A DARTMOOR village could become the greenest in the country, following the launch of an innovative new project. Belstone, which is home to around 250 people, has volunteered to take part in the exciting ?Green Village? initiative to see how life there can become more sustainable. The project has been developed by villagers and local environmental charity Westden. The implementation of the project could also be recorded by a film company for a television documentary. Westden hopes this would give a high profile to the project, which might then provide a model from which others can learn and replicate both in the UK and overseas. A steering group of eight villagers has been set up and the first step will be a survey to find out how people live in the village and what practical changes they would like to see for their community and lifestyles. Westden project manager Oz Osborne said: ?It has never been done before. We are pioneering something that hopefully will be taken up across the UK.? Mr Osborne said when the charity had put the proposal to the village, there had been a good response: ?We were pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming support from the meeting, although obviously there was some dissent. ?To be sustainable a society needs to take into account those who come after us. We can all do something ? it is up to us whether we choose to or not. ?Living sustainably could include buying local or organic food, car-sharing or insulating the house. ?There are many small and rewarding things we can do and the Green Village project will see what a difference a community can make when working together.? Finn Francis, a pupil at Okehampton College and a member of the steering group, said: ?Our science teacher has been talking to us about climate change. If we don?t do something about it, then kids and teenagers today will really feel the effects of climate change as they grow older. ?I don?t know what governments are doing, but we can all do something and maybe that will encourage the Government.? Villager Marion Walpole, another member of the steering group, said there was interest in the project in Belstone, because many people did not yet know what it would involve. ?Some people are very keen, some are sceptical and some are waiting to see what happens, because we are at an early stage at the moment. ?The BBC have done this sort of thing before where they have asked a whole family to try to be more green. People might wonder about the cost of making all these changes to their lifestyle, but there may be lots of little things we can do that are not going to cost very much.? The sort of questions which might be asked of residents as part of the project might be: how often they use their cars for shopping and whether they could adopt car sharing for their shopping trips or buy more items locally? Mr Osborne said: ?The whole project will take a year from May to May. The critical time will be the three-month period at the end of the year when we will see how successful people are at making changes in their lifestyle.? ?The university are very keen to try an urban area next. I love the idea of helping to create a ?green town?, but we are starting on a small scale initially.? Mr Osborne said he did not want villagers to feel they were being lectured by an outside body, as the project would be led by the community. ?We want to see what people can actually do.? He said people were already ?up to their ears? in advice about environment and sustainability, but this project would focus on what they could practically achieve themselves. Experts from Plymouth University, West Devon Council, the Environment Agency, and other organisations will help the 12-month project which is funded by the Department for Food and Rural Affairs Environment Action Fund.
