“The VGS is a voluntary group who try to help make Sidmouth even better than it is. We are funded by donations and are strictly non-political. We are interested in heritage, the Sidmouth economy, working with other groups to get things achieved. We have representatives on various groups with both STC and EDDC to put the viewpoint of our members and to report back.”
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It’s a question that is both straightforward and interesting to answer.
The VGS website has just been revamped – with a new colour scheme, updated pages and a new text on the homepage – announcing the VGS with a fresh tag-line: Working towards a Sustainable Sidmouth – Vision Group for Sidmouth
There are links to ‘current projects’ – going from this year’s Sustainable Sidmouth Champions Awards to the just launched Sidmouth Cycling Campaign to the River Sid website, the Friends of Glen Goyle and the wonderful Sidmouth SolarPunk
And on the ‘about’ page – together with mission statement and the like – to the question ‘what do we do?’, this answer is given: The Vision group is… a research group… a focus for consultation… a forum for open discussion of issues, problems and competing solutions… a pooling of local talents for local problem-solving… a think tank and ginger group About the Vision Group for Sidmouth – Vision Group for Sidmouth
Ultimately, though, the VGS banner says it all:
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Coincidentally, there have been some questions online of late – asking ‘Who are the VGS?’ – with a couple of answers in response: SIDMOUTH community for the people | Can someone tell me who Vgs co are, their mission statement, who funds them, and any of their major achievements | Facebook and SIDMOUTH community for the people | The headlines that Sidmouth is “no closer to getting protection for crumbling cliffs” are not accurate | Facebook
For those of you not on social media, here are a couple of responses from the VGS to those queries:
The VGS is a voluntary group who try to help make Sidmouth even better than it is. We are funded by donations and are strictly non-political. We are interested in heritage, the Sidmouth economy, working with other groups to get things achieved. We have representatives on various groups with both STC and EDDC to put the viewpoint of our members and to report back.
Our officers, project leaders etc are elected from within the members. We have many groups in Sidmouth who are not voted on by the whole town, like the SVA, Rugby Club, Knitting Group, Repair Cafe, or Sidmouth Help. They are all set up by people who are interested in specific things and are mainly run by volunteers like the VGS is.
We are not privately funded. Since Covid we have been really struggling because any money we received used to come from public donations at meetings we ran, like the Hustings meetings to make sure people had a chance to meet political candidates. When we had to stop running meetings our income dried up.
We work with as many people as we can, we are aware of the thoughts of Sidmouth Chamber of Commerce as well as many other local groups but always want to do more. We make ourselves available for discussion whenever we can, like at SeaFest, and have a contact form on the website.
We also have the Champions Awards which this year are about waste/making savings. This will involve us in working with many organisations including schools/allotment holders/youth groups/Repair Cafe. If you have any ideas on how we could do better we’d love to hear them.
The Transition Town movement don’t impose anything on their members. The VGS contains people with a range of views so we usually end up very much in the middle ground. We have been a transition town for a very long time.