The Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB team are excited to announce the Fossil Fuel Free tools and travel CPD and demo day to be held in conjunction with National Trust Chirk, Clwyd Agri and Drosi Bikes this autumn. The day will provide attendees an opportunity to explore fossil fuel free options for conducting their day to day tasks and travel in their countryside roles.

The day will start with a welcome brief at 10am sharp in the Chirk Castle countryside team workshop (see map below) from which attendees will spend the morning attending two of the following workshops. After the second workshop we will break for lunch and networking (please bring your own packed lunch, tea / coffee making facilities will be available). In the afternoon attendees will have the option to join one of three longer sessions with the day wrapping up around 3pm.

Please email tom.johnstone@denbighshire.gov.uk once you’ve booked your place on Eventbrite to indicate your preferred workshops for the morning and afternoon sessions. Spaces on workshops will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.

Morning workshops:

Grass and scrub management – an opportunity to explore, demo and ask questions about a range of battery powered grass and scrub management tools from Stihl. Participants may use equipment in this session if they are suitably experienced in using petrol equivalents and attend with suitable safety clothing / equipment.

Tree and timber management – a workshop looking at the fossil fuel free tools available for managing trees and timber with various battery powered power tools provided by Stihl. Participants may use equipment in this session if they are suitably experienced in using petrol equivalents and attend with suitable safety clothing / equipment.

Travel and transport duties– Clwyd Agri, Drosi Bikes and staff from CRDV AONB team share their experiences of using electric vehicles and bicycles for a variety of countryside tasks and roles. This workshop includes some vehicles that can be demo’d on site and some that can be viewed but a private demo will need to be arranged for a later date. Please attend wearing closed toe footwear, helmets will be provided.

Afternoon workshops:

Chirk Castle tour – see some of what Chirk Castle and the grounds have to offer and hear from the staff who maintain the grounds there.

Return to a workshop from the morning for more in depth Q&A / demo opportunity – take the time to go back to any one of the mornings workshops and ask more in depth questions, demo the equipment and explore its application in your setting.

Timetable

1000 – Welcome in the Chirk Castle workshop

1030 – Workshop #1

1130 – Workshop #2

1230 – Lunch & networking

1330 – Afternoon workshops

1530 – Close of day

Directions

Chirk Castle can be found by following brown signs on all the main routes into Chirk, or can be found on your preferred map platform on mobile devices.

Entering and parking – from the B5070 main road through Chirk attendees should follow signs for Chirk Castle, enter via the main entrance and follow the drive to the main carpark. Please remember the Castle is open to the public and park considerately.

Finding the Chirk Castle workshop – on foot from the carpark please follow the signs to the right of the visitor centre, past Home Farm to the workshop. It is a very short walk but please arrive at the workshop for 10am prompt.

What to bring?

Clothing and footwear suitable for being outdoors all day regardless of the weather forecast

Packed lunch

Your tea / coffee cup

Your safety clothing and equipment if you’d like to demo the grass, scrub or timber management tools (strimmer’s, brush cutters, chainsaws etc)

Learning points:

From this day you can expect to gain a better understanding of the capabilities of a range of fossil fuel free tools and travel options. You may get hands on with the equipment or see it in use and understand what the current technology is capable of.

You will network with other professionals and students in countryside roles across NE Wales.

There will be the opportunity to talk to suppliers to arrange demos of equipment on your own site to enable your teams to work toward a low carbon tool and travel future.