Bridport Town Council
A Food Security Plan for Bridport
Bridport Town Council worked with the Landworkers Alliance and Bridport Food Matters to gather data and define actions to address issues of local food supply. A final report on food security was approved by the Environment Committee in January 2024.
Bridport Town Council’s Climate and Ecological Emergency Action Plan 2023-2025 acknowledges the disruptive impacts climate change is having on the food and ecological systems that we all depend on. It also recognises the cumulative effects these changes are having on human health, well-being, and the cost of living.
Significant sections of our community face challenges in accessing nutritious food, primarily due to financial constraints. The growing demand for emergency food provision and the health crisis exacerbated by the prevalence of cheaper, ultra-processed food necessitate a shift toward longer-term, sustainable solutions. This confluence of challenges underscores the need for a resilient and sustainable domestic food supply in the UK.
The plan addresses the challenge of rising food insecurity in the area and researches the best way to ensure that there is always a secure, affordable, and healthy food supply for the current and future populations, as well as tourists, in the Bridport local area. It explores how this could be achieved, with steps that can be taken now, soon, and later in the future by consumers, producers, organisations, and local governance.
The food security plan set out to:
- Determine how much food the Bridport local area should produce to ensure food security for a growing population and tourists.
- Estimate how many farms and farmers would be needed to meet this demand using sustainable techniques.
- Outline ways in which food could be processed and distributed locally in order to increase access to healthy and affordable food while supporting the local economy and reducing environmental damage.
- Suggest how to rebalance prices, availability and marketing so nutritious food is the easiest choice for everyone.
- Determine actions that consumers, producers, organisations, and local governance can take to achieve these goals.
The development of a food security plan for the Bridport area is a collective effort – helping understand the complex web of interrelated issues and proposing a roadmap towards a more sustainable food production and distribution system that will benefit the entire community.
Bridport Town Council are grateful to the Dorset National Landscape Sustainable Development Fund for financial support to produce a food security plan for the town and surrounding rural area.
Climate and Ecological Emergency Action Plan 2023-2025
Bridport Town Council responded quickly in 2019 to the emerging consensus that climate change had become a crisis that required emergency action. BTC declared a climate emergency in May 2019 and followed this up with a detailed Action Plan in October 2019 together with a dedicated budget for the climate emergency of £100,000. The Climate Emergency Action Plan 2019 has guided BTC policies and actions for the last 4 years. A Climate Action Sub Committee has met regularly (monthly) to oversee delivery of the CE Action Plan and to ensure that the climate action budget was wisely invested in projects that benefitted the local community.
Achievements of CE AP 2019 It is clear from the consultation feedback that merely having produced a CE AP in 2019 was well received and helped galvanise action across the town. Specific action with recognised outputs include:
- Energy champions training and community outreach programme;
- Design and installation of 22Kwh solar panels and 3 EV chargers at Plottingham Field;
- Retrofit works at Mountfield offices to improve energy efficiency;
- A 20% reduction in BTC carbon footprint over the last 4 years, notably on heating and electricity use.
“I imagine the CE AP has raised awareness and increased focus within BTC which is important and led to the success of various initiatives. I’m less confident that it has raised awareness in the community in general, outside those groups already involved in climate/ environmental matters.” Consultation response.
It is increasingly likely that we will need to deal with a much warmer world, probably as much as + 2 degrees by mid century. With every degree of warming the climate impacts and risk escalate. The consultation responses we have received align with national climate bodies in concluding that it is imperative, if we are to avoid chaotic climate breakdown, to accelerate the pace of transition to net zero and massively increase the scale of action.
Taking into consideration all feedback from the consultation on the current CE AP propose that BTC produce a more focused CE AP in 2023 with emphasis given to supporting our community to adapt to the inevitable impacts of a changing climate. To achieve this shift in emphasis we propose that the CE AP 2023 be given a new structure under the following headings:
- Emissions reduction;
- Resilient, socially inclusive and healthy communities;
- Ecological emergency and
- Transitioning to a circular economy.
Councillors have approved a revised Climate and Ecological Emergency Action Plan 2023-2025:
Plottingham Solar Car Port Project
Bridport Town Council has completed installation of an innovative solar panel car port in Plottingham car park, Bridport. From mid December some 22,217 kWh per year of renewable energy will be produced on site. The Town Council will be using the energy to power it’s own electric vehicles and are negotiating with Octopus Energy to supply local residents with renewable energy through the Energy Local Bridport scheme.
This project is an important step toward delivering the Town Councils Climate Emergency Action Plan (2019). Reducing the Councils annual greenhouse gas emissions whilst serving as an example of how local businesses can generate low carbon energy.
This project has been part funded by Low Carbon Dorset as part of the European Regional Development Fund and will save over 11.5 tonnes of CO2 each year.
