Lewes Climate Hub opens with music, colour and poetry

The procession featured drummers from Skull Drummery, pupils from Western Road Primary School, South Malling Primary School and Hamsey Primary School and members of some of the 30-plus local environmental, climate action and community groups affiliated to the Hub.

The Hub, which is situated on the ground floor of Lewes House, was officially opened by Matthew Bird, cabinet member for sustainability at Lewes District Council (LDC), with a ribbon-cutting at midday.

Juliet Oxborrow, a Lewes Climate Hub director, said: “The response to the opening of the Hub at Lewes House has been fantastic. Now we have this brilliant space in the heart of town, everyone in Lewes is warmly invited to drop in, say what they’d like to see at the Hub, share ideas and explore groups and activities to join.

“Lewes Climate Hub belongs to everyone in the town so however anyone wants to take action to look after our climate and natural world, the Hub is here to help”.

Inside, celebrations continued with poetry from Grace Nichols and John Agard, Lewes residents and both recipients of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. Two young local music acts supported by Starfish Youth Music – singer-songwriter Spider and musical duo The Blow Out – also performed.

Lewes Climate Hub will be open every week Wednesday to Saturday, 11am to 3pm, staffed mostly by volunteers. The space will be used for displays, talks, workshops and other events addressing climate and environmental action, helping people to get involved.

Space in the Hub is shared with Community Energy South and OVESCo, the local community energy company. Every Wednesday from April, a dedicated Energy Room, run by OVESCo, will give free advice on energy bills, improving energy efficiency and installing renewable energy.

The Hub is opening with a season of free events all about our local waters – with talks, displays, children’s activities and short films until 15 April. These range from a talk on the history of the River Ouse to learning all about seagrass meadows – known as the ‘hidden’ underwater rainforests.

Learn more at www.lewesclimatehub.org/water

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