“Gotta be going there to be going there…”

As they say.

Funny old place Bude – ‘off the beaten track’ hardly covers it… you’d never just stumble upon it… always seems at least an hour’s drive from wherever you are; at 45mph… can’t seem to go any faster, can’t seem to go any slower. It is what it is.

But this ‘off the beaten track’- ness is one of the reasons why VILLAGE WORKS is working right there – they specialise in that. Or, rather better put, ‘rural peripherality’; the places and the people in them that can all too easily be forgotten. Cornwall has always suffered from it, seeming days from London sometimes, but within this big long county there are areas that seem miles from even Truro or Plymouth too. Hours from the big hospitals and big shops. Often hard to just get things done – get those services that others find easier to come by.

Inclusion Cornwall train all their varied staff on Village Works (the splendidly named Sapphire was looking after me) to help people get the best out of life and out of their talents – maybe they’re looking for work, maybe not, maybe volunteering, maybe looking to improve their IT skills – common enough these days. Wherever their interests and talents lie, VW is already there – ahead of the game and smart enough and knowledgeable enough and agile enough to make a difference.

So, here some of those were gathered together in the rather fine Parkhouse Centre in Bude all presenting their wares, their services, their solutions. Where else can you find a seaweed expert next to an energy saving expert next to staff from GCHQ!

Yes, you heard right (and they certainly will have done!) I knew it was them of course – the dark glasses and stick – on beards and moustaches a bit of a giveaway in downtown Bude – especially on 3 ladies. (I jest.) But the reason they were here, from the Bude branch not Cheltenham’s famous Big Brother, was because they are keen to be part of the community and do good stuff within it – tricky when people are so wary of them. So they’re getting out and about, helping out and about – their staff regularly volunteering these days to make things happen in the community they’ve adopted. And there’s lots of places and companies like that and people like that – looking to help.

That’s how VILLAGE WORKS started – a few smart cookies sat down and thought about what are we missing these days in terms of helping people get info on things, get things done, move on in their lives. Back in the day, in village life, people looked out for one another, knew who to turn to discuss stuff, knew how to get things done or knew ‘a man who can’. We’ve lost a lot of that, nobody’s fault, just ‘progress’, but wouldn’t it be good if communities could rally round like the perfect village and make things work, especially for the less fortunate – those who don’t quite know where to turn sometimes; those who can get left behind, through no fault of their own. So VW looks to get stuck in locally, to meet and engage with people, to cut through red tape and point people in the right direction.

The project is driven by Inclusion Cornwall which also includes Jobcentre Plus, Disability Cornwall, Kernow Credit Union and everything the local councils can bring to the party. They have wide-ranging experience and expertise and can be quick on their feet to make things happen, in even the farthest flung communities.

So here were some of the people who make VW work – that coming together of local expertise – gathered together to lay out their stalls – here was the Bude Coastal Community Team right beside Community Energy Plus. The former balancing the economics and environment issues that face a seaside town; the latter busy advising us all on making energy work harder for us more cheaply and walking more lightly on the planet with how we produce and use it.

Balancing economics and the environment – that’s what all tourism based seaside towns have to do these days; get that balance wrong and you may lose both. Tourists will only come if the environment is kept beautiful and the economy will only thrive if that relationship works too. Everywhere is wrestling with that balance, especially Cornwall, and especially quite big coastal attractions like lovely Bude. They started the ‘2 minute beach clean’ here. Often it’s the big organised beach litter clean-ups that grab the headlines and the TV coverage. Of course they do, but what if we all spend just 2 minutes tidying up after we leave after a day on those golden sands – not just cleaning up our own stuff but strolling about a bit and picking up other stuff too. Just 300 people on a beach doing that equals 600 minutes or 10 hours of modest effort. Doesn’t take much does it?

Community Energy Plus is up the sharp end of environmental conservation too – there to advise us as we all get to grips with better energy usage, and we all have to. They told me that turning down my hot water thermostat by just 1 degree can save me up to 10% of my heating costs. I like that kind of information. And if you wash clothes at 30 degrees instead of much higher, like most of us do, you can use 40% less electricity. And those energy saving lightbulbs we’re almost forced to buy these days use up to 80% less electricity than the old ones we grew up with…and they last ten times longer. Not Extinction Rebellion kind of talk but just shows what we can all achieve in quieter ways.

And as I left I strolled across to that seaweed lady – North Cornwall Seaweeds – yes, Julie Folley is an expert on the stuff, where to find it, and what to do with it. (rockpoolrunner@gmail.com if you’re interested). She runs it out of Crackington Haven.  Did you know that seaweed has 10-20 times the minerals content of any land – based plant? ‘Nutritionally potent’ in the jargon – and that nutrition can be used in medicaments as well as fascinating recipes. Clever stuff from an unlikely place. 

And then I moved to 3 enthusiastic young ladies representing The Kitchen Front – ‘bespoke kitchenware for the heart of your home’ is their slogan. They run hands-on workshops where they provide the unfired pottery/crockery and then you do the rest with their paints and glazes, and expert help. They do fabric printing and screen printing too. So you learn stuff, have endless fun doing it and finish up with unique pieces to take home and use or ready-made gifts. It all dates back to the war years really – the days of ‘make do and mend’ – so their older fans actually remember it and their much younger fans learn things and make things. It doesn’t cost much, and what comes out the end can be of immense real and useable value.

So that’s just a skip around a little of what Village Works is up to in Bude; next week it will be to Helston to see what’s what over there and around the Lizard. There will be similarities but many differences too – VW is no ‘one size fits all’ solution; their activities and their expertise grow naturally out of where they are. That said, many problems such as unemployment, access to childcare, home heating and transport bedevil distant rural communities, so there are common themes. And there will always be somebody in ‘the village’ to swing into action and make great things happen.

The village works.

Dave Meneer