Arbroath and Kirriemuir showcase their climate action through a community exchange

On Monday 20 March, both Arbroath and Kirriemuir hosted a number of communities in order to showcase the climate action they have taken in their communities.

The community exchange was part of our Community Climate Action Plan (CCAP) programme, made possible by funding provided by The Scottish Government. The exchange brought CCAP communities and others from our It’s Your Neighbourhood and Beautiful Scotland initiatives together to experience the climate work going on across Arbroath and Kirriemuir.

Arbroath and Kirriemuir have both been working hard to implement and raise awareness of climate action across the community and there are plenty of results to show for it.

The community exchange, hosted by Arbroath FC Community Trust and Sustainable Kirriemuir, began at Gayfield Park for a welcome and introductions, and then a stadium tour to learn more about Arbroath FC’s work around sustainability including newly installed EV charging points and LED lighting. We then had talks on more of the club’s action and how the Community Trust’s Youth Forum have been working hard on tackling litter in Arbroath.

After some refreshments, we learnt more about Arbroath’s CCAP plans and got involved in an interactive workshop looking at opportunities for Arbroath’ Seaton Park.

After lunch, we all hopped on to a minibus and headed to Kirriemuir. First stop was Kirriemuir’s Community Garden where we saw the fantastic work volunteers are doing growing flowers and produce for events, how the space is used for mental health, and saw the world’s first 3-D printed log beehive.

We then watched a video on some of the work that Sustainable Kirriemuir have been doing around an e-bike trial and e-cargo bikes before wrapping up with a Q and A.

Tom Campbell, one of our attendees from Brighter Bervie said: “Not just hearing inspiring examples of community and environmental benefit but feeling a personal boost to keep making a contribution to build community cohesion”.

Christine Fraser, from Tidy Clean and Green Camelon and Tamfourhill said: “Thank you so much for an excellent day, got loads of good ideas/suggestions about how to take things forward”.

Ryan Beattie, host of the community exchange and Manager of Arbroath FC Community Trust said: “It was a great event for us as a Community Trust. It gave us an opportunity to engage with organisations locally and nationally who are involved in similar projects or are starting their green journey. We wanted to utilise the varied experiences in the room and found it incredibly helpful to have such a broad range of individuals and group representation and we’ve already had some communication with attendees to look at collaborative working on our journey. A huge thanks to KSB for facilitating and providing the expertise and experience over the past 18 months culminating in this fantastic event”.

Heather Ashworth, Projects Officer at Keep Scotland Beautiful said: “It was fantastic to see two communities in different stages of their climate journey working hard on bringing their Community Climate Action Plans to fruition, through community-led action”.

If you are interested in creating a community climate action plan with your community, please get in touch at info@keepscotlandbeautiful.org.