Local updates

2026, a good year for butterflies and swifts

The Butterfly Survey Group recorded 18 species this summer, the most since counts began in 2023. The star was the clouded yellow, a migrant from southern Europe: we counted 23, where we used to see one or two.

Swifts did well too. Our volunteers found 120 occupied nest sites across Swanage and Purbeck, and nest boxes are working. Swanage itself went from 28 to 36 occupied sites.

• 18butterfly species, the most since 2023
• 120swift nest sites, up from 98 in 2025
• 26swift boxes in use, up from 12

Autumn and winter are the best time to put up a swift box, so it’s ready when the birds return in May. Email swiftresearch67@gmail.com and we’ll talk it through with you.

Making it easier to get around Purbeck

The Purbeck Transport Action Group (PTAG) met on 29 October to work on its updated Purbeck Transport Plan. It draws on this year’s residents’ survey and will feed into Dorset Council’s new seven-year, £65m transport programme. That starts next summer and promises 700 extra bus journeys and a full Saturday service.

You told us what matters most. The plan’s top three recommendations:

• Join up walking, cycling, bus and train links, including feeder buses to trains.
• Find a workable way to fund local buses.
• Finish the proposed cycle routes. The Norden to Corfe cycleway is now funded in the next five-year plan.

Haven’t had your say? Email hello@sustainableswanage.uk and tell us how travel options can be improved in and around Swanage.

MPs will debate the NEB petition on 16 November

More than 130,000 people have signed the petition calling for a live emergency briefing on the climate and nature crisis, introduced by the Prime Minister and delivered by independent experts. Parliament will debate it on Monday 16 November at 4.30pm. Thank you to everyone in Swanage who came to our screening, signed and shared it.

The Government is unlikely to agree at this stage, but strong support from MPs in the debate could change that. You can help by asking our MP, Lloyd Hatton, to attend and speak. It takes about two minutes.

Can you help? We’re looking for a trustee

We plan to become a registered charity, aiming for next spring. That would let us manage funding directly and apply for grants to do more for Swanage.

A charity needs trustees to guide it, and we’re looking for one with financial experience. If you’ve kept a club’s accounts, managed a budget or worked in finance, we’d love a chat. Not sure it’s for you? Get in touch and we’ll talk it through.

A new food group for Swanage

Around 70 people came to The Studio at The Mowlem on 14 October to talk about where our food comes from, and how more of it could come from closer to home. By the end of the evening, Swanage had a new local food group.

• 514households helped by Swanage Food Bank last year
• 17.6 tonnesof food saved from landfill by the Community Pantry since 2022
• c.6,000more deer than Purbeck can support

We heard from dairy farmer Ian Baggs, James Warren of The Salt Pig, Chris Brady of Food For Thought Purbeck and Jon Sloper of Feeding Dorset, along with the food bank, the Community Pantry, the new community veg patch and Greengage. The food group's first meeting is in early November, and everyone is welcome. Swanage News reported on the evening on 26 October.

Old cables: recycle them too

Most of us have a drawer of cables we’re keeping “just in case”. They contain copper, which the UK needs to build wind turbines and solar panels. If a million people recycled just one cable each, 6,000kg could be reclaimed.

Take yours to Swanage Recycling Centre or the Emporium.

Our petition passed 100,000 signatures

The National Emergency Briefing petition, calling for a TV broadcast on the risks from climate and nature breakdown, has passed 100,000 signatures and will now be considered for debate. If it’s selected, MPs will debate it and a Government minister will have to respond. Everyone in Swanage who came to our screening, signed and shared it helped make this happen. Thank you!

At the Big NEB Update on 31 July, chair Professor Mike Berners-Lee reported thousands of screenings across community, faith and civic settings, and cross-party support from nearly 150 MPs. A student programme has now launched for schools, alongside new toolkits for businesses, councillors and local groups.

Getting around Swanage without a car

Our new transport page pulls together which buses run where, what’s being built, and how the Purbeck Transport Action Group (P-TAG) is pushing for better links across Purbeck. Three things worth knowing:

• The Purbeck Shuttle 200 now has funding to run its Wednesday service year-round, linking Wareham Station with RSPB Arne.
• The Swanage to Studland route is progressing: the Currendon footpath, a possible road crossing near the Studland Road junction, and a new permissive bridleway alongside Ulwell Road.
• Swanage Town Council is exploring a marked cycle lane on Ulwell Road.

Where to recycle almost anything in Swanage

Not sure what to do with blister packs, batteries or old pens? Our Where to Recycle page now lists more local drop-off points and covers more than 50 everyday items, in Swanage and a little further afield (yes, including Monkey World).

A new group for the sea around Swanage

Beyond the Sand, our new marine group, held its first meeting in June at the Focus Centre, with Nick Reed of Purbeck Sub Aqua Club on what he’s seen beneath the waves and Luke Robinson on the ecology of seaweed and the enterprises growing up around it.

In 2024 Swanage Town Council adopted a Motion for the Ocean, a formal commitment to put the health of the sea at the heart of local decisions. Beyond the Sand is the community group helping turn that into action. Sea swimmers, divers, dog walkers on the beach: no expertise needed, just curiosity.

Walk more, cycle more, drive less

Swanage Community Travel & Transport is a new group working on practical ways to improve how we all get around town: safer walking and cycling routes, better community transport, and making it easier to get about without a car. It held its first open meeting in June and welcomes new ideas.

The Repair Café is growing

The Repair Café has met monthly at Herston Village Hall for some time, fixing clothes, toys and small electricals and keeping them out of landfill. Now it wants to do more: encouraging better recycling, cutting single-use plastic, promoting refill schemes, supporting food redistribution, and exploring a Library of Things.

To make that happen it needs more volunteers. You don’t need to be a fixer: there’s plenty to do in organising, promotion and community outreach.