Projects and ideas for projects – all of which depend on working creatively and collaboratively – as we try to ‘future proof’ life in the Sid Valley.
.
It’s the time of year to be looking back – and looking forwards.
In 2025, with the Vision Group for Sidmouth twenty years on since its inception, it’s been a good time to consider more than one year. And, perhaps with a little too much poetic licence, it’s provided an opportunity to briefly consider visions for Sidmouth for the next twenty years.
Being a little more prosaic, here are some issues raised this year which will probably take up the next:
- We are by no means finished with Local Government Reorganisation, with the regular rehashing of options for shaking up local government in Devon happening throughout the year and no doubt taking us well into the next. But beyond the exasperation over the arguments over which ‘reorganisation’ should happen, locally we will need to be thinking about council debt, council spending – and what the ‘core tasks’ of the council are.
- There was further consultation on the East Devon Local Plan in 2025 – one of the key issues being how to determine and plan for housing need and net migration/incomer numbers, especially within the new paradigm of remote work. But ultimately the question is how to make space for nature and people in the Sid Valley? – as we are all aware of the dangers of overdevelopment whilst catering for the actual needs of everyone and everything living in our very special corner. “It’s not ‘nature or development’. It’s both.”
- As the climate heats up, we need to be communicating better about our rising sea levels [which means a focus on the Sidmouth Beach Management Plan]; we can be doing more to promote active travel – and cycling in the Sid Valley; we are looking to increasing Sidmouth’s urban tree canopy; we can be looking at prospects for local community energy schemes; and we surely have to be taming the flow of plastic pollution In other words, we need to be engaging the Sid Valley community in making an impact on the climate and the environment.
Looking to the next twelve months and how we might address in particular the last issues around the changing climate and environment, there is perhaps much we can do locally to affect the pace and direction of change – and it can probably only be done through cooperation and collaboration:
- Back in 2023, the Bicycle Ballet came to the Sidmouth SeaFest, brought about by the Sidmouth Cycling Campaign and the Coastal Community Hub [the organisation behind the SeaFest]. Creativity provides a huge potential to engage and transform people and places – or, as the co-founder of the Sidmouth School of Art would have it, “It’s nice to develop that understanding of the value of art, making it and participating in it.”
- The Sidmouth Repair Café is a green initiative making an impact – and is very much part of the bigger movement around reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, repurpose, recycle, recover. The Repair Café were at the Sea Fest this year and at Sidmouth’s first Winter Lights Festival on the Ham last year, with an octopus made up of bits of old vacuum cleaners donated by lots of local folk: you can’t get more creative and collaborative than that…
- And just to take one other area where we can be inventive and work with others: local food. The Sidmouth Solarpunk project has looked at food and doing it locally – and that means using local and seasonal food supplies and supporting our own community. What better example of how to do it than the Sidmouth Community Food Forest – which this year launched the Sidmouth Civic Food Forest, “a valley-wide initiative where food is grown across both public spaces and private gardens.”
The Vision Group for Sidmouth is very much looking forward to working with other like-minded groups and initiatives in the Valley and beyond over the coming year:
- Having just taken on the Climate Awareness Partnership for Sidmouth projects, which are all about working with partners after all, the VGS hopes to be part of furthering local climate initiatives.
- Based on the work of our current projects, we also hope to continue collaborating and engaging next year – especially as one group cannot hope to make good progress on its own.
- And look out for what’s happening with the Sustainable Sidmouth Champion Awards next year as we launch the 2026 Awards, very much in cooperation with other organisations…
These are just a few of the projects and ideas for projects which should be happening over the next twelve months – all of which depend on working creatively and collaboratively – as we try to ‘future proof’ life in the Sid Valley.
See the series of pieces on the theme of ‘future-proofing’ coming out over the festive season across the VGS websites, as we explore how we might be able to ensure a more sustainable and resilient community.
…