Hexham

Building a sustainable future in Hexham through community engagement

Overview

This project, based in Hexham, Northumberland, built a town-wide approach to community resilience and sustainability. It aimed to include as many members of Hexham’s population as possible, extending the reach of existing positive climate-related action from community groups and other organisations. 

Hexham Town Councillor Ariane Baty shares more about her experience engaging with the Hexham community around climate action, including some of the journey to becoming a councillor. 

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Building relationships

A key part of this project is around engagement and building relationships, highlighted by four key points

1. Grassroots engagement: 

Residents set up Hexham Climate Action (HCA) meetings in 2018 to engage those concerned about the climate crisis. In these meetings, plans were made for wider engagement through regular public meetings, attending Town Council meetings, supporting local school climate strikes and writing to the local MP. 

2. Election to Hexham Town Council: 

A group of independent candidates and their supporters (OpenHexham) was founded in 2021 to increase the number of town councillors giving greater voice to people’s concerns, including the impending climate crisis and how to shape community resilience. The campaign engaged the public through open Q&A zoom meetings, prominent stalls and banners in key town locations, a website, email address, telephone numbers and social media pages with a clear objective of simply listening to residents.  

3. Utilising the town councillor role: 

OpenHexham councillors and additional councillors further engaged the Hexham community on the subject of climate crisis and community resilience through: 

  • One-to-one conversations with local organisations  
  • A working group to develop the sustainability vision and policy for the town.  
  • Attending monthly market stalls seeking residents’ views to inform decision-making at council meetings. 
  • Three Hexham Net Zero Fairs held since 2022 to engage the town’s groups and organisations.   
  • Endorsement and support of monthly climate café drop-in sessions, including involvement in setting up a community assembly for 2024.  
  • A Town Council school poster competition, visiting every local school in 2022 to ask pupils how they envisage the town dealing with the climate emergency in 2030. 

4. Community-led engagement: 

From the Hexham Net Zero Fairs, the town now has a steering committee to bring about net-zero goals (transport, sustainable energy, food production, community, business) with representatives from all sectors. Initial stakeholder meetings are currently being set up by local people for local people and supported by non-profit Sycamore Net Zero CIC. Further engagement is also under discussion with local cultural institutions (Queens Hall Arts, Hexham library, etc.) to extend interest to develop annual week-long community events on the topic of sustainability and community resilience. 

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Hexham Town Councillor,

Ariane Baty, explains more:

Key successes of project

The climate crisis and community resilience narrative has reached a much larger audience since moving from being discussed solely at a small grassroots forum (Hexham Climate Action) to Hexham Town Council and beyond. Councillors are being asked to speak at debates and panels about it and informs Northumberland County Council on how this work can be done at town level. Feedback from residents over the last two years, has reflected this: 

‘Hexham has changed’ and ‘Hexham is more vibrant now’. 

The Hexham Net Zero Fair is now an occasion that is known in the town and beyond. This event shows that the Town Council is serious about climate action and has enthused local organisations to support its work. It is also a stepping stone to a larger event being planned professionally by local arts organisation Queens Hall Arts. Furthermore, the Town Council has an agreed Net Zero Vision statement and is working on a Net Zero Policy, which requires agreement from town councillors. 

Key challenges

Being elected to serve on a town council is unpaid work and takes up a lot of time, but can bring significant rewards, particularly in engaging other councillors and the wider community.  

Establishing a platform to engage the community, in this case on climate change, is a specific challenge, and a key solution is to make use of councillors’ reputation and networks to bring residents together to lay the foundations for community-led and community-wide climate related work. 

I am pleased to say, Hexham is working to overcome these challenges for the benefit of its residents and its future. 

Engagement with everyone

Lessons can also be learned from thinking about how to engage with harder-to-reach community members:

  • School children: The extent to which they engage seems to depend on the support of the schools (two pupil groups have attended the Hexham Net Zero Fairs so far). The town council net zero vision poster competition helped to engage with teachers, and through them, young people and culminated in two stalls run by young people at the following fair. 

  • The wider community: The Town Council works with No 28 Community House, which supports people on low incomes. The council also encourages local arts organisations to include the wider population through targeted funding of certain events. Additionally, councillors nurture meaningful relations with the managers of the local foodbank, community centre, churches, warm hubs, centres for people with learning disabilities and many other organisations.

  • People who do not want to or can’t engage with the subject of climate crisis: Relevant Facebook posts and articles in the Hexham Courant about the town’s and Town Council’s progress can engage some of these individuals. 

Our top tips

  • Stand for election as a group of independent councillors who share values and have agreed ways of working together and take the opportunity the role provides to engage as many different members of the community as possible.  

  • Organise public engagement events and competitions online and in-person, hold market stalls, school visits and panel discussions, send emails, do Facebook posts, and generate local news. 

  • Don’t be afraid to just listen. 

Ariane said:

“Public engagement feels like a slow process sometimes but can have amazing outcomes. Through the efforts of a group of flatpack democracy-style independent councillors working closely with other town councillors and residents, I believe Hexham’s community is well on its way to building a sustainable future for all.”

Contact details:

Ariane Baty

ariane.batyhtc@yahoo.com

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