Focusing on climate change

A former Conservative agriculture minister, Mr John Gummer, road-tested electric bikes when he officially opened the new Environment Village.

Mr Gummer was given a tour of the village, which was designed to show visitors how they could be more environmentally friendly.

The village was divided into four themes — earth, wind, fire and water.

It focused on issues such as wind-powered energy, bio-fuels, composting and using hemp bags instead of plastic ones.

Mr Gummer, the MP for Suffolk Coastal, said he owned an electric car and he would like an electric bike for when he travelled from his home in London to the House of Commons.

“I can put the electric bicycle in the hallway. I think it’s a very good idea. I’m very much in favour of it. You have to do the things you ask of other people,” he said.

The companies displaying their green products included Playtop, a subsidiary of the Newark-based Charles Lawrence Group that has won a Queen’s Enterprise Award for its safe play surfaces made from granulated vehicle tyres.

Mr Lawrence, this year’s show president, said: “The Environment Village was my idea. This is just the sort of thing that will continue to grow. It will not just be in the corner of an agricultural show.”

A climate-change bus hosted by Newark and Sherwood Energy Agency provided advice and information on saving energy in the home.

Staff gave away 1,500 free energy-saving lightbulbs to visitors who were also asked to sign forms promising to carry out ten actions to cut their carbon footprint.

Pupils from Bowbridge Primary School, Newark, interviewed people about environmental issues for their school radio station.

Talks were also given by Newark and Sherwood District Council’s emergency planning co-ordinator, Mr Mark Henry, and the Energy Agency manager, Mr David Pickles, about flooding and climate change.