“INSPIRING PROJECTS. GENERATING IDEAS. FOR THE FUTURE”.'”
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The mission statement of the original Vision for Sidmouth report from 2006 looks to “cherishing our heritage, to improving our amenities and facilities appropriate for residents and visitors in the 21st Century, to encouraging a vibrant economy, and to commending our vision to local planning initiatives”.
Looking back over what the Vision Group for Sidmouth has been doing for the last twenty years gives a good idea of how well or not the VGS has indeed done its bit on our shared heritage, the facilities we want and and vibrant economy.
But to be ‘visionary’ means to have a view of how these aspects can be cherished and improved not only now but and into the future.
Some of its projects require more ‘immediate’ results – and so the ‘site-specific’ Friends of Glen Goyle and Cherishing Sidmouth Cemeteries initiatives are about visual improvement which makes an impact and can be judged accordingly. But planning is also important, whether it is creating a plant list or trying to put together a management plan.
The Sidmouth Cycling Campaign is certainly about longer-term planning: back in 2014 Sustrans published the Sidmouth to Feniton study, partly due to VGS liaison and now over a decade on, the Otter Trail and Sidbury-Sidford cycle/footpath have been included in new transport plan.
The VGS has also collaborated with other groups on ‘improving’ our future prospects – from the Sidmouth Science Festival set up by VGS members to improve our understanding of how STEM subjects can help us understand the present and work on the future – to the Climate Awareness Partnership Sidmouth of which the VGS is a very active partner, creating web content and working behind the scenes on making us a bit more aware of climate change.
These ‘external’ organisations have been recognised and extolled in the biannual Sustainable Sidmouth Champion Awards, which are all about “acknowledging those who have acted to promote and improve the sustainability and resilience of the community”.
And it is the VGS becoming part of the Transition Town movement and taking on the rubric of Sustainable Sidmouth back in 2008 which has really pushed the centrality of being ‘visionary’: “It is about communities stepping up to address the big challenges they face by starting local… they are reclaiming the economy, sparking entrepreneurship, reimagining work, reskilling themselves and weaving webs of connection and support”. All very aspirational and all very visionary.
A further layer of getting truly visionary has been the creation of the Sidmouth Solarpunk web resource: “Solarpunk has a realistic and optimistic view of the future. It does not deny the problems of humankind or the planet but it believes that we are capable of getting ourselves out of this mess. It rejects the idea that we are all doomed and that there will be a big disaster of some description, which leaves only a few survivors… We believe that adopting the label will bring many advantages not least to tourism and the economy. If Whitby can be the mecca for Steampunk then let’s make Sidmouth the mecca for Solarpunk!”
These are simply the contributions of the VGS to the debate and actions happening in the Sid Valley – and there are many more out there of course.
But what are your ‘visions’ for the future of our town and countryside? Where should we be headed over the next twenty years?
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