Bentham Environmentally Sustainable Town

	Bentham Environmentally Sustainable Town
BEST is a network of people who hope to make Bentham an Environmentally Sustainable Town. We believe that to slow climate change we need to think global but that we can begin to limit our impact on the planet by acting local.
Local Food One ongoing project is the promotion of local food. In 2010 a directory of locally produced food was prepared and introduced as part of a local food week. The details can be found here	The next full meeting of the Group is on Wednesday 2nd May, 2012 at 7.30pm at the Horse & Farrier. There will a discussion about a current topic and progress reports from the sub-Groups. Anyone interested will be welcome at the meeting. If you would like to join one of the sub-Groups (Energy, Local Food or Transport) please contact BEST on 015242 63399 or send a message.
Green Café This is a new monthly event held on the first Thursday of each month at the Looking Well, King Street, Bentham. Each session will be an informal discussion on various topics introduced by a speaker. The next session is on the 5th April and will be about Bees. The session will start at 8.00pm. There will be cake and coffee.
Give and Take Days 'Give and Take' Days are organised by BEST in conjunction with Craven District Council. The aim is to reduce the amount of 'rubbish' that the Council collects for disposal in a landfill site. Residents are encouraged to bring unwanted items to Bentham Town Hall so that other people have the opportunity to take away anything that they have a use for. "That chair you never liked, that guitar you never learned to play, that extra watering can, that bike they’ve grown out of. …….. You can’t use it? Maybe someone else can." BEST has now run three of these events, the next one is on 24th March 2012. Details here.
We hope that by working together we can: Encourage each other to make changes that when acting alone can seem small and ineffective. Share information about new ways of saving energy. Look for changes that we can make as a community. Raise issues with public bodies about how their actions affect the environment.
We work in small groups around issues that interest us: Energy saving. Supporting the local economy. Renewable energy. Transport. Recycling and reducing our use of plastics.
You might like to join one of these groups or have other interests you work around. Every couple of months we get together to share information and ideas and make plans for future activities. For further information contact us on 015242 63399 or send a message.