Withyham Parish Council – Climate and Nature
What We Are Doing:
What You Can Do:
Resources
Resources
Air Pollution
Get a free Air Quality report for your address: www.addresspollution.org.
The Climate Coalition
The Climate Coalition is a collaboration between lots of well known groups across the UK coming together to take action on the climate and nature crises.
Energy Advice and Changes
Energise Sussex Coast is an East Sussex based organisation who help people with energy advice, share information around energy e.g. running local open homes, attending events (including with Withyham Parish Council May 2025 APA) and pilot innovative schemes around community energy.
Ovesco develops community-owned renewable energy in East Sussex, and has resources such as advice leaflets and events.
The Centre for Sustainable Energy has lots of useful guides, resources and tips for improving energy efficiency and reducing heat loss in homes. You will find information about all sorts of energy related matters in their online library of resources at the Centre for Sustainable Energy website. You can also call on 0800 082 2234 to speak with someone from their team.
The Energy Saving Trust has lots of resources, with a specific section on reducing home heat loss including wall, floor and loft insulation, draft proofing, windows and doors as well as pipes and radiators, along with more general energy advice.
Local Food
Wealden District Council’s Healthy Wealden has a list of local markets in the district.
Local Groups
There are lots of local groups taking action for the climate and local biodiversity, check them out, and get involved!
Wild Groombridge are a local volunteer group monitoring, creating projects and taking action for local wildlife. Download iNaturalist and become part of the group spotting local plants and wildlife, and find out more on the Wild Groombridge website. You can see the partnership projects we have running at our Wildlife Projects pages.
Green Transition Crowborough are running a huge range of projects, events and are “taking small steps to make big changes” – find out more on the Green Transition Crowborough website.
Tunbridge Wells CAN hosts a Climate and Nature Fair in Calverley Park, Tunbridge Wells in September with lots of groups and organisations sharing projects, opportunities and what they are up to, find out more at the Tunbridge Wells Climate and Nature Fair website.
Local Nature Recovery Strategy
East Sussex is part of the Sussex Nature Partnership which is creating the Sussex Local Nature Recovery Strategy, more information about this project can be found on the Sussex Local Nature Partnership website.
Recycling
Wealden District Council have created a handy online tool for working out how best to recycle – find out how and where to recycle your items on their website.
Repair Cafes
These are a great way to renew and fix items that would otherwise go to waste. Local Repair Cafes are:
Forest Row Repair Cafe – you can see their next Cafe in our What’s On Calendar and find out more information at the Forest Row Repair Cafe Facebook page.
Tunbridge Wells Repair Cafe – you can find out more on the Tunbridge Wells Repair Cafe website.
Crowborough Repair Cafe – you can find out more on the Green Transition Crowborough Repair Cafe page and the Crowborough Repair Cafe Facebook page.
Transport
In addition to local bus services, there are 2 door to door transport options providers which offer journeys within the parish:
Wealdlink
Wealdlink operates weekly door-to-door shopping services to Crowborough.
A Weekly Friday service to Crowborough (Waitrose – Morrisons – Lidl) from: Forest Row, Coleman’s Hatch, Hartfield, Withyham, Groombridge and Crowborough.
Fare for this service is £6.00 return. for more information Call 01892 771332 or visit the Wealdlink website.
Flexibus
Flexibus is run by East Sussex county Council in more rural areas of the county where traditional bus services don’t quite reach, FlexiBus provides a link to key transport hubs such as train and bus stations, supermarkets and shopping centres and other key places of interest. It operates exclusively for places not served by a regular bus service.
Services run 7am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday (not Sundays or Bank holidays).
Bookings can be made by Smartphone, via the Ride Pingo app or by telephone to our call centre – 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. At busy times, you can leave a voicemail message and someone will call you back during those hours. You can book a FlexiBus ride up to 30 minutes before you want to travel and up to 7 days in advance.
Trees
The Woodland Trust are undertaking an Ancient Tree Inventory, you can find out how to be part of the project on the Ancient Tree Inventory section of their website.
Wealden District Council are responsible for planning in the local area, and through them you can apply to register trees to be protected, with a Tree Preservation Order. Find out more about this process on the Wealden District Council website.
Water
There are a number of Groups testing the health of local waterways.
The Water Quality Monitoring Network test results can be found at: https://five.epicollect.net/project/water-quality-monitoring-network/data. It is worth using the filter and entering keywords like “Eridge Stream”, “Grom or “Medway” to display test results applicable to the parish.
Project Ripple Effect is testing some local waterways, their results and how to get involved can be found at the Project Ripple Effect website.
Wealden District Council
Wealden District Council has set up a Climate Change Hub on the Let’s Talk section of their website, with all kinds of information, resources, surveys and ways to get involved.
Wildlife
There are both local and national groups taking action for wildlife, some we have connections with are:
Wild Groombridge are a local volunteer group monitoring, creating projects and taking action for local wildlife. Download iNaturalist and become part of the group spotting local plants and wildlife, and find out more on the Wild Groombridge website. You can see the partnership projects we have running at our Wildlife Projects pages.
Sussex Wildlife Trust – visit the Sussex Wildlife Trust website to find out more.
The RSPB have a nature reserve within the Parish, Broadwater Warren Nature Reserve. See the RSPB website’s Broadwater Warren page for more information.
Buglife are a national charity, and are “Europe’s only charity dedicated to the conservation of all invertebrates”. Check out the Buglife website to find out more.
