The local people who formed the Buckfastleigh Action for Nature Group (BANG) committee were driven firstly by awareness of how special their local wildlife was, and secondly by the desire to manage their roadside verges better and contribute to surveys of local species, such as the greater horseshoe bat. When it comes to setting up a community group, having strong motivation to make a difference to your local area is of course very important, but the next step needs to be channelling that motivation into action, which means coming up with ideas and finding funding for them.

Setting up a community group is often a challenging, but equally rewarding task, and the main challenge is often in securing funding. BANG feel lucky in that they have various contacts who put them in touch with upcoming funding opportunities and some of their committee members are also members of the town council so have a good idea of where to get funding. Some of their committee members have previous experience of writing grant applications, which has helped them secure all their grants successfully.

BANG has successfully applied for five grants since the group was first set up in 2021. The first steps they needed to take were to write a constitution and set up a bank account, as without these it is difficult to apply for funds. Within the constitution and whilst thinking about what the vision for the group would be, they put all the ideas together and looked at what things they might need funds for. Initially they had public liability insurance for work on their local verges through Devon County Council (DCC) and the town council, as they were working with DCC as part of their verge project. Nowadays they have their own public liability insurance which enables them to do events and host volunteer work parties, and the cost of the insurance has been covered by grants. For help finding the right insurance for their group, they reached out to more established groups in the area such as Sustainable South Hams and Chudleigh Wild.

To anyone looking to start their own community group, and find funding, BANG have some words of wisdom to offer…

BANG have already been seeing the difference in their local community, from increased plant species to their verges to discovering new bat commuting routes as part of their work. If you’d like to find out more about their projects and how to get involved, head to their website: https://buckfastleighactionfornature.org.uk/