Sustainable Littlehempston is a working group set up by the Parish Council to help improve biodiversity and tackle the climate crisis. The 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.
We are aiming, broadly, to work as a community as best we can to look at ways of reducing our emissions, tackling rising fuel costs and improving the biodiversity within our parish. We also want these activities to help bring us together as a community and have a strong social dimension.
Here is a summary of our ideas:
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.
Local Talks / Advice
Across the South Hams are various experts who would be happy to attend organised talks, this 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.