Here, as our environmental oversight correspondent Angus Young reports, is a new way for you to help sort the planet out.
The simple answer to today’s Curiosity question is anyone and everyone. Launched recently, the Rights Community Action project aims to encourage local people to get involved in a citywide response to issues around climate change. Organisers say it’s a chance for ordinary people to be part of the solution by using their passion and local knowledge to help Hull thrive in a changing world. The starting point is simple; people living with climate risk should be involved in decisions that affect them.
Funded by the National Lottery’s Community Fund, the Community Climate Stewards project will run for the next five years with a focus on three areas on the East Coast of England – Hull, Skegness and Lowestoft. Kate Macdonald, joint coordinator of the project in Hull, said that local people know their communities best, so it makes sense to involve them in decisions about their future. “Local people know where flood water gathers in their areas. They know where the green spaces are that need protecting. More than that, they have a stake in their neighbourhoods – it’s where they work and shop and where their children go to school but all too often people think that decision making is out of their control. We want to change that – to recognise that local people are the experts and to show them how they can get involved in these important decisions that are shaping their communities’ futures.”
Louis Dorton, joint coordinator, added: “I love Hull – the land, the people, the rivers. For me this project is about collaboration, across political, economic and even species divides – we all need to be involved in decisions about our future. A lot of us have had our heads in the sand when it comes to floods, droughts, housing, food and all these connected issues. This project is about our right, as the people who live here, to look after the place we call home, building skills and processes to survive, thrive, adapt and be healthy, and to shape the world we want to live in.”
The first opportunity to put this into practice comes as Hull City Council starts a public consultation on its new Local Plan, which intends to set out a long-term vision of how the city will develop and change over the next 15 years, including where new homes, jobs and infrastructure should be located. As part of the consultation, Community Climate Stewards will be encouraging local residents to get involved in not only looking at the big picture but also helping to shape how their local areas can respond to climate change.
One example of this is already taking place in North Bransholme where residents are exploring ideas on how their neighbourhood can adapt to future climate challenges. Affordable low-carbon housing, local food growing and community energy generation are just three ideas being discussed.
Group member Andrew Dorton said: “We really want it to be affordable, and if people are involved in building their own home, that’s one way to lessen the cost. We would also want to incorporate as much electricity generation as possible to make the houses environmentally efficient and just have one area for parking, rather than cars being all over the place.”
The project officially started a couple of days ago and to help local people get involved, the project plans to run a series of community mapping workshops around the city. The first took place on August 8 and 10 at Ground Gallery on Beverley Road, near the city centre, with residents invited to take a walk around the local area and think about and discuss the community’s environmental resources and challenges, share local knowledge and identify priorities for the future.