the Forestry Commission. We thank her for her help with this matter.

The Friends Of Etching Hill would like to publicly thank our MP, Amanda Milling, for bringing to a successful conclusion an issue relating to the management of Etching Hill. She established that the Hill is classed as common land / village green and that the management as such, should be left in the hands of the Charitable Trustees, who are supported by volunteers from the Friends Of Etching Hill. Both groups have been working together to improve the biodiversity, restore the heathland and bring good management skills to this beauty spot that forms part of the A.O.N.B. The requirement to plant 24 oak trees has now been relinquished which means the views from the hill will remain for future generations to appreciate. Amanda Milling has assisted us in negotiating a successful outcome in this matter.

We had a phone call from a local resident who wondered whether any of our community may wish to comment on a planning application CH/17/477 This is for a dormer bungalow to be built at the rear of 72 Peaks Road  which may have an impact on Whitworth Lane that runs up to the church.
The Friends of Etching Hill are not making any comment but simply advising our members incase anyone wishes to review the plans or make comment. Any formal comments would need to be sent in to Cannock Chase Council by Thursday of this week.

A group of our members recently attended a presentation at the Veolia base at Four Ashes. Veolia have given our group £560 for us to purchase tools for the maintenance of the hill.  We were one of 8 groups who were given a grant. 41 groups had applied for the grants so we feel this was a huge achievement.Veolia have been keen to hear about our work and their communications manager may join us on a future litter pick.
Veolia have open days and we will pass on details of these when we know the dates as their waste management plant is very interesting and worth visiting to find out what happens to waste that is put into the non recyclable rubbish bins. The plant generates electricity. Veolia stressed that recycling is always preferable and using the non  recycling bins should be a last resort even though they generate electricity from the non recyclable waste.

We have been successful with a bid to Tescos bags of help scheme for a heathland restoration scheme project on the hill! 

Tesco teamed up with Groundwork to launch its community funding scheme, which sees grants of up to £4,000, £2,000 and £1,000 – all raised from carrier bag sales in Tesco stores – being awarded to local community projects.
Bags of Help offers community groups and projects across the UK a share of revenue generated from carrier bag sales in Tesco store. The public will now vote in store during 2nd January to 28th February on who should receive the awards.

www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp
We will need votes during January and February so folks keep asking for the plastic tokens and putting them into the section with our name on it. Votes mean money to help us with this stage of restoring the heathland.

The following message was received from the clerk to the Trustees
I am writing to thank you and all the volunteers who supported the recent spreading of the heather brash.  It was a pity that the weather wasn’t good but I am sure that between us the remaining brash will be spread at some point.  Perhaps you  would be good enough to pass on our thanks and also best wishes for Christmas and New Year to all the members of Friends of Etching Hill.  Regards - Shirley

The work on the heathland restoration laying heathers on our trial area went well. We managed to avoid the rain as it started just as we were finishing!
Thank you to everyone who turned out to help.

Heather planting work party for restoration of the heathland.

We have been asked to help with laying the new Heather on the patch that we cleared over the last few weeks.

We will be organising a work party on 

Tuesday 21 st November at meet 2 pm at the church hall. 

We will provide refreshments after the work tea and cake.

We hope you can come along and join us as we need as many helpers as possible.

Looking forward to seeing you.

(Note the time as we usually meet in the mornings and this is an afternoon event.)

The Friends of Etching Hill have been working closely with the local Police, the Cannock Chase Council and the Trustees to the hill and have replaced a notice board recently damaged by vandalism. 
The Chairman of the Friends of Etching Hill said he can't understand why someone would damage anything on the hill as it has been enjoyed by people of all ages over the years and he hopes that it will remain a beautiful place for future generations to visit and appreciate. 
The police have reminded people that if anyone finds any antisocial behaviour they can ring 101 or if there is any criminal damage or vandalism taking place they can ring 999.

The work party for the preparation of land before the heathers are planted. We had around 10 volunteers who turned up for the event. Thanks go to everyone who came along.

Heathland restoration working party 
The Trustees have asked our group to support them with health land restoration preparation work. This should involve raking the area prior to the Heather brash being laid.
We have fixed a date for a working party of
Saturday 28 th October at 11.00 meeting at the church hall
Refreshments will be provided, bring a rake if you have one otherwise just come along anyway. Many hands make light work!

Also don't forget our evening meeting in October is on Thursday 19 th at 7.30 pm at the church hall when we have a speaker on willow weaving.

The Trustees have asked whether we would help pull out the Rosebay Willow Herb on the hill at our next litter pick. This is part of the Heathland restoration and their ecological advisor has suggested this. They don't want it to reach seeding stage as this creates more problems in restoring the Heather. Our next litter pick is on Saturday 16 th September 11.00 at the church hall - so in the meantime if you take a walk on the hill perhaps you can pull out a little each time and if we all do that then we can keep it down. For those who don't know - this is what it looks like.

Competition Time

We want your pictures of the hill or from the hill. Send them in to our Facebook page - Friends of Etching Hill .

The photo with the most likes each month will become " Photo of the month". There is no prize for this but when the charter fair comes round there should be 11 photos for the public to vote on for the overall winner.The overall winner will receive a small prize.

Happy Snapping!

Rules for photo competition
All entries are to be sent in to the Facebook page.
1st August 2017 is the start of the competition
8pm two days before the Charter Fair will be the closing date for the competition.
The picture with the most likes at 8pm on the last day of each month will become the photo of that month.
Any likes received after 8pm on the last day of the month will not count towards any voting.
The exception to this is the month of the charter fair when entries and votes can be submitted up to 8pm two days before the Charter Fair.
All the monthly photo highest scorers will be displayed at the Charter Fair where the public will have the opportunity to vote for their favourites. The public votes will NOT be added to any likes from Facebook as it will be an independent round of voting.
The overall favourite voted by the public at the Charter Fair will win a small prize. This will be based on votes made on the day in person not on line.
In the event of any dispute  regarding likes or entries the decision of the Facebook page manager is final.
In the event of equal likes or votes being gained by photos the committee of the Friends of Etching Hill will decide which single entry will become the photo of the month. The decision of the committee is final.
All photos must be of the hill or taken on the hill and can include any subject matter.
If there are any people in the photos it is the responsibility of the photographer to ensure the people consent to the photos being used or in the event of this being children, that their responsible adults consent. The Friends of Etching Hill take no responsibility for photos submitted.

Party night 2017

Our party on Saturday night was a great success bringing people of all ages together to celebrate the work our group had achieved over the past years culminating in the restoration of the views with the help of the Trustees and the Tescos funding.
Phil and Mark worked hard all evening with their disco and the staff at the tennis club looked after us well.
Apart from our members and guests, a number of local councillors, the fire cadets and our newly re elected MP Amanda Milling attended the evening. We had around 60 people present. We thank everyone for coming and for all the help and support we have received as a group.

links to useful information

Here are some useful links to walks from the Mount
Chase Fit have produced these lovely photgraphed walking path leaflets

http://www.chasefit.co.uk/walks/details/self-led-walks/etchinghill.html


http://www.chasefit.co.uk/walks/details/self-led-walks/etchinghill-wolseley.html

Enjoy them!

Also check out this video on YouTube with the mount seen from a drone

https://youtu.be/yxhCwnkOVDc