The results of St Bees Parish Council’s environmental project questionnaire showed significant interest from residents for a bus route through the parish. While the Parish Council can’t guarantee that it will be possible to deliver this, they would like to understand more about why residents want to travel by bus and about these possible journeys to provide evidence for a bus route through the parish.
St Bees Parish Council’s Climate Change Working Group has developed a survey to gather this information, which will run until 20th January. You can complete the survey here: https://shorturl.at/jZ4Gs
If you don’t have internet access, paper copies are also available from St Bees Post Office.
Thank you for taking the time to complete the bus survey. The results will be reported in the parish magazine, on village noticeboards and via St Bees Parish Council’s Facebook page.
Thank you to everyone who filled out St Bees Parish Council’s questionnaire earlier this year, which looked at possible environmental projects in the parish. The results below were published in the September edition of St Bees News.
“There were 92 responses to the questionnaire and the main results were:
The top five responses to a list of possible projects and facilities to be developed were: 1 Bus route 2 Local produce events 3 Repair café 4 Community renewable energy scheme 5 Public electric vehicle charging points
When asked to prioritise the listed projects and facilities, the top 5 responses were: 1 Bus route 2 Public electric vehicle charging points 3 Community renewable energy scheme 4 Repair café 5 Local produce events
Other suggestions for possible projects included those related to public transport and active travel; roads and traffic; waste, recycling and litter; land use and planning.
Responses also provided further support for existing projects: the proposed off-road cycle track from St Bees to Mirehouse, tree planting and wildflower planting.
Residents who completed the questionnaire were generally supportive of the Parish Council taking action to address climate change: 58% felt it was very important to address climate change locally and for the Parish Council to take action and a further 20% felt it important to do so. Just 4% felt it was not important at all.
Cost, uncertainty about what actions to take and that other options are unavailable were the top three barriers given by residents for not making further changes to address climate change.
There was also significant interest to find out more about energy saving at home, wildlife friendly gardening, and reducing food waste and composting.
Sixteen people expressed interest in being contacted to help with future projects related to climate change and nature recovery.
While the Parish Council may not be able to take all the suggestions forward, our Climate Change Working Group will use the results of the questionnaire to guide the projects that they now explore.
Background to the project
Both the National Association of Local Councils and Cumbria Association of Local Councils encourage parish and town councils to take local action to tackle climate change and increase biodiversity. St Bees Parish Council formed a Climate Change Working Group in 2023. The Parish Council Climate Change Toolkit provides ideas for projects, but encourages parish councils to involve their residents in choosing projects for consideration.”
St Bees Parish Council’s Climate Change Working Group was formed in 2023. The working group comprises parish councillors, representatives from St Bees Eco Church, St Bees Green Future and the village schools, and individuals with an interest in environmental issues.
The Climate Change Working Group has been using the Parish Council Climate Change Toolkit as a guide for possible projects to consider. As part of this, the Climate Change Working Group has developed a questionnaire to identify which environmental projects residents would like to see a priority. This will help to determine which projects the working group will try to take forward.
You wouldn’t have thought so many people had pens to recycle, but they did. The same was true for dental items, snack wrappers and medicine blister packs.
The idea for a sustainability group in St Bees came from the interest in using the recycling points for these harder to recycle plastics around the village. If people were keen to recycle items that would otherwise be binned, what else could we do as a community towards reducing waste and our carbon footprint?
St Bees Green Future began in July 2021 as a Facebook group; a place to share ideas for how we can live sustainably and encourage other people to do the same. Although we have held several online meetings via Zoom since then, the St Bees Green Future Facebook group is still active and that’s where most agenda items start as ideas.
Sustainable Choices – Reduce Reuse Recycle
The group decided to focus its initial efforts on reducing consumption of new goods by organising swap events, where people can bring their preloved items along to swap for something else. There was most interest in organising clothes swaps, so that is where we started. We held our first clothes swap in May 2022 at Adams Recreation Ground and since then we have run quarterly clothes swaps there.
There was also interest among members of St Bees Green Future to set up a repair café, where broken items, from clothing and furniture to bikes and tools, could be brought along to be fixed by volunteers. Although a small number of volunteers with repair skills from the parish were interested in getting involved, we started to make enquiries about running a repair café in Egremont. However, as the Revive programme at Mirehouse will include a repair café, we are waiting to hear further information before taking this project any further.
We have since held a preloved toy and book stall at the 2022 Bees Bash and a further two preloved events for children’s items at St Bees Village School. Our most recent preloved children’s event was run jointly with St Bees Village School Association and the two groups plan to organise further preloved events to raise money for St Bees Village School.
Planting for Pollinators
Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Cumbria County Council have worked to reverse pollinator decline across north and west Cumbria by creating, improving and connecting pollinator-friendly habitats. This provides food, shelter and nesting spots for bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects.
As part of this Planting for Pollinators project, St Bees Green Future received 100 packets of local wildflower seeds and information booklets about pollinator-friendly gardening to distribute. The wildflower seeds were given to residents that expressed an interest, and the remainder will go to families via St Bees Village School and the local Beaver group.
Great Big Green Week
In 2022 St Bees Green Future ran a community craft event during Great Big Green Week – a UK-wide celebration of community action to tackle climate change. We used fabric scraps and leftover craft items to create bunting and a welcome sign for use at events. There was also a craft station to decorate a green heart – the symbol for caring about climate change. The highlight for children was using a sewing machine to stitch the bunting fabric!
We are currently organising events for this year’s Great Big Green Week, which runs 10th to 18th June. Look out for details!
Working Together
St Bees Green Future also has representation on St Bees Parish Council’s Climate Change Working Group. As part of this group, we are working with parish councillors and other community members to explore how as a community we can take further steps to act on climate change.
Keep up to date with the activities of St Bees Green Future via our email newsletter – contact stbeesgreenfuture@gmail.com to subscribe.
Sustainable St Bees 