ACAN – 5 incredible years

(This is a copy of the presentation we gave for this celebratory event)

INTRODUCTION James

We are here this evening to celebrate ACAN, and to thank the three people who have comprised its Core Group from its inception, who have now announced their intention to stand down. We warmly welcome the Alton Town Mayor, Town and East Hampshire District Councillors, and all our other guests, especially the new ACAN trustees.
In the next half hour or so, Sue and I will be attempting the impossible – to do some sort of justice to the extraordinary achievements and value of this organisation, which held its first public meeting at the Assembly Rooms on the 14th June 2019

The Alton Climate Action Network (ACAN) followed on from the Greening Alton and Holybourne Campaign, which had spawned Energy Alton and Alton Local Food Initiative, and also the Alton Climate Alliance. The latter organisation formed in 2015 for the sole purpose of mounting a Rally to show Alton’s support for the crucial COP 21 Climate Talks to take place in Paris that November

Messages of support written on hand prints were collected from Altonians at the Alton Climate Rally and made an impressive display the next day, the eve of the talks opening in Paris, on the great London Climate March. The second picture shows us outside the gates of Downing Street

But it was in the Spring of 2019, four years later, that three things came together to cause an unprecedented wave of public concern about man-made Global Warming:

• one was a powerful BBC documentary by David Attenborough
• one was the Extinction Rebellion protests in central London – which, let us not forget, enjoyed remarkable public support at the time
• and the third was the Greta Thunberg phenomenon, which sent shock-waves around the world

This was the wave of public concern that ACAN was riding when it formed five years ago.

For the second part of that packed and enthusiastic inaugural meeting people broke up into animated groups:

To a large extent the groups that formed that day went on to become the organisations which now make up the ACAN family. We wish to thank the members of these groups, many of them here this evening, who have helped us to compile the following brief descriptions.

ENERGY ALTON Sue

As James has just said, Energy Alton predates ACAN, but has been closely linked from its inception.
You will know that my husband John Hubbard is Chair of Energy Alton. He said “We have been proud to fly the environmental flag in Alton since 2010, showing that it was possible to energise people to take action”.

In the early days EA masterminded the large-scale distribution of free loft insulation which people took home and installed. (5,000 rolls)

An early success was the installation of solar panels on the Public Library. Energy Alton has been tireless in seeking more opportunities to encourage the expansion of renewable energy in the community.

They have continued to advise the public on energy efficiency and no less than 500 free home energy surveys have been completed. The team of volunteer energy surveyors is now being expanded to reach more homes.

The home energy support team (HESTA)

Energy Alton arranges a series of educational meetings and is a prominent presence at public events – for example the coming Green Homes Fair on the 29th June.

ALFI James

Alton Local Food Initiative has cultivated plots and planters around Alton for 14 years, with my wife, Lesley Willis, being active from the start. It has shown that vegetables, fruit and herbs can be grown in small spaces.

The ALFI sites include

• The Westbrooke Plot growing vegetables and herbs
• The Station Plot which grows herbs, vegetables and fruit
• The front of St Lawrence Vicarage which has soft fruit
• The Orchard at the Jubilee recreation ground which has 14 fruit trees.

Many volunteers have helped at the regular working parties over the years. The great bonus is the fact that it is a wonderfully sociable activity, very rewarding, and tremendous fun. On one occasion a traffic warden was distracted from placing a ticket on one of the volunteers’ cars, loved the plot, and went on her way bearing a quantity of fresh greens.

The Seed Swap, the Seedling Swap and the Harvest Feast are regular annual events, well supported and enjoyed by the local community. No charges are made at any of these events but donations are welcome. For example, £250 was donated at this April’s seedling swap, reflecting the good will which these events invariably generate.

In 2022, ALFI exhibited at Hampton Court Garden Festival, in the Community Garden section, and received many accolades from the visitors, who loved the concept of small community gardens openly sharing their produce.
Looking ahead, ALFI will continue to look for opportunities to encourage local people to grow their own food crops.

LOBBYING AND CAMPAIGNING GROUP James

As the original convenor of this group, my priority was always to confront the organised denial which originated, and continues to emanate, from the corporate psychopathy of the fossil fuel industry, via lobbying groups such as the so-called think-tanks in Tufton Street, Westminster.

However, all-too aware how divisive this subject can be, ACAN’s Lobbying Group has expressly avoided direct, or disruptive, action.

Organising a demonstration in the Market Square to show support and respect for a day of climate strikes by school children was as far as we went, and even that provoked antagonism from at least one person. We also made a trip up to London to lobby parliament. But all along our aim has been to win hearts and minds by reasoned argument and example and by building understanding and mutual respect with our political representatives at Town, District, County, and National Government levels.

It is anyone’s guess how much these actions have contributed to the revolution in attitudes and policy that has undoubtedly taken place at all three levels of local government during these last five years. But there is no doubt that ACAN is held in high regard by all these bodies.

We have maintained friendly and apparently supportive relations with our MP, but it is a matter of disappointment that we have never persuaded him to depart from, still less challenge, his party’s recently-redoubled complacency over environmental issues.

Keith Shepherd lists the following amongst the group’s more recent activities:

• Regularly questioning EHDC on subjects such as their carbon footprint
• Promoting hedge and tree planting policies
• Responding to the local plan
• Campaigning against vehicles idling outside schools
• Engaging with EHDC over the “Grow Up” agricultural initiative.

AVLAN Sue

Alton & Villages Local Action for Nature is a community group dedicated to helping the local wildlife through improving the natural environment.
Gareth Hurd lists some of its achievements:

Seven community wildlife gardens around the town and into Holybourne, each of which helps wildlife and is a vehicle for its volunteers to learn more about creating wildlife habitat. This picture was taken yesterday at the Butts. The wider public see a more environmentally-friendly way to live with our local green spaces.

A sub-group has been carrying out water testing and river-fly sampling in the River Wey, improving our understanding of the river’s ecological health, passing this data on to local and national authorities. The Wey Walk river enhancement in the centre of Alton has already made a difference to a neglected stretch of the river.

Using ACAN’s extensive contacts, AVLAN has made many small contributions that help other land managers in Alton take better care of the town’s wildlife:

• Getting Pertuis Avenue registered as a Hampshire Highways Wild Flower Verge
• Planting over 2,000 hedge trees on Alton Town Council sites (picture),
• Creating a legal template other community groups across Hampshire and East Hants can use for their own wildlife gardens.

AVLAN has had regular talks – a popular one being how to encourage hedgehogs in your garden, and has produced leaflets about, for example, making your garden more wildlife friendly.

A new project is the Greening Alton map, where public and private bodies can register their efforts for wildlife and link wildlife-friendly spaces together across the town.

Finally, AVLAN is joining the Hampshire Wildlife Trust Team Wilder scheme to increase the range and variety of activities it can offer in future.

COMMUNITY CUPBOARD James

The Community Cupboard, like similar organisations elsewhere, collects food which is close to its sell-by date from local supermarkets and saves it from landfill. The team of 40 volunteers collects the food almost daily in their cars

Sandy Marks says:
After five years and moving the project seven times throughout Alton, we have finally secured a 5 year lease at the Old Post Office on the High Street. We raised just under £30,000 in small donations and grants, and with hard work from our own volunteers and some lovely members of the public who have offered their skills, we have transformed an old forgotten industrial unit into a vibrant space where we are not just offering food, but services and advice from several local organisations.

With the high visibility location of our new shop and with the dedication of our volunteers, we are managing to be self-sufficient, paying our bills from customer donations.

In just the first quarter of 2024, the Community Cupboard rescued over 22,000 kg of surplus food (four and a half elephants!) and shared it for free with our community.

SUSTAINABLE EATING Sue

ACAN’s newest group is Alton Sustainable Eating, which has already held some workshops to encourage people to reduce the amount of meat and dairy produce in their diets. They are looking for ways to engage with people locally about the environmental and health benefits of a more plant-based diet.
The mission is to spread the word that cutting down on meat and dairy in our diets has been shown to be one of the best ways to reduce our environmental impact. Better still this is something that is entirely under our own control and benefits our own health as well as the planet.

We used to think that local food was better than anything that had to be transported here from overseas – now it is clear that it is what you eat, not where it has come from that affects the carbon footprint.

REPAIR CAFE Sue

The Repair Café started at an ACAN workshop about 5 years ago when John Pearce from Farnham Repair Café came and talked about what they did which inspired people here to set something up. It’s been running ever since.

First, I should say that we are part of the wider movement – REPAIR CAFÉ INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION – an international body leading on repair for sustainability.

Our publicity material and our house rules etc. come from that organisation and have recently been refreshed.

In November 2020 I took over. We had Covid to contend with shortly after but we found a way around that.
5 of our achievements, (from me and from repairers too):
1. The atmosphere is heart-warming, people getting together and building community spirit. We even repaired the Mayoral chain a few months ago.

2. The passion and camaraderie amongst the repairers – they help each other, discuss problems and work together. They also eat a lot of cake!

3. Repairers using skills built up over years, the value of which may have been overlooked by our THROW AWAY culture. TV programmes like the ‘Repair Shop’ and ‘Money for Nothing’ have helped by placing a value on making things good again.

4. The joy amongst the public when something they hold dear is repaired – it opens peoples’ eyes to what can be saved and helps them to see they might themselves have a go next time.

5. LAST BUT NOT LEAST – 2 in every 3 items brought in are repaired. Looking at the stats (yes we calculate the saving from landfill each time) in the last year alone we have averaged 65.5kg of items repaired. That equates to driving for 2,596 miles, or showering 391 times or flying for 3,812 miles.

Our objective for the future is to BUILD on this success and continue to provide this valuable work.

CYCLE ALTON James

Cycle Alton was set up in May 2020 partly in response to the Covid-19 crisis and partly with the aim of giving Alton’s cycling groups and individuals a campaigning voice for safer cycling and better cycling infrastructure.

The main focus has been on short trips made by utility cyclists and commuters while promoting cycling as the natural choice for short journeys around the town, and to and from the villages.

Janice Montgomery picks out the following amongst its achievements:

• Developing the Local Cycling & Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) in liaison with Alton Town Council, East Hampshire District Council and Hampshire County Council.
• As a result all these bodies are now very much aware that Alton has an active cycling community.

Raising awareness generally by:

• Our presence at local fairs & on social media
• Writing & promoting the Alton Cycling Charter which details our vision for Alton
• Advising on the Cycling in Alton maps and locations for more bicycle parking in town
• Organising the delivery by professionals of several sessions of both adult cycle training and ladies’ cycle maintenance classes. (As it happens the success of these classes, run by Hilary is highlighted in the current Alton Herald.)

Aspirations for the Future
To develop fully integrated safe cycling routes suitable for older school children to cycle to school, for commuters and for utility cycling use. Any new housing developments must be connected, and our aspiration links to East Hampshire’s (LC Wip) and Local Plan.
We also hope more people will join us and get involved!

ECO STREETS Sue

In spite of all its efforts, ACAN realised it was failing to engage a critical mass of ordinary people in a way that would support politicians in taking the bold actions that are so urgently necessary.

Hoping to find a model that could be disseminated widely, ACAN obtained funding to employ Scott Gudrich, an articulate and passionately-committed local organiser who was also a qualified ecologist, and (not-least) musician, to reach out to smaller localities. Originally the Whitedown area was chosen, but the Ecostreets project has since extended to the new developments at Treloar Heights and to the Cala Estate in the centre of Alton.

The initial leafleting and door-to-door surveys in Whitedown had found that a large proportion of residents felt great concern about the climate crisis, but also that they didn’t feel there was anything that they, personally, could do about it. A promotional/sharing event on the Butts Green in July 2022 had reflected this picture .

Scott’s reports on his experience of trying to galvanise local action – the things that worked and the ones that didn’t – are an invaluable resource for anyone attempting similar work.

His list of things that worked includes:

A survey of attitudes from children at the Butts School. This was reported in the Listen to the Children booklet and in a travelling exhibition placed in Alton Community Centre, St Lawrence Church, the Allen Gallery, and Petersfield Library

Work with primary schools: including carbon footprint & water footprint workshops and making a recording for YouTube of children singing his wonderful song We are Resilient (Click to listen).
The Bolle Road Wild Flower Verge which has engaged local people and is now going into its second year
Themed walks to help connect people with local nature and inspire stewardship – one of these popular events – an evening stroll in Ackender Woods – happened last night.

COMMUNITY SHARE Sue

Community Share is a project which collects donated items of toys, games, books and even musical instruments, and makes them available freely for loan.

Martin Wiles has run this independent activity for the last 4 years, over which time thousands of items have been lent to a few hundred families and individuals of all ages. 🔻
Coming out of lockdown, Community Share operated from a room in the Community Centre, but it now uses St Lawrence Church Hall at the top of Vicarage Hill on two Saturday mornings each month.
This offers both an environmental as well as a community benefit for Alton and its surrounding villages and towns.

Due to the notorious difficulty of advertising events of any kind in Alton these days, the existence of this extraordinary service with its hard-working volunteers is not as widely-known as it deserves to be. Do go along and see what is available and encourage others to do the same.

THE GUMBI-ALTON PERMACULTURE PROJECT James

Gumbi is the name of a group of impoverished villages in Malawi, Central Africa.

The distinguished environmental correspondent, the late John Vidal, came across this area during his travels and was so moved by the plight of the people there that he established a small charity, The Gumbi Education Fund, to help them.

Through Jenny Griffiths, ACAN became involved at about the time John was extending his interest to sustainable agriculture as a possible solution to the villagers’ dependency on a single crop, maize, which made them terribly vulnerable to crop failures with resulting hardship and famine. He wanted to help them return to a more traditional, and more resilient, mixed form of agriculture – called Permaculture.

ACAN’s contribution was to pay for what eventually turned out to be 15 young Gumbi villagers, including five girls, to attend residential courses at the wonderfully-named Permaculture Paradise Institute where they learned how to apply these rediscovered skills. ACAN went on to buy the young farmers a plot of land and help them acquire equipment, bicycles, and eventually farm animals.

To do this ACAN mounted a series of fundraising campaigns, and produced a promotional YouTube video at no cost. The total sum raised to date is approximately £15,000 and, in addition, the campaign attracted a major donor who had been looking for a project of the kind to support, and who has so far donated at least as much as that again.

With the tragic death of John Vidal late last year, Jenny has now become a trustee of the Gumbi Education Fund and has just returned from visiting Gumbi. Above all, she brings the wonderful news that Permaculture is working in Malawi, and that the Gumbi Alton Permaculture Project is thriving.

ACTION ON PLASTIC Sue

We are told by Sheila John who looks after this initiative that its main achievements have been:      
      1. Engaging with the general public about the environmental and climate crises during monthly litter picks and through TerraCycle activities. (TerraCycle is a commercial service which arranges the recycling of a huge range of materials)
      2. Clearing Alton’s public places of litter, which endangers wildlife as well as being unsightly.
      3. Recycling plastic items not recyclable in the council’s black wheelie bins.

Sheila says:
“As for the future, I am pleased to say that Lynn Bonsey has taken over the litter picking responsibilities from me and Julie Howe will be taking over TerraCycling from Phinna as part of her commitment to the Parish of the Resurrection’s Eco Church initiative. So Action on Plastic will probably stay much the same as it has been so far.
Sadly, neither Lyn nor Julie is able to attend tonight.

YOUNG ACAN James

Last but perhaps most important of all. Young ACAN is the youth group of ACAN. Their contribution has been absolutely crucial.

I am indebted to Emma Jones, one of the ACAN Trustees, and driving force behind Young ACAN, for much of the following.

It was born out of local school engagement with the first Alton Eco Fair in 2021. Several schools provided artwork and speakers and some of those, led by the powerful speaker Lillie Ewins, then in year 10 at Eggars, were keen to start a young people’s campaigning group.

Young ACAN reaches out through schools, colleges and local youth groups and has a network of Young ACAN Ambassadors who meet regularly at Goldfinch Bookshop.

Amongst many other issues, they are concerned about the damaging effect of fast fashion on the environment, about litter and recycling, and about protecting nature. Since 2022 they have held four clothes swaps “Back on the Rack” events and more are planned.

They have received Community Lottery Funding for, amongst other things, employing a professional to undertake a survey of young people to discover how much they know and care about the climate crisis. The results were sobering indeed

A schools eco-conference in 2022 was attended by representatives from 12 local schools, both primary and secondary. And when the Young ACAN Partnership was launched last year with nearly every school in the area (16 of them) signed up.

Young ACAN has gained District Council funding for the Litter Picker Backpack project, met with MP Damian Hinds and attended a range of events including Hampshire Youth Parliament’s Eco Conference, Alton College Freshers’ Fair and the Alton Eco Fair.

Currently being planned is the upcoming 2nd Young ACAN Schools Eco Conference – which will be at the Alton Maltings Centre on 1st July.

THE BROADER PICTURE James

ACAN is much more than the sum of these groups and these activities, astonishing though they are…

We could start by mentioning the two Eco-Fairs, in 2021 and 2023, which we mounted in partnership with Alton Town Council.

Then there was Damian Hinds ‘Local COP’ at the Maltings, which preceded the 2021 COP 26 Climate Conference in Glasgow.

For some time ACAN had a regular slot in the Alton Herald, sometimes amounting to a double-page spread.

It appeared regularly on Wey Valley Radio, and posted on Social media.

Eleanor produced beautiful email newsletters.

And it commissioned a new website, which featured Sheila John’s monthly Making a Difference articles, and which provides information about all these groups, and all activities.

We have held a number of open meetings on specific subjects. And our gazebo has been a familiar sight at markets and fairs in Alton, and further afield.

In October 2021 ACAN staged a 48 hour Vigil of Hope in the Market Square which attracted support from Councillors, musicians, and local groups. But it was mainly the core trustees who saw it through the steely watches of the night.

Having flirted with the idea of a full-time ‘Eco-Hub’ in the Community Centre, premises beneath the Town Hall were provided by the Council for an ‘Eco Cafe’, led by Phinna, it was manned for two sessions a week for members of the public to drop in for information, talks, and ‘Eco-Chat’.

TO SUM UP

Sue and I have tried to give an overall picture to show how the ideas conceived five years ago at that meeting in the Assembly Rooms and in the garden outside have developed and blossomed in a way nobody could possibly have predicted. This is significantly due to the efforts of the core triumvirate who we are celebrating tonight, along with the many others who have embraced the vision.

The ACAN model has been the inspiration for many others in Hampshire, including in particular the Petersfield Climate Action Network (PeCAN) and also Headley Climate Action Network.

We have shown that if you give a range of environmental opportunities, people will come forward and we believe that this will grow and prosper under the new Trustees. Of course they will have their own ideas and their own style, but everyone in this room will join us in wishing them every success.

I should like to conclude with the words of the leading article in the Guardian a month ago on the day they published their survey revealing near-despair among leading climate scientists, urging everyone to continue the fight:

“It is not only useful; it is essential. Individual actions can seem futile given the magnitude of the task. But they can also build collective awareness, a sense that change is possible and momentum for wider systemic progress. Just as climate tipping points exist, so do social tipping points. It is imperative to hit the latter as fast as we possibly can.”

Aiming to hit those social tipping points has been the very centre of ACAN’s project since its inception. That fight must go on.

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Note:

This presentation was given by James Willis and Sue Hubbard on 3rd June 2024 to summarise the first five years of a climate action group set up in Alton, Hampshire, England.

The meeting was held to thank the three women, Jenny Griffiths, Eleanor Hill, and Phinna Brealy, who had been the very heart of the organisation and who have announced their intention to stand down. The event was held largely to thank these wonderful people.