As some will already know, I made a decision just over a month ago to step down as CEO of The Big Green Idea. We have since had a number of trustee meetings and conversations with our core support team to decide upon the future of the charity. The long and the short of these meetings is that we have decided to close The Big Green Idea and to pass on all our tangible assets, including the bus, to a larger charity with the infrastructure and capacity to reach many more people than we were ever able to.

We looked at a number of charities with a similar ethos to that of the BGI and I am absolutely delighted to say that, as of yesterday afternoon, The Eden Project in Cornwall is now the proud owner of our beautiful Big Green Bus.

I have just returned to Malvern having handed the bus over to a team of amazing, enthusiastic, passionate and knowledgeable people from The Eden Project. The hand-over was obviously quite difficult and emotional (even our bus driver, Grenville, shed a few tears), but I can honestly say that the team who will be working with the bus from now on are people I would have hand picked myself to work for the BGI - if it weren’t for the fact that they already have jobs they love and live in Cornwall!

We will include more information about the hand-over, plus some photos of the bus in its beautiful new home, when we publish the last of our BGI newsletters at the end of July, but I just wanted to write something now to explain why we are no longer taking bookings.

Our website will remain live for a few more months at least and we plan to move most of our newsletter articles and information sheets (only with permission from the authors) to a new home at The Green Living Forum.

Once we have closed the office in Malvern, I will be putting all my time and energy into campaigning to raise awareness of the problems facing bees. If anyone would like to book me for a ‘Bee’ talk I’m available!

We will add more information to the website soon, but now that the bus has been safely handed over to The Eden Project, I can’t resist stealing a line from Mr Bennet (from Pride and Prejudice) when he gave his blessing to his daughter, Lizzie, to marry Mr Darcy…..

“I could not have parted with you, my (bus), to anyone less worthy”!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has supported us over the last three years. The charity may be closing, but the Big Green Bus is just heading out on the next stage of its journey…..