Crediton Town Council is running a community conversation for the people of the Crediton area to come together, hear more about the climate and nature crises, and then have an opportunity to come up with their ideas of what the Town Council and we as a local community should do.

These issues will have to be dealt with by all of us and in particular by the young of today for the rest of their lives as the impacts become worse.

This event is split into 2 parts, the first is a talk at Haywards school hall on Thursday 4th November:

'Climate and Ecological Crisis: What's All the Fuss About?' by David Ramsden M.B.E.

David Ramsden MBE is Head of Conservation for the Barn Owl Trust. He also does a brilliant talk so if you don't know what the fuss is about, come and see David's presentation. If you do know what the fuss is about, bring someone else along who doesn't and you'll probably find out more than you expected anyway.

Like many of us, David read reports on global warming and ecological damage a few years ago. But whereas most of us may have shrugged and hoped that someone else would solve the problem, he decided to do a lot more research. The result is a presentation that many people have found illuminating, informative, accurate and understandable. It comes highly recommended.

  The second, on Saturday 6th November is a chance for the local community to come together and hear from 3 experts on subjects that are important in the local area and then to come up with suggestions about what the Crediton area should do:

Crediton COP 26 - A Community Conversation: What should Crediton do?

There will be presentations on

• Food security, land use and economy
• Transport
• Agriculture and biodiversity

The speakers are:

Catherine Broomfield, farmer and business developer

 Catherine has a background in business and farming, having kept livestock in Devon since 2001. She advocates for native breeds and grass-based systems. More recently she has campaigned for sustainable food and farming and for policy development. She has an MSc in Food Policy and is currently researching how livestock farmers can engage with the non-farming public in a way which is most likely to sustain the 'social licence to farm'.

 Stewart Barr, Professor of Geography Exeter

Stewart researches into Environment and Sustainability including how the public engages with current environmental problems. He looks at how social practices are evolving in the light of 'mega-issues' like climate change, and the ways in which consumption-heavy lifestyles could be put in conflict with calls to reduce consumption as a way of averting catastrophic climate change. He explores various practices related to energy use, water, waste and most recently, mobilities. He looks at how social media's potential for collective action can help to achieve successful behavioural change.

Ewan Woodley, Senior Lecturer in Geography

Ewan's broad research interests are climate change, natural hazards and public understandings of risk and resilience. He is a member of the Environment and Sustainability research group whose approach covers health and well-being, risk, ethics, place and identity. He acknowledges that 'The communication of climate science is a key challenge for academics'. Current research fields are Transitioning to sustainability, Sustainable places: land and sea, Resilience and climate change.

Cllr Elizabeth Lloyd, Mid Devon District Council

Elizabeth is the Green Party district councillor for Sandford and Creedy. She was the cabinet member holding the portfolio for climate change until March 2021. She will precede the presentations with an outline of initiatives that the district council is taking.

It will help us with numbers if attendees register for both events via Eventbrite www.eventbrite.com . The link to the event is also on the town council website www.crediton.gov.uk and on our Facebook page. Alternatively, email the town council on townclerk@crediton.gov.uk . You can still come if you haven't had time to book a ticket, though.

See the posters below for further details. Both events are free.