How Benarty is embracing being a Climate Action Town

(August 2024) An interconnected community of several small villages in Fife seeks to mobilise support to make their place more resilient to climate change.

For this article, we spoke with two members of the Benarty community who have been involved in Climate Action Towns, a project led by Architecture and Design Scotland to embed climate actions in local plans. 

Charlotte Howe is part of the Benarty Community Council who has embraced becoming a Climate Action Town after being encouraged by Architecture and Design Scotland. Pauline Grandison is Head of Operations with the Coalfields Regeneration Trust and has worked in Benarty for a number of years supporting the creation of a Community Action Plan (a process through which communities have the opportunity to identify their own priorities and tackle the issues which are important to them).

Pauline first did a Community Action Plan in 2014, then revisited it in 2020 after the first one expired — perhaps not the best timing in the midst of the pandemic! The second plan was launched, and published informally due to the pandemic, but did not have any climate focus. When Benarty became a Climate Action Town, the opportunity arose to work with the Community Council to revisit their Community Action Plan – as well as develop their Local Place Plan – to include climate focussed elements.

“For us, we’ve been aware of climate change for some time because the flooding issues [in Benarty] have got dramatically worse over the last few years.” (Charlotte Howe)

From conversations with the community, flooding emerged as the most prominent climate issue, and a problem which has dramatically worsened over the years. Given that the town is at the bottom of the hill, there is little to stop rain running right into the village – it ends up in people’s gardens, and the graveyard! 

There is a need for long term, substantial expenditure to deal with the larger technical issues (such as drainage) to manage flooding in Benarty. However, there are some short-to medium-term adaptations that could be driven locally, which could help make a difference in the villages. 

“Getting involved in Climate Action Towns was perfect timing for us to look to see what actions we could take locally to try and address this.”  (Charlotte Howe)

This work has become a priority for the community, and working with Architecture and Design Scotland has helped to give the community the ideas and voice to assert what needs to happen, as well as providing the documents to help lobby for changes to be made. There are a range of things that can be done immediately, as well as things to build on in the medium and longer term. 

When all the reports are completed – the Local Place Plan, a Community Action Plan, and the Climate Action Towns report – it will be time to draw up a proper programme. The community are now eager to see an end to the consultations and to start taking action!

At a session introducing the Climate Action Towns project, the team from Architecture and Design Scotland met with community groups to find out about the key issues being affected by climate change in the area. It can be hard to know where to start with a subject like this, but with some prompting, the ideas started flying.

“We have had a lot of support to do it, and honestly I would have found it too overwhelming not to get that support at the start.” (Charlotte Howe)

As things developed, more groups engaged with the process of embedding climate action – including Coalfields Regeneration Trust, Fife Council, and then various volunteers and local groups.

There was a collaborative workshop with Coalfields Regeneration Trust, Fife Council and Architecture and Design Scotland. The focus of which was to link the community ideas and aspirations around climate adaptation with the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) policies. Some examples include tree planting, rain gardens and connecting Benarty to the Fife cycle network. 

“[It helped to get] the guidance through all of that and seeing where things link in." (Charlotte Howe)

There is ongoing engagement and updates from the Community Council, through Facebook and the local community newsletter. The Climate Action Towns report will be put into local shops, businesses and the community centre so that people can pick up a copy. 

“Different groups have come up with different ideas, and some of the projects are already going out to individual groups because they’ve almost claimed them already.” (Charlotte Howe)

In Benarty, Charlotte and Pauline have been pleasantly surprised at the ideas that people in the community have helped to generate (some of which are illustrated by the image at the top of this article).

They reiterate the value of people bringing the history of the place, and the knowledge of the area, into their ideas. This can be invaluable in developing plans for a place, as it’s important to remember that if you come in as an outsider you wouldn’t know what local people need. 

One clear memory both Pauline and Charlotte have is of the town being lined with trees – then suddenly the trees were gone, cut down without a clear reason why. This was raised by the community during the Climate Action Town sessions, with people asking why the trees can't be replaced to help mitigate the water run-off. 

As part of wider consultations, it has also helped to get the older people engaged too. In Benarty, a local man involved in discussions about the potential of a particular plot of land, shared his knowledge that the plot was not suitable to build on - "but this led to us coming up with a marvellous plan for the community garden." (Charlotte Howe)  With his interest and detailed knowledge of local history, the man was also able to direct Fife Council officers to the convergence of rivers to help support their technical survey.

Workshops were also held with the youth clubs, specifically on climate issues. The young people had a good grasp of these issues and were keen to make changes. Their ideas were collected and fed into local consultations. There have also been planting projects going on with the primary schools, and there will be opportunities to involve them further when turning the action plan into tangible activities. 

In Benarty, there are quite a lot of “special interest groups" (for example, Benarty Events Group and Benarty Heritage Group), illustrating that there’s a lot of willing and passionate people who want to make a difference. 

“It shows that if people are not happy with something, they are willing to do something about it. We just need to get them all working together!” (Charlotte Howe)

When it comes to launching the Community Action Plan, the Local Place Plan and the Climate Action Plan, the Community Council hope to invite all the groups along to a launch and present the projects they want to take forward. It will be an opportunity to get everyone in the room to share what has been achieved so far. 

“We could use that as an opportunity to bring people together, to make them [the council] aware that this is what the community want to take forward and we want their backing to be able to do that.” (Pauline Grandison)

One of the things that came from the work with Architecture and Design Scotland was around how to maintain momentum and engagement with groups, and make sure not to lose people along the way — things do take time! 

The plan is to do some small, manageable projects first, such as garden planters and planting, which can get up and running relatively quickly. 

Some of the bigger plans, such as tree planting, new cycle tracks and re-surfacing will require partnership and funds. There is also a vision for an area opposite the Benarty Centre, which includes planting trees, creating rain gardens, finding ways to mitigate flooding issues, providing a multi-purpose space, outdoor classroom, and a community orchard. This project will be bigger and more expensive, but the community will be looking to lobby local energy companies to make significant contributions towards the costs of that vision. 

Conversations with Fife Council have been positive, and proactive in terms of supporting climate action. A good outcome of all the engagement, and production of action plans, has been the invitation to attend a People and Places meeting with Fife Council officers. The meeting was held in Benarty, where the officers (and others) listened to what the plans are and visited the area to see what the community aim to achieve. 

When the plans come forward, the community hope the officers will support them. Charlotte and Pauline commented on the significance of being listened to by the Local Authority, to be invited to engage with them about their place, and have them listen to their vision for what happens next…