Generous climate conscious Totnes folk have raised £27,000 in just one short month to set up a climate change response centre in the heart of their town.

The Crowdfunder was set up by a newly formed group of climate champions in a bid to inspire, educate and enable the community to tackle the climate emergency at a local level.

In just 32 days the group had smashed its £16,000 target to raise £27,477 which has gone towards setting up a climate hub in The Mansion on Fore Street.

Climate champion leader Jem Friar said a “huge thank you” to everyone who helped smash the original target.

“A big thank you to all the businesses, institutions, organisation and individuals who have donated both rewards and funds,” he said.

“We are now busy organising how the new hub will be run.

“We had lots of feedback and suggestions form the local group events that we ran in March and are busy collating and assimilating all this into the overall plans. “We hope to open the hub in the next few weeks with a launch that should consist of various activities, events and hopefully some fascinating speakers too.”

To get going with its activities and engage with the community, the team is staging an event titled ‘Reducing our Energy Costs Together’ on Monday May 30 at St John’s Church, Bridgetown between 6.30pm and 8.30pm.

Everyone is welcome

There will also be the chance to watch the film ‘We the Power’ which documents the potential of community-level change. Jem added: “At a time when energy bills are rising at a shocking rate and we are recognising the risks of not being energy independent as a nation, we need to find new ways of doing things.”

The team are also seeking volunteers to help out at the hub and are asking anyone with any or all of the following attributes to get in touch: knowledge of climate and environment issues; organisation and/or administrative skills; a friendly and welcoming manner and is good at ‘people’ skills; practical skills; has a creative talent; or is knowledge in website or graphic design.

For more information visit www.totnesclimatehub.info, or email [email protected]