Individuals

• More elderly people are attending fitness classes and helping out in the local soup kitchens. Losing weight is being supported by care workers and home helps who assist people with developing their own fitness programme
• Cycling is becoming increasingly popular and many people have invested in tandems.
• Totnes markets record major sales in vegetables as diets improve
• The Duke of Somerset gifts parcels of land for community benefit in all sixteen parishes

Community

• The Mansion House opens its ‘Space for Nature’ Garden in the former playground and sets off a spate of similar nature gardens on former tarmac playgrounds. The old café reopens with ‘Healthy+’ menus and a Friday soup kitchen
• As part of the Dartington Estate’s Agroforestry makeover, ten acres are dedicated to medicinal plants, shrubs, trees and herbs that can be used to make herbal medicines. Also, the first medicinal mushroom facility in the UK is established on the Estate, growing Trametes, Shiitake and other powerfully medicinal mushrooms, for their powerful anti-cancer properties
• Children in schools are learning about herbs and are growing medicinal herbs in their school gardens.
• Schumacher College has opened an Apothecary Garden in Dartington Hall courtyard based on the Chelsea Physic Garden to train people in identifying medicinal and beneficial plants
• Local evening classes help people to measure their own energy levels through kinesiology and biofeedback
• Parent and child together programmes at pre-school facilities are helping families to improve their diet and fitness. Leechwell Gardens community group introduce ‘a quiet day with stories in the garden’
• The rising cost and gaps in supply of formula baby milks lead to a huge increase in women wishing to breastfeed their babies. NCT and La Leche support groups form, and new mothers benefit from the help and encouragement of experienced friends and family as well as the excellent services provided by midwives and health visitors

Policy Makers & Service Providers

• National evaluation shows benefits from people using Heath and Wellbeing gardens
• Totnes Hospital initiates a feasibility study to install a biodigester to deal with some hospital waste and to produce energy. The Sterilising suite is extended and two more staff are employed as more reusable equipment is used. Hospital waste has decreased noticeably
• Hospital menus now include their recipes as patients are keen to recreate the meals at home. The in-patient gym is expanded and opened to staff and community care users
• SHDC finally gives Totnes Leisure Centre a makeover and another solar swimming pool and sauna complex is opened in Bridgetown to cater for all the new enthusiasm. A further three new mini leisure centres are earmarked for Dartington, South Brent and Marldon
• Major debate on health and safety regulations to allow for calculated risk and commonsense so that people can become more self-reliant.

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