Our Partners

The Bude Area Tourist Board (BATB) is the destination marketing and business organisation for Bude, as well as for the surrounding towns and villages that make up the Bude catchment area of Cornwall and Devon.
As the official organisation responsible for encouraging visitors to explore this stunning
area, BATB works closely with the public and private sectors to deliver a programme of
targeted marketing initiatives aimed at increasing visitor numbers, growing visitor spend
and creating jobs.

The BATB’s extensive PR campaigns enables it to reach a large audience, spreading the news about Bude and what it has to offer and promoting the Bude area as the number one place to visit.
BATB has been working with Bude Climate Partnership developing a responsible tourism
strategy to encourage visitors and tourism businesses to work towards becoming carbon neutral.

Protecting Bude’s greatest assets – our sea, beaches and coastline – Bude Cleaner Seas Project tackles pollution issues that impact water quality for swimmers, surfers and all of us. The project works across four initiatives: marine pollution, environmental pollution, climate change and the economy and health of our community.

BCS works with all stakeholders, businesses, householders, farmers' organisations and at governmental level. Its main aim is to empower the community to ensure our beaches and bathing water are as clean as they can possibly be.

​Bude Friends of the Earth campaigns for change in our community to make a difference to the environment locally, nationally, and globally. It was instrumental in encouraging the Town Council to introduce ‘No Mow May’ for certain areas around Bude with follow-up surveys to assess biodiversity gain.

Run entirely by volunteers, it also organises numerous growing schemes including a community orchard behind the Neetside doctors’ surgery with an annual Apple Festival and wildflower planting in the Crescent carpark. Look out for the biodiversity trail signs that will be appearing soon. It has also transformed a municipal bed behind the Neetside Centre into a community vegetable plot. Along with Transition Bude it is currently working on setting up a community fridge.

Bude-Stratton Community Project provides and maintains serviced, fully furnished accessible areas for rent at Neetside Community Centre, at cost for any groups working for the social welfare of the citizens of Bude & Stratton and its surrounding areas.

It adopts a positive role in community development with a special emphasis on access for all, and it promotes examples of good practice of voluntary & statutory agencies and encourages self help groups.

Bude-Stratton Town Council’s vision is to support the local community to achieve a
sustainable and carbon-neutral future, that embraces the wellbeing of our residents, the
environment and economic viability of Bude and Stratton. 
It aims to do this by fulfilling its statutory functions and commitments whilst being open,
accessible and listening to the residents it serves. It also aims to protect and enhance the biodiversity, natural beauty and heritage of the area through the services it provides to the community. 
It intends to support its residents and visitors in engaging positively with the environment to improve their physical and mental health, and wellbeing. Nurturing the economic wellbeing and viability of the area through collaborations with Cornwall Council, local businesses and community groups is also important.  

Community Energy Plus is Cornwall’s energy advice agency that aims to provide complete energy answers to help householders enjoy warmer, energy efficient homes as part of a more sustainable future. It has a team of advisors can provide support across the full range of energy related issues, for householders struggling with energy costs and the effects of fuel poverty, to landlords wanting to improve their properties, and people wanting to adopt low carbon, renewable energy technologies to heat and power their homes.
As a charity and social enterprise, it works in partnership with Cornwall Council, health
providers and a wide range of organisations in the voluntary and community sector
including community energy and climate action groups.

The Community Network Panel discusses issues affecting the community network area and agrees ways to progress them. It also seeks to build working relationships between local partners. Panel meetings are open to the public and the press.
The panel includes local Cornwall Councillors and representatives from town and parish
councils within the community network area. The panel can invite local organisations and service providers, like the police and health services, to join them at their meetings.

Connect Bude was established in 2016 to campaign to reconnect Bude and Holsworthy to the National Rail Network via Okehampton. Due to Dr Beeching’s massive line closures, Bude Railway Station was operational for only 68 years until it closed in 1966. Connect Bude is also working towards preserving the original trackbed of the former railway and supporting links to the reopening rail service from Okehampton to Exeter and beyond. Returning the trainline to Bude would be a huge boost to Bude’s community.

Bude Sea Pool was built in the 1930s to provide a safe environment for swimming for the
people of Bude. This semi-natural pool, measuring 91m long by 45m wide, was created
under the curve of the cliffs in a conservation area. It provides the unique experience of
being in or on the sea, close to the ferocity of the Atlantic Ocean, but sheltered from its
extreme effects.
All public funding for Bude Sea Pool was withdrawn in 2010. The Friends of Bude Sea Pool fought a vigorous campaign in 2011 to keep the pool open for the season, and took on its management in 2012. It has since made much-needed repairs and continues to invest in new facilities to secure Bude Sea Pool for future generations and to keep it free.

With a shared vision to make zero-waste shopping accessible, in April 2019 eight like-minded local women brought the Refill shopping concept to Bude after raising funds through the community. Their ethos of minimising unnecessary plastic, reducing food waste and providing a commercial platform for local suppliers demonstrates how simple choices can reduce our environmental impact. Less packaging waste, reduced food waste, fewer resources used in production and fewer road miles – all achieved by making a few swaps, and by customers bringing their own jars and bags. Initially staffed by volunteers, the shop was established enough after six months to offer work to local people at the national living wage.

Repair Café Bude was set up in February 2019 to repair broken items for free whilst sharing skills. Open at the Neetside Centre in Bude every last weekend of the month (Covid permitting), this initiative fixes everything from bicycles to radios, zips to sewing machines. It is run entirely by volunteers who have many different areas of expertise. Visitors get to enjoy a cup of tea and slice of cake whilst waiting for their repairs and learning valuable make-do-and-mend skills. The philosophy behind Repair Café Bude is to salvage items that would otherwise end up in landfill and in the process to help people save money.

Established more than 25 years ago, this environmental charity’s goal is to protect and restore water environments throughout the Westcountry while educating people about these essential natural resources. So far, its work has engaged more than 2,000 partners and improved some 80 catchments. River catchments are an incredible tool to combat climate change due to their ability to trap atmospheric carbon.

Westcountry Rivers Trust’s project with Bude Climate Change is mapping the Bude Community Network area to examine its natural assets and identify key areas to sequester carbon, reduce flooding and provide drought resilience. Take a look at the work so far with the link below.

>>> Download the report here <<<

Widemouth Task Force is an award-winning beach environmental group that meets each month to clear marine waste including litter, rope, netting and plastic bottles from the beaches at Salthouse, Widemouth, Blackrock, Wanson, Upton and Millook. 
Every New Year it runs a sand-dune restoration project at Widemouth and Blackrock, using old Christmas trees. The trees are used to create fences across the sand dunes where the naturally occurring marram grass has been lost due to trampling and erosion.
The Christmas tree fences help by mimicking the action of the marram grass, catching the sand blown on to the dunes from the beach and also dissipating the power of the wind.
Over time the trees become buried which helps to build up the dune system and stabilise
the surface, which allows the marram grass to root again naturally.