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We held a briefing on Monday to set up Speedwatch groups in Charmouth and Lyme Regis. This is one of the projects which has emerged from the 2030 Vision feedback and ideas, since speeding, transport, parking, traffic and air quality is persistently the most common category of comments and ideas. It is also one of my biggest issues as the ward member for the area. It became clear from discussions on almost all traffic-related enquiries with Dorset Council and Dorset Police, that evidence is needed before most measures can be requested so we are setting up volunteer Speedwatch groups in both Charmouth and Lyme. We count any vehicles which exceed the speed limit and can also gather total numbers of vehicle, which could also provide useful data for any future traffic-related proposals. Please get in touch if you'd like to be involved in the Speedwatch activities - the more volunteers we have, the less time everyone will be needed! On Saturday 4 February, the Home Energy workshop at the Woodmead Halls runs from 10.30am to 12.30pm with the Managing Director of Ridgewater Energy, which runs Healthy Homes Dorset and the Local Energy Advice Partnership on behalf of Dorset Council. Turn Lyme Green will be there sewing stylish draught excluders (door sausages) and some of the Lyme Area Community Energy Champions will be there with examples of how thermal imaging cameras can help identify cold spots in homes. There are two or three other workshops being planned for March to April to encourage more community participation on our transport, traffic, parking , mobility and access challenges. Do please join in so we can involve as many members of the community as possible in planning cleaner, greener, fairer future for the lovely places we live in. Thank you for your support and please keep sharing the link to the 2030 Vision website to family, friends and everyone who cares about the area and about our future here. Belinda Bawden

2030 Vision Co-ordinator and Green Party Dorset Council ward member for Charmouth and Lyme Regis

Energy is on everyone's minds at the moment as we dread switching on our heating and facing spiralling energy costs. The Lyme Area Energy Champs are ready to help you identify where your home night be losing the most heat using thermal imaging cameras paid for by the Lyme Regis Town Council, Dorset Community Energy and the 2030 Vision 'Together for our Planet' funding. Our local Energy Champs will have fact sheets and energy saving tips available in our community spaces soon and can be reached through the 'Warm Welcoming Spaces' offered by the Community Cafe in the Hub on Tuesday to Friday afternoons and by the Lyme Regis Library on Monday afternoons or by emailing energychampslyme@gmail.com.

The skillful sewers of Turn Lyme Green's Boomerang Bags project to reduce plastic waste have generously been making draught excluders to keep homes cosier this winter. Look out for these beautiful 'door snakes' using lovely recycled textiles in a range of colours and designs as well as the leaflet showing you how to make your own! Water quality in our rivers and beaches are significant environmental concerns in the 'Other' category and also topped the face-to-event polls in the spring and summer. The latest 'No More Poo' video was released yesterday with a plea from two young Lyme Regis swimmers to South West Water to protect our Marine Reserve in Lyme Bay and stop dumping sewage into our rivers and beaches. The River Lim Action Group and Lower Char Community project team continue to monitor the rivers; liaise with the water companies, councils and Environment Agency to investigate and resolve sewage discharges; and plan clean-up and restoration actions involving the wider community.

Trees and Green Spaces are always popular topics, especially with younger participants. The Dorset Climate Action Network's Great Big Dorset Hedge is a perfect example of a popular, practical response to the climate and ecological crisis that we can all participate in. The GBDH campaign aims to restore and replace hedgerows to improve soil quality, boost biodiversity, reduce flood risk and capture carbon in an expert-led, community volunteer organised mapping, surveying, restoring and replanting programme along the Jubilee and Ridgeway Trails.

An exciting animation project with the younger children on a 'Time Travel' theme is taking place in the New Year at St Michael's Primary School in Lyme Regis as part of our 2030 Vision project to hear their hopes and ideas for their future. They will be teenagers in 2030 so it will be fascinating to see how they will picture their futures here and what they would love the places they live in to look like then.

Please do keep sharing your thoughts, ideas and aspirations for our futures and share the 2030 Vision link as widely as you can, especially to our younger residents. It's their future so let's hear their hopes!

Contact me on cllrbelinda.bawden@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk for any ideas, contributions or further information.

Thanks and have a lovely December.

Belinda

This is how you think we would be able to make this happen.

Do you agree?

This is your last chance as the Climate Heatmap closes on 6th October .

Please share widely among your family, friends and community. We would like to hear from as many of you as possible who would like to have a say in your future in the Lyme, Uplyme and Charmouth Area and create a cleaner, greener, safer place for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.

Let's work together to build the community networks to look after each other and our future together!