Greener communities, stronger communities

Something I have been asked a lot on the doorsteps of Pinhoe is what I do for a living. People understandably want to know what their representatives DO, what motivates them, what makes them tick. I am proud to tell people that I work as a Business Development Manager for Exeter Council for Voluntary Services (CVS). 


A CVS is an organisation that supports, represents and develops community and charity organisations through training, consultancy, representation and advice & guidance. 

Exeter's Real Food Store

Lately, I have been leading on a bid to the BIG Lottery Fund which - if successful - will bring up to £1 million to Exeter to invest in grassroots community projects that make our communities more resilient & sustainable, will lessen our impact on the environment, and will promote community action and the creation of "green" jobs in the city. The partnership in Exeter is extremely strong. The bid is fully supported by Labour-led Exeter City Council who are core partners with us, as are major local "players" such as the Met Office, the University, EDF Energy and South West Water. However, the beauty of it is that it is also largely driven by smaller, community-based organisations. The Real Food Store is a community-owned local enterprise that enables people to buy locally grown and produced food, a great alternative to supermarket shopping! Co-cars is a co-operative solution to the hight cost of running your own vehicle, and of there simply being too many cars! It enables local people to share a "pool" of vehicles to use only when they need them. Exeter Community Initiatives (ECI) is a vibrant community development organisation that helps local people and communities by supporting them to run projects themselves that meet their own needs. 

Exeter City Council's Dawn Rivers and
Cllr Rachel Sutton at the Planning Event

There are too many to list (over 40 organisations in all) from the public sector, commercial sector and the community sector - all coming together to commit to working with Exeter residents to improve our communities, improve our environment, and reduce the impact we all have on the globe's climate. It's a wonderful process to be part of and a privilege to be leading it, whether the bid is successful or not.


I see part of being a community leader to be bringing different sections of our community together so that united we are more effective and achieve more than we would individually. 


We held a wonderful planning event with partners at the Hub on the Green - a lovely little community venue and social enterprise based near the Cathedral, and the Real Food Store catered for the event. Partners discussed what the focus of the bid should be, where we should plan our activities, and mapped what strengths we have - and what projects already exist - within Exeter's community & environmental networks.



So, what would the projects achieve? 
The partnership has selected two areas of the city to work with; the Arena Park / Beacon Heath area (straddling the Pinhoe / Mincinglake border) and the Exwick / St Thomas area. 


These areas have been selected because in the Pinhoe / Mincinglake case, we felt that despite some deprivation factors, there were established community networks to utilise, and some good projects already there to build on through ECI's Harvest project and the Sure Start Children's Centre. In the case of Exwick / St Thomas, this area sits in the highest-risk area as far as Exeter's Strategic Flood Risk Assessment is concerned, Exwick has areas with no mains gas, but also there are again projects to build on (such as the St Thomas allotments project.) Also, all the areas of Exeter selected do not feature too well on the Exeter heat-loss survey. You can find out how much heat your house is losing by putting in your postcode here!


Project ideas so far include community reclaim-reuse-recycle schemes, energy assessments to help save households money, community garden and food production schemes, greening spaces and urban wildlife projects, and renewable energy and water sources. Sadly, coalition government prevarication on the issue of feed-in tariffs has somewhat blunted the initial momentum and enthusiasm for domestic renewable energy, but we will watch the outcome of their policy wavering with interest. 


The partnership will submit an expression of interest which, if successful, will see us progress to the next "round", and an award of £10,000 to support community engagement in the selected neighbourhoods to capture residents' thoughts, ideas and priorities, and to plan with those neighbourhoods how to make their community stronger, more resilient and more sustainable. A final bid will then be submitted by early June, and we will get a verdict in July. 


Wish us well, and get your thinking caps on.... we'll be keen to hear your ideas!

Get involved! If you are interested in environmental projects, the sustainability agenda and "real food" and would like to know more about local projects you may wish to consider joining Transition Exeter. Details here.