Creating Greener Communities Review
GRCC were pleased to host our Creating Greener Communities event yesterday afternoon which aimed show communities what they can do to mitigate against climate change.
The event was held at Stroud College and there was a healthy attendance despite the traffic in the area. With around 45 there, there was some engaging discussion and the guest speakers delivered some excellent presentations.
The event kicked off with a welcome from Helen Richards, GRCC’s Environment Lead, and then went straight into the first guest speaker of the day. Richard Hunt who is a Flood Warden in Tewkesbury delivered a presentation on why flood wardens exist and how his role helps to try to prevent such emergencies occurring. He gave some moving memories of the 2007 flooding and said that it’s important not to stand still and always be trying to prevent flooding, even when a wide scale emergency, such as the 2007 floods, hasn’t happened for 12 years.
Next to speak was Kath Hayward from the Wotton Community Climate Action Group. She explained what the group was and how it had come about and then went on to tell us about the actions they are currently taking as a community to mitigate against climate change. One key point was raised which is to change your thinking and celebrate each small thing that you do, so that you continue to do that thing.
Daniel Gale, from GRCC and GEM, spoke next and explained how we as an organisation are trying to reach a Gold Green Impact award and explained the measures that GRCC are going to in order to achieve this. It was a fascinating talk and clearly explained how other organisations could achieve this award and how this helps in the grand scheme of things.
Our penultimate speaker was Rachel Brain, Stroud District Council’s Carbon Neutral Officer, spoke about her role at SDC and the strategy going forward before Peter Wiggins from Gloucestershire County Council spoke about the council’s strategy as well. There was a then a short Q&A for audience members to ask questions.
The event then moved into the workshop section with four workshops taking place:
1. Climate Change Action Plans – This was run by Barbara Pond and groups were encouraged to think about the different sections of climate change that they can effect as communities. Areas such as home energy, recycling, transport and biodiversity were discussed as part of this interactive workshop.
2. Resilience Planning – Helen Richards ran this session and aimed to show how communities can plan for emergencies and be resilient to these. There was some debate and discussion about resilience planning within this as well
3. Powers: GAPTC – Alison Robinson ran this session and explained and helped the attendees to discover the powers that they have as communities to mitigate to climate change. This workshop also served as a useful way for parish and town councils to discuss with each other about what they were currently doing.
4. Preparing your community for Electric Vehicles – Philip Cameron from Gloucestershire County Council delivered this session and did what it said on the tin! Explaining how communities can prepare for electric vehicles.
The event ended with an interactive session to try and look at the next steps after the event because we felt there was no point in holding this event without having something practical come out of it in the future.
Thank you for those who attended and we hope you enjoyed it and felt it was worthwhile.
