East Midlands

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 the East Midlands.

Location data
Map
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Location East Midlands, United Kingdom
Coordinates 52° 47' 47.62" N, 0° 40' 18.46" W

News

East Midlands
UK
Europe
Earth
  • News House builders 'failing to deliver on nature pledges', BBC News (Jul 21, 2024)
  • News North Northamptonshire Council given £3.8m to reduce carbon footprint of three key facilities, BBC News (Jul 13, 2024)
  • News Wolds oil drilling plans quashed in landmark ruling, BBC News (Jul 11, 2024)
  • News Green Football Weekend: Newark & Sherwood United - the vegan non-league club doing things differently, bbc.co.uk (Feb 03, 2024)
Read more
  • News ‘Robot’ buses could bring more environmental benefits than public transport with drivers, theconversation.com (Nov 20, 2025)
  • News How heat from old coal mines became a source of local pride in this northern English town – new study, theconversation.com (Nov 20, 2025)
  • News Beth Mead: ‘If we don’t adapt to climate change, football becomes a privilege, not a right‘, theguardian.com (Nov 19, 2025)
  • News Sharing soil, sweat and tears, ffcc.co.uk (Oct 30, 2025) — Are farm partnerships the future? We talk to the team behind Abunda to find out
  • News Renewable energy investment should come from defence budgets, say retired military leaders, theguardian.com (Oct 23, 2025) — Former European officers say spending on low-carbon power would make nations more resilient to threats from potential aggressors
  • News Green to Grey, How Europe is squandering the little nature it has left, greentogrey.eu (Oct 01, 2025)
  • News The Cambodian women rising up to protect their communal land, positive.news (Nov 20, 2025)
  • News Bees, Community, and Shared Futures, grassecon.substack.com (Nov 20, 2025)
  • News ‘Robot’ buses could bring more environmental benefits than public transport with drivers, theconversation.com (Nov 20, 2025)

Video

Networks and sustainability initiatives

Community involvement

Loundsley Green Community Trust, Chesterfield

Localism

Supporting community business in the East Midlands, powertochange.org.uk, added 11:51, 13 November 2021 (UTC)

Community and voluntary action

One East Midlands, regional network

Food activism

Community energy

Torrs Hydro, New Mills, Derbyshire, community owned hydro electric scheme. Torrs Hydro is a community share scheme supported by local action group, H2OPE and the Co-op Community Fund. The community group of 230 members invested over £125,000 and then raised the remainder of the scheme's full cost (£330,000) from community bank loans and grants. The scheme earns an income from the energy exported to the local Co-op supermarket. According to DECC "This is a clear example of the power of local action and the sound investment from hydro projects that can be rolled out across the UK."...decc.gov.uk, Press release: 10/113, October 28, 2010

Towards sustainable economies

Derby Mini Maker Faire

Community resources

  • Sharewear clothing scheme
  • Whistlewood Common, ten acres of community-owned land in Melbourne, South Derbyshire, designed along permaculture principles (a sustainable design framework) so that it will work for people, for wildlife and be a welcoming space for people of all ages and backgrounds.

Maps

Cycle Map, mappa-mercia.org

Visions

New Mills 2030, transitionnewmills.org, added 10:53, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

Climate action

Sustainable transport activism

Grantham Canal, (Wikipedia): Since the 1970s, the Grantham Canal Society have been working towards its restoration, and two stretches are navigable to small vessels.

Biodiversity

The Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust founded in 1963 is a wildlife conservation charity working to protect and enhance the wildlife and habitats of Nottinghamshire. They care for over 60 nature reserves covering more than 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) of wildlife habitat ranging from wildflower meadows to wetlands to ancient woodland. Key reserves are Attenborough Nature Reserve and Idle Valley Nature Reserve.

They engage the local community through events, information, volunteering and education opportunities and seek to ensure the county is a healthy and wildlife rich place to live. They are one of the 46 members of The Wildlife Trusts and have 11,000 members.

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust also advise other landowners how to manage their land to benefit wildlife.

Attenborough Nature Reserve is a nature reserve at Attenborough, Nottinghamshire, England, located 5 mi (8 km) south west of Nottingham city centre. It is owned and managed by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, supported by Broxtowe Borough Council, following the completion of purchase from Cemex UK in December 2020.

At its centre is a building called Attenborough Nature Centre, comprising visitor services and educational facilities.

The Idle Valley Nature Reserve, also known as Lound Gravel Pits or Sutton and Lound Gravel Pits, is a wetland Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) situated north-west of the town of Retford in the Bassetlaw district of north Nottinghamshire. The nature reserve is situated along the western bank of the River Idle and east of the villages of Sutton cum Lound and Lound. The nature reserve is managed by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

Open spaces

There are two nationally designated areas of outstanding natural beauty - the Peak District and the Lincolnshire Wolds

Groundwork in the East Midlands

Trees, woodland and forest

The National Forest is an environmental project in central England run by The National Forest Company. From the 1990s, 200 square miles (520 km2) of north Leicestershire, south Derbyshire and southeast Staffordshire have been planted in an attempt to blend ancient woodland with newly planted areas to create a new national forest. It stretches from the western outskirts of Leicester in the east to Burton upon Trent in the west, and is planned to link the ancient forests of Needwood and Charnwood.

In January 2018 the UK government unveiled plans to create a new English Northern Forest extending from Liverpool to Hull. It will shadow the path of the east-west M62 motorway.

News archive

  • News Plans approved to transform Lincolnshire golf course into wildlife haven, birdguides.com/news (Dec 30, 2023)
  • News ‘We’ve had untold support’: how farmers are getting creative with tree-planting, positive.news (Dec 12, 2023)
  • News Alter Natives: Deana Wildgoose from the Coalville CAN, on the creativity and joy released when communities take over buildings, The Daily Alternative (Jan 11, 2023)

'Natural Health Service': Derby approves UK's largest urban rewilding project, Nov 11, 2021...theguardian.com

  • Returning Land Back to the Commons... transitionnetwork.org, Feb 10, 2020
  • Swadlincote to make waste history: Sainsbury's awards the town £1 million to become the pioneers of wasting less and saving more, December 1, 2015... j-sainsbury.co.uk
  • Transition Buxton take on former council plant nursery, January 14, 2015... Transition Network
  • How a community association can spark community action, December 4, 2012... Guardian Professional

About the East Midlands

Past events

The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire (except for North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire), Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, and Rutland. The region has a land area of 15,623 km2 (6,032 sq mi), with an estimated population 5,063,164 in 2024. With a sufficiency-level world city ranking, Nottingham is the only settlement in the region to be classified by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

The main cities in the region are Derby, Leicester, Lincoln and Nottingham. The largest towns in these counties are Boston, Chesterfield, Coalville, Corby, Glossop, Grantham, Kettering, Loughborough, Newark-on-Trent, Northampton, Mansfield, Oakham, Swadlincote and Wellingborough.

Near you

Lincoln - Nottingham / Leicestershire

Page data
Authors Phil Green
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Cite as Phil Green (2014–2025). "Community action/East Midlands". Appropedia. Retrieved November 28, 2025.