Community action/Somerset

The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Somerset.
News
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Volunteers became salmon, deer and earthworms. Then they set out to save their river, positive.news (Oct 19, 2026) — What does a polluted river feel like to a salmon? An unusual experiment is helping a Somerset community see its landscape through the eyes of wildlife – and plot a 30-year route to change it
Severe drought declared in six areas of England as reservoirs run low, theguardian.com (Oct 15, 2026)
Businesses face extinction unless they protect nature, major report warns, BBC News (Feb 09, 2026)
‘It bloody works’: why the world’s oldest cheddar-maker uses a ‘milk-source’ heat pump, theguardian.com (Sep 17, 2026)
White storks: why introducing non‑native species in rewilding projects can be a good idea, theconversation.com (Jun 05, 2026)
Citizens’ Assembly to invest £100,000 in West’s culture, westofengland-ca.gov.uk (Jan 16, 2026)
Firefighters voice growing concerns over water supplies to tackle UK wildfires, theguardian.com (Oct 21, 2026) — Housing development recognised as one of a number of pressures increasing demand on an already stretched water network
Volunteers became salmon, deer and earthworms. Then they set out to save their river, positive.news (Oct 19, 2026) — What does a polluted river feel like to a salmon? An unusual experiment is helping a Somerset community see its landscape through the eyes of wildlife – and plot a 30-year route to change it
Severe drought declared in six areas of England as reservoirs run low, theguardian.com (Oct 15, 2026)
Citizens need to power Europe's future, demnext.substack.com (Oct 02, 2026) — The EU can enable new democratic institutions: in European countries; with a European Citizens’ Assembly as a 4th branch of government, and by legally enforcing the Global Citizens’ Assembly on AI, Claudia Chwalisz and Another Democratic Future
Reclaiming the streets: the architects clawing back Europe’s car-centric spaces, theguardian.com (Sep 09, 2026) — The European Prize for Urban Public Space’s shortlist highlights projects helping people cope with climate crisis
We’re the mayors of Paris, Milan and Phoenix. The heat crisis has us all facing the same question, Emmanuel Grégoire, Giuseppe Sala and Kate Gallego, theguardian.com (Sep 07, 2026) — Our three cities are learning from each other about how to protect residents. These climate policies are also public health measures
Throw the best party!, demnext.substack.com (Oct 22, 2026) — Programme Coordinator Hannah Terry on finding hope with 30 young democracy builders in Croatia
A Modest Proposal To Improve Democracy In Canada, davidmoscrop.com (Oct 22, 2026) — We must strengthen self-government by putting more Canadians in charge of the political agenda. David Moscrop
Twenty years of Community Wealth Building, a rich global tapestry of cooperation, justice and local ambition [The Democracy Collaborative], Daily Alternative (Oct 22, 2026) — Twenty years on, Community Wealth Building is no longer an emerging conversation. It is an international movement of ideas and practice that continues to evolve in response to the crises and possibilities of our age. This compendium is both a reflection on that journey and an invitation to continue it
Networks and sustainability initiatives
[edit | edit source]- Transition Glastonbury
- Transition Portishead
- West Somerset Together on facebook
CDC video
[edit | edit source]Each week 3 different short videos from across the UK or world.
Community action/United Kingdom/Climate emergency, Community action/United Kingdom/Community involvement, Community action/United Kingdom/Food activism / ...This week's featured Global videos / ... read more about Cosmolocalism
UK and international events
[edit | edit source]UK events
Nov 9 - 15, 2026 (Mon - Sun) — Living Wage Week, livingwage.org.uk
Nov 13, 2026 (Fri) — Kindness Day UK, Nov 13 annually, aiming to increase the value of kindness in society as well as increase the amount of kind acts that take place, making kindness a greater part in our daily life, kindnessuk.com
Nov 15 - 21, 2026 (Sun - Sat) — Road Safety Week, brake.org.uk
Nov 21 - 29, 2026 (Sat - Sun) — National Tree Week, The Tree Council's annual tree celebration. People across the country planting thousands of trees to mark the start of the winter tree planting season. "Trees and hedgerows are some of the most powerful tools we have in the fight against climate change.", treecouncil.org.uk
Global or international events
Nov 05, 2026 (Thu) — Media Liberation Day, Change the Media, Change the Future, mediarevolution.org
Nov 13, 2026 (Fri) — World Kindness Day, Nov 13, annually, highlighting good deeds in the community focusing on the positive power and the common thread of kindness for good which binds us, randomactsofkindness.org
Nov 15, 2026 (Sun) — World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, third Sunday in November each year, worlddayofremembrance.org
Nov 16, 2026 (Mon) — International Day for Tolerance, Nov 16 each year, fostering respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human, unesco.org
Nov 19, 2026 (Thu) — International Men's Day, Nov 19, annually
Nov 27 & 28, 2026 — Buy Nothing Day, en.wikipedia.org
Nov 27, 2026 (Fri) — Citizen Friday, actionism.space
2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events
Somerset video
[edit | edit source]Food activism
[edit | edit source]- Glastonbury Farmers Market
- The Community Farm, Chew Magna
- Incredible Edible Somerset
- Somerset Community Food, grass-roots charity in Somerset which aims to re-connect people with the social, health and environmental effects of growing, buying, preparing and eating local food
- Somerset Country Markets
- Somerset Farmers' Markets
- Somerset Local Food Direct
Towards sustainable economies
[edit | edit source]- Onion collective, added 19:29, 19 December 2020 (UTC)
Health and wellbeing
[edit | edit source]Climate action
[edit | edit source]- Somerset CAN, Somerset Climate action Network, Somerset net carbon neutral by 2030, added 11:57, 13 September 2021 (UTC)
Sustainable transport activism
[edit | edit source]Long-distance footpaths in the county include: Coleridge Way, Limestone Link, Macmillan Way West, Mendip Way, Monarch's Way, Quantock Greenway, River Parrett Trail, Two Tunnels Greenway and West Deane Way. The South West Coast Path National Trail has its starting point at Minehead. W
- Wikipedia:Category:Footpaths in Somerset (category)
Cycling activism
[edit | edit source]The county has one of the first National cycle routes created in Britain 3, 4 and 24 provide cyclists with ways to minimise contact with motor traffic. The Bristol & Bath Railway Path is a 15-mile off-road cycleway, following an old railway track that forms part of Route 4. The path consists of a 3-m-wide tarmacked surface, and was used for 2.4 million trips in 2007, increasing by 10% per year.[90] Route 24, otherwise known as the Colliers Way, currently runs from Dundas Aqueduct to Frome via Radstock. W
Biodiversity
[edit | edit source]In 2009, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, The RSPB and the Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, with funding from Viridor Credits, began a partnership project to re-establish a breeding population of cranes at a new wetland site. A rearing facility or "crane school" was set up at WWT Slimbridge; this consists of a 1-acre (4,000 m2) marsh garden designed to rear crane chicks between 2010 and 2014 in as close to a wild environment as possible. A pre-release enclosure was also constructed on the Somerset Levels. Although the cranes are hand-reared, all humans having contact with the birds wear special grey cover-all smocks, complete with hoods, and feed the cranes using plaster cast crane heads mounted onto litter picker handles. Approximately 20 cranes are reared and released each year. The first cranes were released in 2010 with annual releases planned up until 2014. The cranes are released in Somerset, on the Somerset Levels and Moors, where the project is also working with farmers and landowners to create suitable breeding areas for the birds. A pair of cranes from the project laid the first egg in 2013. W
- The Great Crane Project
- Somerset Beekeepers' Association
- Somerset Wildlife Trust
- Yatton and Congresbury Wildlife Action Group* Wikipedia:Category:Nature reserves in Somerset (category)
Open spaces
[edit | edit source]Somerset is a rural county of rolling hills, the Blackdown Hills, Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park, and large flat expanses of land including the Somerset Levels.
- saveyourgreenbelt.co.uk, added 15:08, 25 September 2023 (UTC)
The county contains several-miles-wide sections of the Avon green belt area, which is primarily in place to prevent urban sprawl from the Bristol and Bath built up areas encroaching into the rural areas of North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset, and Mendip districts in the county, as well as maintaining surrounding countryside. It stretches from the coastline between the towns of Portishead and Clevedon, extending eastwards past Nailsea, around the Bristol conurbation, and through to the city of Bath. The green belt border intersects with the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) along its south boundary, and meets the Cotswolds AONB by its eastern extent along the Wiltshire county border, creating an extended area protected from inappropriate development.
Wetlands
[edit | edit source]- Somerset Wetlands National Nature Reserve, information from gov.uk, published 19 May 2022
Rural sustainability
[edit | edit source]News archive
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Enlisting hearts and minds to save Somerset’s last eels, positive.news (Aug 18, 2025)
New national forest to see 20m trees planted, BBC News (Mar 21, 2025)
Why the British are flooding parts of their coast, Leo Plunkett, Sandy Watt, news.mongabay.com (Mar 19, 2025)
A new flow: pioneering UK river restoration declared a success, positive.news (Oct 21, 2024)
Glastonbury gets 'climate action plan', BBC News (Aug 23, 2024)
‘It’s unbelievable the difference a path has made’: how volunteers are building a cycle network a yard at a time, theguardian.com (May 16, 2024)
The plan to create a ‘nature recovery site’ in every English county, positive.news (Mar 27, 2023)
With its digital community mapping, fungus-driven mill, and reuse of coastal buildings, the Onion Collective is a vibrant CAN, The Daily Alternative (Jun 14, 2022)
Britain’s first wetland ‘super reserve’ offers boost to nature-based solutions to climate change, The Conversation (Jun 07, 2022)
- Stream Farm – A New Model for New Entrants, Dec 21, 2018...Resilience
- Ecological Land Cooperative purchases site in South Somerset to create new small farms, Oct, 2018...ecologicalland.coop. The Ecological Land Cooperative works to create affordable ecological smallholdings for new entrants to farming – those who would ordinarily be unable to afford a house in the countryside yet who wish to earn a living through farming.
About Somerset
[edit | edit source]Past events
- June 15, 2014, Green Scythe Fair
Campaigns
- Frack Free Somerset
- The Strawberry Line, A traffic-free route from the Mendips to the sea
Somerset ( SUM-ər-set, -sit), archaically Somersetshire ( SUM-ər-set-sheer, -sit-, -shər), is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Bristol, and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Bath.
Near you
[edit | edit source]| Authors | Phil Green |
|---|---|
| License | CC-BY-SA-3.0 |
| Cite as | Phil Green (2014–2026). "Community action/Somerset". Appropedia. Retrieved November 1, 2026. |









