Anonymous donor to fund 'Climate Emergency Centre' for Oswestry

The aims of the the centre will be to support residents, foster collaboration and build community resilience on environmental and social issues, bringing together a range of organisations and services under one roof.

It will form part of a network of similar facilities being set up by groups across the UK, with projects also launched in Telford, Bishop’s Castle and Ludlow.

The vision for Oswestry Climate Emergency Centre (CEC), which is now looking for a suitable home, was presented to the town council’s markets and town centre committee by group directors Jonathan Lill and Jood Gough.

Ms Gough said: “The climate emergency, loss of biodiversity and social injustice are all inextricably linked, and we can’t solve one without solving all three.

“These are the defining issues of our time, which require solutions ranging from global though to local. A number of national schemes already exist in the UK, but there is an urgent need for local, community-led organisation and collaboration.

“Right now there is a growing movement of CECs across the UK - each unique, in line with the circumstances and needs of its local town or city - but all of them focused around the need to provide some kind of centre that helps build community resilience and adaptation for a sustainable future.

“There are some 40-odd CEC groups around the UK, which are at various stages of looking for a building, getting a building, finding funding, and indeed many are already up and running.”

Ms Gough added that CECs, which are often based in long-term empty buildings, helped support town centres adapting to the decline in high street retail and becoming more social and community-orientated.

Mr Lill said the main objective of the Oswestry centre was to be “welcoming and accessible” to all members of the community.

He said: “It’s not just a place where we tell people what they should be doing, it’s a place where we recognise that we’re all at different stages with what we’re trying to do, and we ourselves are not perfect.

“It’s a way of helping people to come in, find out what can be done and how get involved in their community in changing things to a more sustainable track.”

Mr Lill said the projects to be based at the CEC could include the repair cafe and a community growing scheme.

He said other CEC groups across the country have been granted free use of empty buildings in order to save the owners from paying business rates due to their charitable status, but this approach had not been successful in Oswestry.

The group had begun to look at the possibility of renting, but has now received an offer from an anonymous supporter prepared to buy a building and allow the CEC free use of it.

Mr Lill said the directors were now in the process of looking for a building and hoped to have the centre up and running within the next year.

Councillors asked whether the CEC would employ paid staff, and Mr Lill said it was hoped that a role would be created to oversee all the projects, but it would depend on funding and the types of schemes that come forward to be based there.

The committee praised the group’s work and said the CEC would be a welcome addition to the town centre.