Would providing free buses for low income families to green and blue spaces, help improve health and wellbeing, connect more people with nature and improve our environment?

A recent proposal to North Devon Council (NDC) regarding the latest Plastic Free North Devon (PFND) ‘Protect our Playground’ campaign has sparked a potentially transformative and forward thinking motion to be put forward by Councillor Frank Bierderman at the Devon County Council (DCC) budget meeting on 17th February 2021. He has called  on DCC  to  commit and provide budget to allow  “travel partners to provide vouchers to families on low incomes for free travel to the beach at weekends and/or during school holiday periods’’

The motion goes on to state “that many children in Devon have never been to the beach or, because of financial limitations on families, can often find it beyond their means. Visiting a beach can have fantastic health benefits for young people and their family, particularly their mental health, as well as connecting them with our beautiful environment. If communities are better connected to our natural environment, they will be more inclined to preserve it for future generations. Pensioners can access the beaches with their free bus pass, we believe this should also be available to our young people’’

Following a motion to NDC brought by Councillor Robbie Mack in January, a discussion was held with PFND at a meeting of the council Strategy and Resources Committee earlier this month, suggesting ways to support families on low incomes to access the new wooden bodyboard hire scheme at various locations around the area. “The original motion was to request businesses stop stocking cheap polystyrene bodyboards, but I was very happy to see the conversation move to see how we can financially support families to get to the beach and use the reusable boards. Getting out into our natural environment can remind people what it is we need to protect, and it will provide tremendous mental benefits.”

One of the ways proposed by PFND requested NDC to provide a number  of vouchers that covered the subsidised hire cost of a board along with an optional return bus ticket to the beach for young people from low income backgrounds.  PFND strongly recognises the need to connect more people with the natural environment, to have any chance of protecting it. 

Claire Moodie, CEO of PFND,  explains “There are currently huge barriers to bringing everyone along with us on our journey of environmental awareness and having the capacity to make environmentally  friendly decisions is a privilege for most. Not everyone has the luxury of caring about the environment  when they are worrying about where their next meal is from. North Devon has some areas with high levels of social deprivation and large parts of the population that are disconnected with the natural world and the intrinsic benefits it provides; this is something as a community we should be working on more intensely’’. She added “This isn't about cutting down on your plastic use or encouraging people to shop at refill stores (although that would be a nice bonus), it is about trying to encourage a deep shift in our society where people start to  understand that we are a ‘part of it’ and we have to play a part in trying to protect it’’

PFND hope that any sort of free bus service provided in line with this reasoning in northern Devon would be supported by simple ‘Protect our Playground' educational materials about the environmental importance of some of our local areas and the health and wellbeing impacts they will get from exploring them. They will of course be encouraging them to seek out their designated Free to hire boards so they can enjoy some time riding the  ocean waves as well.

The motion has been passed to the cabinet for debate on the 10th March - where Claire Moodie from PFND will have a few minutes to talk about the incredible benefits of such a programme. Claire added “We are so thankful to Frank and Robbie for advocating  our cause and for moving this bold idea to the next stage, we are blown away by their passion  and we are convinced that the public will get right behind it’’

“In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.” Baba Dioum, Senegalese poet and environmentalist, 1937.