Climate Action Towns – Alness & Invergordon Visits
The Climate Action Towns project is being carried out by Architecture & Design Scotland, with 7 towns across Scotland having been picked. Two of those towns are in the Highlands, Alness and Invergordon. At the Hub, we’re working closely with Architecture & Design Scotland to help support, develop and deliver community led climate action projects in both towns. The Hub is here to serve as a central resource for all things community led climate action in the Highlands, whether that’s advice and support about funding, to helping shape environmental and net zero policies.
Whilst the project is moving forward from the initial conversations we had in October 2021 with Architecture & Design Scotland, Highland Adapts and the Community Support Co-ordinators at the Highland Council, we are still keen to get out and about in Alness and Invergordon and see what the views and thoughts are of the people that live in both towns.
Both myself and Jessica, the community support co-ordinator for Easter Ross ward 6 and 7, have been out and about in Alness & Invergordon talking to different groups and clubs about what climate action looks like, and the work happening in Alness & Invergordon around the climate action towns project.
So far, we have visited Invergordon Social Club’s Lunch Club, and the LGBTQIA+ Lunch Club at Alness Academy, The Place Youth Club, and the Dandelion Project with some more visits to different clubs lined up in the coming months.
At Invergordon Social Club, we decided to take the approach of ‘long-termism’, by bringing along pictures with us that were of Invergordon High Street over the last 100+ years. Sometimes when we live in a place for a long time, we can forget how it used to look and how things have changed over the years. By looking at the past, the present, and then considering the future of a place we can talk about how our places have changed for the better and maybe some things we don’t like so much.
At Alness Academy we talked about some of the issues affecting young people, where a lot of ideas and issues we talked about were around public transport. It was really insightful for us to gather the views and opinions of young people living in the area to help us plan for the future. We are keen to gather a wide range of thoughts, ideas, and opinions about Alness and Invergordon from the people that live there, and it helps us to better understand the kind of work we need to do.
We were delighted to go along the Place Youth Club in Alness, with also a visit to the Dandelion Project and their garden. Again, we spoke to the young people there and what they thought about Alness. Some really interesting points were raised about education and the kind of subjects offered at school, training, and the kind of opportunities there are in Alness & Invergordon.
As the Dandelion Project unexpected garden is now starting to come to an end, we managed to get in a visit. It was amazing to see the hard work that the team at Dandelion have done since the project began. The garden was absolutely abundant with tomatoes, kale, turnips and tonnes of other vegetables and seeds. The team at Dandelion told us how they had been supplying some of the produce from the garden to communities in Alness.
If you are based in Alness or Invergordon and would like myself and Jessica to come and visit your organisation to talk about the work going on through the Climate Action Towns project, please feel free to give us a shout! You can send on email on enquiries@nhclimatehub.co.uk and read more about me here.
