The first public meeting of Sustainable Littlehempston took place on 31st March in the Community Space. Set up by the Parish Council to help improve biodiversity and tackle the climate crisis, this group is also part of Sustainable South Hams – a network of similar parish groups that share ideas, occasionally pool resources, and help support new groups.
As parish councillor Nick Oldridge explained, the aim of the group is to work as a community to look at ways of reducing our emissions, tackling rising fuel costs and improving the biodiversity within our parish. These activities can also help bring us together as a community and have a strong social dimension. Those attending the meeting discussed a wide range of issues and practical measures and here’s a summary of what was discussed:
Biodiversity
One idea is to speak to landowners with a view to expanding nature corridors (through tree planting and other improvements). We will also investigate any available grants to support such activities. If anyone has some land they believe is suitable for tree planting or sowing wildflowers, please contact us and we will look into grants and assembling a team of volunteers to do the work.
Energy Costs
We’ve discussed how to help the community improve energy efficiency in the home, to help reduce our emissions and also tackle the current energy crisis. We will investigate and share information on which organisations are offering help and advice on this soon.
Community Energy
Some communities across the UK have set up a community owned solar farm. This challenge may well be beyond us, but we do have a few factors that could make this feasible. Firstly we have a large energy user, South West Water, in our parish, who are looking to lower their emissions, so may be interested in buying locally generated renewable energy. The second factor is the presence of various groups locally, such as TRESOC, who would be able to provide help on how to deliver such a project.
Talks and Advice
Across the South Hams are various experts who would be happy to attend organised talks. This too is something we will investigate.
Recording Our Local Wildlife
Many of you may have seen them, but it is thought we have otters in our local streams. We will look at whether we can capture these wonderful creatures on a wildlife motion sensor camera and share on the website.
If you are interested in contributing to these activities please keep an eye out for future meetings or events, or just get in touch.
Many thanks to all of you who came to the community orchard at the beginning of April and braved cuts and scrapes to clear a huge pile of brambles from around some of the old, fallen (but still fruiting) trees. We managed to clear an impressive mound of brambles and uncovered (I think) 5 trees which had long been smothered. We didn’t have any power tools which seemed daunting at first, but made for a more peaceful and conversational experience in the early spring sunshine.