Plastic Free Okehampton organised and hosted the first green drinks event last week to encourage local residents, independent businesses, voluntary organisations and councillors to join the fight against climate change and the biodiversity crisis.

The event allowed like-minded people to meet in a social atmosphere to chat about environmental issues, swap ideas, network and collaborate to help drive Okehampton’s efforts to mitigate against the effects of climate change. Snippets of overhead conversations included peatland restoration, ecological surveying of local wild areas, decreasing our dependency on single use plastics, ‘adopt a street’ litter picking project, how to include teenagers in future conversations and a Wildlife Warden Scheme for West Devon.

Plastic Free Okehampton member Fran Rickwood, said: “Having not organised anything like this before, I was a little apprehensive about how it would go. I really needn’t have been! As soon as everyone arrived, people just introduced themselves to people they didn’t know and the conversation flowed. The atmosphere was upbeat and happy and we can’t wait to host our next green drinks to continue networking and supporting each other’s environmental aims.”

Cllr Lynn Daniel and Cllr Malcolm Calder (both members of the Green Party) opened the event with an introduction to The Beacon Path project to create a cycle/active travel route between South Tawton, South Zeal, Sticklepath, Belstone and Okehampton.

Plastic Free Okehampton will be announcing the date for the next green drinks event for September on its Facebook page shortly. To find out more information, email them on [email protected].