Dawlish Against Plastic’s Vanessa Ryley looks back on an interesting 12 months.

AS A roadmap towards a return to a new normal is being digested, we have been looking back on our lockdown year which despite restrictions placed on us all, has been remarkably fruitful.

We have found alternative ways of doing things and of course the online meeting, conference, workshop, and webinar have all emerged as alternative means of keeping our contacts, assimilating new learning, and moving ideas forward.

Our group has met regularly via Zoom to make decisions, such as cancelling the first Go Green Fest which had been planned for July. We were very reluctant to do this after so many hours planning it, but we were delighted to rescue our children’s illustrated writing competition, on a story entitled ‘Caring for Our Planet’.

Despite all the limitations, schools took up the challenge and encouraged pupils and students to have a go. Entries were judged by children’s author Ellie Jackson and prizes were awarded at a special Zoom prize giving by Dawlish mayor, Cllr Alison Foden.

Teignbridge Council holds a Sports and Community Awards presentation each year and we were thrilled to be among the finalists in the new category of Green Champions. The presentation was delayed but finally happened, virtually, in December; the ceremony can still be viewed on YouTube. Although we were not winners, we were thrilled to be recognised as finalists, as there was stiff competition.

We continue to work with Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) to promote their Plastic Free Champions campaign to local businesses, and we are delighted to be able to recognise another Dawlish business that is adopting more sustainable practices.

In June we were able to join in with the Climate Coalition virtual lobby and two of us were part of a zoom meeting with our MP Anne Marie Morris who kindly met with us and other local Teignbridge groups with an interest in climate change to answer our questions and listen to the points we made. Later, it was confirmed that she had signed the Climate Coalition Declaration, which was great news as elsewhere, groups had much less success with their lobbying and many MPs refused to take part.

In Dawlish, we contributed to the town council’s Climate Working Party draft strategy document and now attend its meetings.

Our monthly articles for this paper have covered a wide range of topics such as air quality, climate, biodiversity, a cleaner greener economy, fossil fuels and plastic, and not least, our seven-year-old Dawlish Against Plastic youth ambassador, Katherine, whose videos have proved to be an online hit!

Through determination to continue our beach cleans in some form, we liaised with our insurers and Teignbridge Council and drew up new guidelines and a Covid secure risk assessment. Our Covid secure beach cleans have continued when possible during the year and we have been very well supported by Community Action Groups, Devon. We also set up a beach clean club, enabling people to beach clean independently, borrowing our equipment.

As for the ‘new normal’ after lockdown, we are promoting healthy, low impact tourism and leisure activities by liaising with the local ramblers to offer their booklet, “25 walks around Teignmouth & Dawlish” free to local businesses and the library to give out to residents and tourists alike. The booklets normally retail at between £2.50 and £3.50. We are very grateful for the grant from a local councillor’s Community Fund to make this possible.

We are now looking forward to planning more events and continue to push home our environmental message whenever we get the opportunity.