District Matters

Community Climate Change action in Great Alne

November 2024

On the 6 November 2023, a Community Climate Change Fund was launched by the District Council. The Fund was scoped to develop projects that address climate change and also allow communities to adapt and develop resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Great Alne Parish Council were one of the first to apply, so this last week, I visited Great Alne to see the results of the work done by the community so far. Not only have they made significant strides - but they have already shared the results and made information available to other parish councils through the Warwickshire Association of Local Councils (WALC).

So what are they doing? The Parish Council had already carried out a survey of residents to understand their climate action concerns and priorities. They followed this up with a well-attended Community Day. Residents highlighted their key areas of concern, so the Community Climate Change project grant applications reflected these priorities.

One of the main concerns for residents was the amount of surface water flooding that occurred in the winter of 2023/24. The village was cut off multiple times with children unable to travel to the village school. Blocked culverts or blocked and broken drains meant that roads became impassable when water drained from nearby land during intense rainfall. Access to and from the village is essential and with climate change indicating that more extremes of weather are predicted in the future, this needed to be tackled.

A Flood Action Group (FLAG) was set up. Following the successful bid to the District Council, a plan of action was agreed. A ‘Drain Guardians’ group was soon set up to map and clear drains. Warwickshire County Council’s technical team gave them training on what they could and could not do as well as basic health and safety training. The group reached out to landowners and farmers, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, Heart of England Forest and promptly got to work.

The grant from the District Council allowed them to map drains and culverts across the village, deploy CCTV, clear blocked drains and report broken drains to the County Council. A total of 80 drains out of a total of 121 had problems – now 115 drains have received a green light! Five tonnes of spoil were removed from culverts and drains. A walk around the village highlighted the considerable amount of work undertaken by an energetic group of volunteers. So far, no further surface water flooding has occurred this winter, but work is continuing.

Other Great Alne volunteers are busily working on two more projects. These include a rainwater collection system which is being built to support the community orchard due to be planted this November. In time the community will be able harvest fruit and nuts from a total of 32 trees. Once the orchard is established the rainwater collection system will be handed on to other communities. 

Another project is a feasibility study to look at establishing an off-road cycle route for leisure and for commuting from Great Alne to Alcester. A network of safe, off-road cycleways would be an asset – and one that I would use for myself and with my grandchildren.

These projects have shown the power that can be harnessed in communities by parish councils working with their residents. Once shared these projects can be replicated.