We plan to re-launch Parish Grasslands Climate Action sometime in early summer, following the massive interruption caused by Covid. In the meantime members have been discussing various ideas about how the community can tackle various climate change issues.
We all appreciate living in such a beautiful area, but one drawback we face compared with urban areas is the almost total absence of public transport. The result is that we use cars much more than town-dwellers, and our combined carbon footprint incurs a relatively high cost to the environment. Of course at the moment the financial cost of petrol and diesel at the pumps is setting record highs, so there is an extra incentive to cut down on our fossil-fuel mileage. We are keen to encourage car-sharing between friends where possible, while admitting that Covid has put a temporary damper on such activities. Two families sharing transport for a weekly supermarket trip to Chepstow or Monmouth could save quite a lot, both in financial and environmental costs. And on the subject of shopping, let’s hear it for our excellent community shops, the Pantry and the Village Shop! They stock a wide range of life’s necessities, and if some of these are slightly more expensive than in the large supermarkets, that cost can be offset by the saving (financially and environmentally) in fuel consumed for a trip to the supermarket.
Another area we continue to explore is how to encourage more of us to walk or cycle for those short local trips where it would be possible to leave the car at home. That includes thinking of ways to make it safer for walkers and cyclists. And we continue to bang the drum for electric bikes, including the possibilities of converting an existing pedal-powered bike with an electric kit. After the relaunch we will hold e-bike test ride sessions. Another plan for the future is for open-house weekends where residents with all manner of sustainable domestic energy systems will welcome visitors and discuss how their systems operate.