Stories From Round Our Way

NOTE: BCBC, which is mentioned several times throughout this story, stands for Bridgend County Borough Council, the local authority responsible for the Bridgend area in South Wales.

Alex Bland is a musician and geologist living in Bridgend, South Wales. Until recently, the small culvert running through the area had never caused problems, but increasingly intense rainfall is putting more water through a system that was never designed to cope with it. His home has now flooded twice in the past two years, alongside 12 other homes on his street and around 40 further upstream. Alex and independent councillor Steve Bletsoe told us how the community has come together to respond, from monitoring water levels to putting out sandbags for neighbours, and why maintaining waterways and getting new developments right will become increasingly important as extreme weather changes.

In this story we meet Ralph Connor and Tina Honeyfield, who live in Cwmtillery, a former coal-mining town in the South Wales valleys. They run Caffi Tyleri, a community café, and Pentref Tyleri, a local group that has become a focal point for tackling unemployment, food poverty, and the challenges of managing the upland landscape through natural flood prevention.

In November 2024, after weeks of heavy rain, an old coal tip on the hillside above their home gave way. The landslide swept through around forty houses, including the one they had lived in for seventeen years. We spoke with them about what happened that day, and about what it means to live beneath the legacy of coal - about the closures of the mines, the underfunding that followed, and the slow accumulation of risk that remained just out of sight until it surfaced in the slip.

They also spoke about Cwmtillery itself - he way the town holds together, and the kind of community spirit that emerges when everything else gives way, and which, they believe, will carry it through what comes next.

In this story we meet Oli Gibson, a volunteer coach at Ringmer Football Club near Brighton, where three generations of his family are involved in the club. We visited Ringmer’s ground to talk about football’s place at the heart of local communities, and how climate change is beginning to reshape the game from the grassroots upwards.

In his day job, Oli is a heat and performance researcher at Brunel University, so we discuss the challenges facing both artificial and natural pitches, from synthetic surfaces that can reach temperatures of 70°C to the increasing pressure on grass pitches during longer periods of heat and drought. Drawing comparisons between the resources available in the professional game and the realities of grassroots football, and reflecting on the current World Cup - set to be the hottest on record - Oli also considers why climate change is still not being properly addressed in football’s biggest conversations, and what it will take for the sport to adapt as extreme heat becomes an increasingly familiar part of the season.

In this story we meet Chris Carr, managing director of Carr & Carr Builders, a family-run housing company that has been building homes in Northern Lincolnshire for more than 110 years. We visited a construction site near Grimsby to talk about how climate change is beginning to reshape the realities of building in the UK.

Chris, who also serves as president of the Federation of Master Builders, reflects on the pressures facing the construction industry as extreme weather, changing regulations, and rising costs begin to alter how homes are designed and built. From heavier rainfall and flood risk to the need for more resilient materials and infrastructure, he explains why adapting the UK’s housing stock will be one of the defining challenges for builders in the years ahead.

We also hear from Richard Parrott, a carpenter at the company, about the changes he’s seeing on the job - from working through more intense summer heat to the growing awareness of risks like overheating and skin cancer for those spending long days outdoors - and how builders are beginning to adapt to a changing climate.

In this story we hear from Abi and Steve Churchley, whose family home in Stockport, where they live with their two daughters, has been flooded twice in recent years, first in 2019 and again in 2025. They describe the shock of seeing their home submerged for a second time, the emotional toll of rebuilding, and the growing sense of uncertainty that comes with living in a changing climate.

Almost a year on from the most recent flood, Abby and Steve are still repairing the damage and looking to install property flood protection measures to safeguard their home. But their story is also one of community and resilience. After enduring the trauma of repeated flooding, they’ve turned their experience into action, creating a website and support network to help others through what can be an exhausting and isolating process. Together, they reflect on what it means to adapt, to rebuild, and to stay hopeful as climate change reshapes life in their neighbourhood.

In this story we speak with Ian Campbell, a beekeeper and spokesperson for the British Beekeepers Association, at his apiary near Newcastle. Ian has been keeping bees for decades, witnessing firsthand how a changing climate is reshaping their behaviour and the environment they depend on.

He explains how extreme weather, unpredictable seasons, and shifting ecosystems are making it harder for colonies to thrive, from disrupted flowering patterns to food shortages and disease. We talk about the crucial role bees play in global food security, the mounting challenges facing beekeepers across the UK, and Ian’s reflections on what the future might hold for an industry so closely tied to the rhythms of nature.

In this story we visit The Royal Oak in Brandon, just outside Coventry, a pub that flooded 12 times during the winter of 2023/24. Owner Khara Schrijvers describes the devastation caused by Storm Henk, when brown floodwater forced the pub to close for four months and left behind burst pipes, cracked floors, damaged roofs, and a repair bill of around £180,000.

Faced with uncertainty about whether the business could survive, Khara considered closing the doors for good. Instead, she chose to invest in protecting the building - installing custom-made aluminium flood gates on new brick walls surrounding the pub, designed to slow the rate of water entering and give drains a chance to cope.

We talk with Khara about the toll repeated flooding takes on a small business, and how climate change is not only driving more extreme weather but also pushing up food prices and energy bills - creating multiple challenges for pubs like hers. Since reopening, The Royal Oak has extended its opening hours to make up for lost revenue, and Khara credits the local community for their loyalty and support. While the risk of flooding remains, she says the new defences offer reassurance and a chance to keep the pub’s doors open in the face of increasingly extreme weather.

In this story we speak with Adrian Bartlett and Dave Stevens at Newlyn Harbour in Cornwall, home to the trawler the Crystal Sea for the past 47 years. Adrian began his fishing career in the mid-1980s, spending over three decades at sea before stepping ashore in 2011. Since then, he’s co-founded The Really Interesting Crab Company to promote the quality of local shellfish, helped launch the Crabstock Festival, and set up a pop-up restaurant to connect people with UK seafood. He also trains new entrants to the industry, sits as vice chair of Fishing into the Future, and consults for Ecomotus — a company developing retrofit hydrogen systems to reduce the environmental impact of diesel engines.

Dave is the current chair of Fishing into the Future and skipper of the family-run Crystal Sea. He talks about the changes he’s seen at sea throughout his career, and how the Ecomotus system has made his boat more efficient — improving fuel economy and reducing pollution without having to overhaul existing equipment.

Together they reflect on how the fishing industry is experiencing the effects of climate change firsthand, and how it’s beginning to adapt — from cleaner engine technology to shifting perceptions about sustainability and the future of UK seafood.

In this story we speak with David Thomas and Jason Greenway at Springwater Farm, on the Killerton Estate in Devon. David is a senior land advisor who works on natural flood management (leaky dams, scrapes and bunds), and Jason runs Springwater Farm with his wife Amelia. Together they have designed a small patch of wetland to slow the flow of water, reduce flooding, encourage vegetation during droughts, and make space for wildlife.

When Jason and Amelia took the land on, it was a heavy input farm, and since then they have been experimenting with agroforestry, silvopasteur, and wetland creation. As they explain in the story, for them building a sustainably profitable farm is about adapting to drier summers and wetter winters — and finding ways to keep their farm both resilient and financially viable in response to climate change pressures.

In this story we hear from Pete Paragreen, a retired electrician and long-time resident of Burstwick, a small village just outside Hull that was hit hard during the devastating 2007 floods. While Pete’s home was spared, the experience of seeing his village submerged - a place that had never flooded before - fundamentally changed the way he sees climate change.

Pete describes the shock of witnessing floodwaters in streets he’d always assumed were safe, and how that moment forced him to confront a new reality: that nowhere is truly immune. He shares how the village pulled together in the aftermath, building its own flood defence system with embankments, pumps, and a community-run response plan.

Reflecting on rising sea levels and the limits of man-made protection, Pete voices a growing anxiety about the future. His message is clear: we can build barriers, but we also have to tackle the root causes of the crisis. As he puts it, “Tackle climate change, or live up a hill.”