Sustainable Bridport held its official launch event on Tuesday evening, having renamed and rebranded from Transition Town Bridport. 

An evening of presentations and discussion was held at the well-attended event at Bridport Town Hall, led by Sustainable Bridport chair Lesley Windsor. 

Sustainable Bridport has grown out of Transition Town Bridport, which was launched in 2009 following a public meeting to gauge interest in joining a national, community-led initiative for local action and education to tackle climate change by reducing the local area's impact on the environment.

Speaking at the launch event this week, Lesley said that the aim of the organisation remained building a strong and resilient local community for the future, but they hoped the new name would offer a clearer message and make the organisation accessible to more people.

Lesley added that Sustainable Bridport was lucky to have the support of the town council, which itself had recognised the climate emergency and developed a plan on how to address the issue. 

The newly-named organisation will continue to work with established connections, as well as building new ones and trying to engage more young people.

The audience, which included the Mayor of Bridport, Cllr Ian Bark, then watched a short environmental film called 'This Pale Blue Dot' before being updated on some of the projects Sustainable Bridport is leading. 

These include edible gardens at local primary schools and at the community garden in Skilling, which encouraged growing through no dig methods and cooking nutritional food, as well as promoting biodiversity and issues surrounding climate change. 

Sustainable Bridport is keen to create food security in the town and hopes to set up a food hub, including a social supermarket, community cafe, kitchen classroom and bringing together other services which promote food security.

Updates were also given on Dorset Greener Homes, which is now in its 10th year, and he Bridport Community Energy Champions, as well as Bridport Fashion Revolution, which promotes reusing, repairing and buying pre-loved clothes rather than adding to the billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions the fashion industry produces every year.

Dr Kevin Manwaring shared poetry written by local residents during his Green Words walking and writing wellbeing project, which is now coming to an end. He is currently putting together an anthology of poetry and prose created during the project, which will be launched on June 21 at the Salt House in West Bay.

Details were also shared on Bridport Great Big Green Week, which will be held from June 10 to 18, with the launch event to be held at 10.30am on June 10 at Bridport Community Orchard, followed by a cycle ride through the town.

Those attending were also given the opportunity to share details of projects and events that benefit the community, or raise local issues on a traditional 'soapbox' and took part in a brainstorming activity, visualising a future Bridport under a number of themes.

For more details, visit the new website https://sustainablebridport.org