Canterbury

The River Stour runs through Westgate Gardens, Canterbury. The river skirts the route of the old city walls, and the stone towers of the city's west gate (still used by traffic) can be seen on the right. April 2003. Attribution: Michael Pead
Location data
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Location Canterbury, Kent, England
Coordinates 51° 16' 48.10" N, 1° 4' 48.91" E

The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Canterbury.

News

  • News Whitstable campaigners fight to stop 1,350 home development, BBC News (Sep 29, 2025) — local residents stepping up their campaign to fight what they have said would be the "largest ever development" in their part of Kent
  • News How does it feel? The impact of mass development on local people, David Mairs, cprekent.org.uk (Aug 04, 2025) — They felt the potential loss of this land acutely – one person described it as “like having a limb cut off”, Executive summary, Rachael Reilly
  • News Butterfly project aims to halt population decline, BBC News (Apr 05, 2025)
  • News Work on £1.5m city centre revamp to start in April, BBC News (Mar 11, 2025) — Work to transform an area of Canterbury to reduce the use of cars locally will start next month
Read more

Video

Networks and sustainability initiatives

Social inclusion

Catching Lives

Catching Lives is a charity based in Canterbury, England, that assists rough sleepers, the homeless and those in insecure housing. It relies on donations, volunteers and fundraising within its local community. As of 2011, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was patron.

Catching Lives' Open Centre provides services such as meals, showers, laundry, clothing and a postal address to its clients. The staff and volunteers work with them to address issues they may have; get access to suitable accommodation, and find the motivation to take steps towards independent living.

The charity operates a winter night shelter in conjunction with local churches. 2016–2017 was its seventh season. The project opens church halls for Canterbury rough sleepers. Volunteers transport bedding, cook meals and welcome those who stay.

Other initiatives

  • Stream Walk Community Garden, Whitstable on Facebook

Climate action

Cycling

National Cycle Routes 1 runs through Canterbury from Dover and Sandwich to Whitstable. National Cycle Route 18 runs from Canterbury to Ashford.

Rewilding

  • Wilder Blean, wildwoodtrust.org, flagship wilding project launched by Wildwood Trust and Kent Wildlife Trust, in part of the West Blean woods nature reserve, near Canterbury, which is in one of the largest areas of ancient woodland in the UK. added 17:42, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

Environment quality

Maps

News archive

  • News Wild bison return to UK for first time in thousands of years, The Guardian (Jul 18, 2022)
  • News Laying the myths to rest: Canterbury crisis shows how desperate government policy and housebuilder attitudes are making homes unaffordable… and destroying our countryside, CPRE Kent (Feb 15, 2022)

2017- 2019

  • Whitstable named first plastic free town in Kent by conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage, Jan 11, 2019...kentonline.co.uk
  • Canterbury: Locations sought for electric charge points, Nov 24, 2017...news.canterbury.gov.uk

About Canterbury

Campaigns

Past events

Canterbury ( , ) is a city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the Canterbury district, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climate.

Canterbury is a popular tourist destination, with the city's economy heavily reliant upon tourism, alongside higher education and retail. As of 2011, the city's population was over 55,000, including a substantial number of students and one of the highest student-to-permanent-resident ratios in Britain.

Near you

Ashford - Dover - Folkestone and Hythe - Swale - Thanet

See also

Page data
Authors Phil Green
License CC-BY-SA-4.0
Cite as Phil Green (2022–2025). "Community action/Canterbury". Appropedia. Retrieved November 28, 2025.