The Plastic Free Minehead Campaign has worked very closely with other stakeholders and partners in its campaign to achieve Plastic Free Community status and will continue to forge link with key organisations as it continues it journey
Thanks, in part, to the lead taken by Minehead, the wider West Somerset region is now also tackling the plastic pollution problem head-on. Watchet, Porlock Vale and Exmoor National Park have since joined them as part of 700+ communities across the UK working to tackle single-use plastic as part of the Plastic Free Community campaign by marine conservation charity, Surfers Against Sewage (SAS). This work in West Somerset and Exmoor is aimed at giving local people and visitors a cleaner, more enjoyable experience as they visit our towns, villages, beaches and moors. All the plastic free communities share a Facebook Page Plastic Free Communities in West Somerset and regularly meet to share ideas and work jointly on projects and actions.
Somerset Wildlife Trust has been supporting the plastic free campaigns in Minehead and in Watchet as part of its Somerset's Brilliant Coast project (funded by HPC Community Impact Mitigation fund and the National Trust). The Plastic Free initiatives are one example of the work they have been doing with parishes and communities along the Somerset Coast to engage people more with their coastal natural environments and to raise awareness of some of the ways humans impact the Ocean – such as plastic pollution.
Litter Free Coast and Sea Somerset, has recently been able to lend its support to the plastic free campaigns in West Somerset and will be involved in maintaining and updating this website. It is a community campaign whose goal is to protect bathing water quality and reduce marine and beach litter in Somerset. It is supported by The Severn Estuary Partnership and Wessex Water.
The campaign has also been supported by organisations such as the local sustainability group, Western Somerset Green Forum, as well as Somerset Waste Partnership.
Although no longer active, Minehead BID, the local business support group, generously funded the development of this website.