Other Environment Centres
& Eco Hubs

In formulating our plans, we have been consulting with other Environment Centres and EcoHubs elsewhere.

 

Many towns and cities now have their own local Environment Centres or EcoHubs. Some, like those in Southampton and Swansea, are long-established, and have played a leading part in fostering local environmental awareness in their areas. Southampton Environment Centre was set up 27 years ago, and Swansea Environment Centre has been going for 25 years. Both have benefited from long-term support from their local councils (and in the case of Swansea, also from the Welsh government), and occupy premises provided by those councils. Both have played significant roles in helping to promote and deliver environmental aims, programmes and services of their respective local authorities, and have provided a bridge between those authorities and their local populations and voluntary community groups.

 

Kingston Environment Centre, like Southampton and Swansea, has been running since the 1990s and utilises council-owned premises (originally in Kingston-upon-Thames itself, but now in New Maldon). It works with a wide range of local charities and voluntary environmental organisations, and also hosts a local radio station, Kingston Green Radio. Unlike Southampton and Swansea, it is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, rather than a charity.

 

In more recent years, along with the widespread growth in environmental awareness generally, there has been a similar growth in the emergence of EcoHubs and Environment Centres in many other towns and cities. Shrewsbury Environment Centre is one such, set up in 2019 in a disused shopping centre, with support from Shrewsbury Council. According to the website www.climateemergencycentre.co.uk there are now centres with their own premises in Lincoln, Staines, Lewes, Swindon, Guildford, Tiverton, York, Northampton, Norfolk, Cheltenham, Colchester, Taunton, Dorking, Wandsworth, Abingdon, Plymouth, Godalming and Seaford, and groups in over 40 towns and cities in various stages of setting up a legal entity such as a Community Interest Company or charity.