Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of attending Sustainable Tiverton’s AGM at St George’s Extension on Fore Street, alongside Rachel Gilmour MP. It was a wonderful evening that showcased everything I love about our local community – people coming together, sharing ideas, and taking practical action to make Tiverton a better place.
Sustainable Tiverton is an organisation I’ve been proud to support through my locality budget and in other ways over the years. As a volunteer-led Community Interest Company and part of the global Transition Network, they punch well above their weight in tackling climate change, resource waste, and biodiversity loss right here in our community. And they’re on track to become a charity very soon.
The breadth of what they do is remarkable. From the Re-Rooted surplus food café and Community Fridge at the library, to the Repair Café where volunteers fix broken household items, to the Share Shop where you can borrow tools and equipment rather than buying new – they’re making sustainable living accessible and practical for everyone. Their Tree Team and Community Orchard are restoring nature across our area, while their river monitoring work is helping protect the Exe. I am extremely grateful for the support they provided in my mission to improve youth voice in Tiverton, which I hope will lead to a youth council.
A real highlight of the evening was hearing from two extraordinary young people: Eva Wishart and Emily Smith.
These teenagers have taken conservation into their own hands in the most remarkable way. Concerned about the decline of Britain’s native harvest mice, they started breeding them in tanks in their bedrooms and garages. With support from ecologist Derek Gow and wildlife presenter Chris Packham, they’ve now bred and released 250 harvest mice into a community-owned nature reserve near Tiverton. Even more excitingly, field surveys have confirmed the mice are surviving and breeding in the wild – they’ve found multiple wild nests.
Eva and Emily aren’t stopping there. They’ve recently launched “Wild Pets”, a project recruiting 20 children aged 8 to 13 across Devon to breed native harvest mice at home before releasing them. It’s conservation meets community engagement meets youth empowerment – exactly the kind of initiative that gives me real hope for the future.
Meeting Eva and Emily reinforced something I’ve been saying a lot recently: young people in our area don’t just care about their community and environment – they’re leading the way in protecting it. They just need us to give them the platform and the support.
Sustainable Tiverton is doing exactly that, and I’m grateful for everything their volunteers contribute to our town. If you’re not already connected with them, I’d encourage you to sign up to their newsletter or pop into their Ecohub on Bampton Street to find out how you can get involved.