Is Lewes Sussex's most eco-friendly town?

Whilst Brighton might be the only place in Sussex to have a Green Party MP, is neighbouring Lewes the county’s most eco-friendly town? The picturesque town is home to many Extinction Rebellion activists: 10 were arrested back in 2019 while protesting in London and in July of this year, protestors scaled East Sussex County Council's offices in the town as they demanded an end to investment in fossil fuels.

Nicki Myers, project manager at Lewes's renewable energy company Ovesco explains why the town has cultivated such a green reputation.

She said: “It’s quite a liberal area, it’s not very conservative and Lewes has always been very artistic. Out of that type of mentality comes an awareness of nature – people are very engaged in the local area.”

The town has its own climate hub which was set up to tackle the "climate emergency" (Image: Annabel Stock) Nicki says Lewes was a “forceful early adopter” of the Transition Town movement, an initiative popularised in the early 2000s, which encouraged communities to increase self-sufficiency and resilience in the face of climate change and economic instability. 

She said: “The movement is all about growing food locally, local transport and local production so that communities can remove themselves from the international chain.”

As part of this effort, Ovesco has been encouraging people to invite people into their homes to see how they have made them more environmentally friendly. Hundreds of people visited houses in Barcombe, Lewes Rodmell, Newhaven and Seaford for the “eco open house” events.

Over 400 people attended last weekend's eco open house event (Image: Ovesco) The town has strong links to Knepp, a Sussex rewilding project which is spearheading the concept of “wildlife corridors” and encouraging people to pledge a section of their garden to go wild.

The town has its own climate hub which works on everything from making travel greener to installing Swift boxes and is also part of Ouse Valley Climate Action and the Love Our Ouse group.

In October 2022, Ouse Valley Climate Action was awarded £2m Climate Action Funding from the National Lottery Community Fund – the largest funder of community activity in the UK – to make the area a national pioneer in tackling the climate change emergency.

The East Sussex partnership comprises 10 organisations, including the South Downs National Park Authority, South Downs National Park Trust, Lewes District Council, community energy businesses, voluntary and charitable organisations, working with dozens of local community groups, and has an ambitious goal of empowering local people to help create one of the first communities in England to fully embrace climate action.

Nicki said the community group Love Our Ouse is looking at giving nature legal rights like people so that if you damage nature, it can sue.

"There’s a real movement towards making damaging the environment ecocide,” she said.