By Rashleigh MacFarlane

An initiative set up to tackle climate change in Bude has suffered a serious blow after the local town council decided to “step away” citing “ongoing challenges.”  The decision poses an existential threat to the future of the Bude Climate Partnership.

Details of any specific “challenges” have not been made public.  But several Bude-Stratton town councillors said they felt that Bude Climate Partnership had not delivered value for money.

The council said it was ending its connection with the Bude Climate Partnership, saying: “After careful consideration, the council has had to make the difficult decision to step away from its role as lead partner for Bude Climate Partnership (BCP).

“Bude-Stratton Town Council has served as the lead partner for BCP since 2022. This initiative was designed to foster positive, community-led responses to climate change in the wider Bude area.”

Bude-Stratton town council records its meetings on YouTube (opposite.)  The extraordinary meeting which took the decision to end its relationship with the BCP was last week after hearing complaints from a member of the public.

The fractious nature of environmental activism and small-town political power has seen numerous splits in recent years, as some supporters of Extinction Rebellion divided into the even-more-direct-action Just Stop Oil and other groups.

One of the projects overseen by the BCP was the creation of a Bude Climate Jury.  The jury’s “verdict,” delivered after many, many meetings and hours of debate, struggled to please everyone.

For example, the “challenge” of developing alternative transport links “while maintaining existing car parks” triggered much debate on social media.

One of the founding principles of the Bude Climate Partnership was its determination to study the environmental impacts of tourism.  For decades the Bude tourism lobby had considered the town council as its own.

In 2021 the Bude-Stratton town council saw a major shake-up when many candidates from the local “community alliance” were successful in elections, replacing several long-serving councillors.  The election contest was notable for some of those soon-to-be ousted councillors paying for newspaper adverts warning that “the future of democracy is at stake."

In 2023 the National Lottery awarded the Bude Climate Partnership £2 million.  The lottery is due to decide in March how it will view the Bude Climate Partnership without the town council.