Parish Council Specialist Group

We will soon be launching our Sustainable South Hams Parish Council Specialist Group, connecting town and parish councillors looking to make big changes in their community. Sune Nightingale, one of our mentors, explains more:

October is approaching and that means that the launch of the Sustainable South Hams Parish Council Specialist Group is getting nearer! I’d love for as many Parish (and Town) Councillors to join and take part.

At the Sustainable South Hams Assembly on October 8th we are forming the Parish Council Specialist Group (Town Councillors are most welcome too).

Please encourage your Parish or Town Council to send a someone along to the meeting - they will be most welcome. If they can’t make it on that day they can simply get in touch to join in.

I’m a Parish Councillor on Dittisham Parish Council, Vice-chair in fact. I’ve started doing Climate and Nature talks for Parish Councils in the South Hams as part of my involvement with Sustainable South Hams CIC. Because the talks are given by a Councillor to other Councillors I feel that makes them much more effective. (If you think your Parish could benefit from a talk just email me via sune@sussh.org)

Parish Councillors are effectively unpaid volunteers working for the good of the community. Improving our environment is such a natural extension to what Parish (and Town) Councils already do, after all it’s in Parishioner’s long term interests to take action on, and adapt to, climate change, and to preserve and enhance nature.

The thing I particularly enjoy about the talks is just making contact with other Councillors, hearing about how another Council does things, and learning about some of the challenges they face, which are often similar to our own Council’s. And each Council I’ve visited has had things to teach me, and projects underway which would inspire others.

It’s not that often that Councillors get the chance to meet up. We have DALC (the Devon Association of Local Councils) who communicate out to all the Councils in Devon via their regular newsletter, they provide advice and support, and have a yearly conference which is a rare chance to see Parish Councillors “out in the wild”.

For that reason it can sometimes feel like Councils and Councillors are working somewhat alone. Yet there are so many instances where having a group or network would be of such a benefit - we can share and duplicate ideas, support each other, and collaborate on larger-scale projects.

One example of a larger-scale project is drainage. Devon has already seen a 16% increase in rainfall due to climate change. Parish Councils know this because it can be a struggle for our lengthsmen just to maintain our rural drainage infrastructure of buddle holes and ditches. But really we need to be thinking about improving that infrastructure and getting it ready for even high volumes of rain and silt. That would best be planned out as a larger group so there’s a cohesive approach, so that less effort and time are spent, and there would also be big cost savings to be made.

So - at the Sustainable South Hams Assembly on October 8th we are forming the Parish Council Specialist Group (Town Councillors are most welcome too).

There is a dedicated event as part of the meeting from 1-2pm chaired by me, and with Adam Williams, the South Hams Council Climate Officer, speaking and running a quick interactive workshop with us on working out where the main carbon emissions come from in each of our Parishes.

The group will have its own mailing list like the main Sustainable South Hams one, which we can dip in and out of as our time allows, where anyone in the group can raise ideas or issues for discussion, network, share resources and so on.

I envisage that we would decide on a small committee of a few of us to help guide the main group.

Do please encourage your Parish or Town Council to send a someone along to the meeting - they will be most welcome. If they can’t make it on that day they can simply to get in touch to join in.