HOW WNCAN STARTED
The seeds of WNCAN came about after 4 local Councillors and an officer from West Northamptonshire Council organised a Climate Summit at Delapre Abbey in October 2024, which was attended by representatives from 45 Parish and Town Councils from the West Northamptonshire area.
It became clear through this event that there are a great many like-minded people with a strong desire to create a sustainable West Northamptonshire for the benefit of current and future generations.
Current Steering Group Members
Andrew Stevens (Chair) – Northampton Town Councillor 2021-5
Clare Robertson-Marriott (Deputy Chair/Deputy Secretary) – Community Biodiversity Lead
Danny Moody - CEO, Northants County Association of Local Councils (Northants CALC)
Dave Pearson - Coordinator, Clean Air Northamptonshire
David Garrett - Head of Knowledge Transfer, Garden Organic & Councillor West Hunsbury PC
Jane Wood (Secretary) - Secretary of Climate Action-West Northants (CA-WN) & Vice Chair Bugbrooke Parish Council
John Brownhill – Deputy Lieutenant & Chair of Northamptonshire Lieutenancy Sustainability Group
Jonathan Harris - Liberal Democrat Group Leader West Northants Council & WNC Councillor for Brixworth ward
Martin Wilson - Sustainability Manager, West Northamptonshire Council (WNC)
The organisers and speakers from the Climate Summit at Delapre Abbey in October 2024
About & Join
If you might like to JOIN us, then we’d love to hear from you, and there are TWO options:
Become a WNCAN Partner: Membership is open to organisations (including community groups, businesses, and councils) that support the aims of WNCAN. To know more, go to Our Partners in the main menu above.
Individual Involvement: While formal membership is reserved for organisations, individuals who support our aims are very welcome to take an active role in WNCAN activities and Implementation Groups without the requirement of representing an organisation. Interested? If 'yes', send us a message with a brief description of your Climate and Nature interests, and what you might like to help with.
A member of our Steering Group will then get in touch to arrange a phone conversation and explore how your interests could fit within WNCAN’s work.
OUR AIM is to encourage strong partnerships with and between local residents, community groups, councils, businesses, the farming community, educational and faith organisations, and to help people take actions that both reduce the gas emissions that are causing climate change and develop measures to limit the damage caused by the globally rising temperature.
To work towards this we have a Steering Group (see below), some members of which represent organisations - e.g. NCALC, WNC, CA-WN, Garden Organic, Clean Air Northamptonshire, local parish councils - and others are individual community volunteers.
We realise that people often have a specific interest within the very large themes of Climate Change and Nature in Crisis, so we have a number of 'Implementation Groups' (IGs) aligned to themes in the 2025 West Northamptonshire Council's draft Climate Change Strategy.
These 8 IGs are: Adaptation, Buildings, Economy, Energy, Nature, People, Transport and Waste. Some of these will include a number of sub-themes; e.g. Adaptation could include 'flooding prevention and management', 'how to manage periods of excessive heat', 'growing your own food' and so on.