Could providing free buses for low income
families to green and blue spaces, help improve health and wellbeing,
connect more people with nature and improve our environment?
A recent proposal to North Devon Council (NDC) regarding the latest Plastic Free North Devon (PFND) ‘Protect our Playground’ campaign has sparked a potentially transformative and forward thinking motion to be put forward by Councillor Frank Biederman at the Devon County Council (DCC) budget meeting on 17th February 2021. He has called on DCC to commit and provide budget to allow “travel partners to provide vouchers to families on low incomes for free travel to the beach at weekends and/or during school holiday periods’’
The motion goes on to state “that many children in Devon have never been to the beach or, because of financial limitations on families, can often find it beyond their means. Visiting a beach can have fantastic health benefits for young people and their family, particularly their mental health, as well as connecting them with our beautiful environment. If communities are better connected to our natural environment, they will be more inclined to preserve it for future generations. Pensioners can access the beaches with their free bus pass, we believe this should also be available to our young people’’
Following a motion to NDC brought by Councillor Robbie Mack in January, a discussion was held with PFND at a meeting of the council Strategy and Resources Committee earlier this month, suggesting ways to support families on low incomes to access the new wooden bodyboard hire scheme at various locations around the area. “The original motion was to request businesses stop stocking cheap polystyrene bodyboards, but I was very happy to see the conversation move to see how we can financially support families to get to the beach and use the reusable boards. Getting out into our natural environment can remind people what it is we need to protect, and it will provide tremendous mental benefits.”
One of the ways proposed by PFND requested NDC to provide a number of vouchers that covered the subsidised hire cost of a board along with an optional return bus ticket to the beach for young people from low income backgrounds. PFND strongly recognises the need to connect more people with the natural environment, to have any chance of protecting it.
Claire Moodie, CEO of PFND, explains “There are currently huge barriers to bringing everyone along with us on our journey of environmental awareness and having the capacity to make environmentally friendly decisions is a privilege for most. Not everyone has the luxury of caring about the environment when they are worrying about where their next meal is coming from. North Devon has some areas with high levels of social deprivation and large parts of the population that are disconnected with the natural world and the intrinsic benefits it provides; this is something as a community we should be working on more intensely’’. She added “This isn't about cutting down on your plastic use or encouraging people to shop at refill stores (although that would be a nice bonus), it is about trying to encourage a deep shift in our society where people start to understand that we are a ‘part of it’ and we have to play a part in trying to protect it’’
54 To advertise call 01237 422074 or email
mag@ex33.co.uk
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