On Saturday Aug 16th several members visited Crowhurst Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).
The project is located on a working farm: Upper Wilting Farm in Crowhurst, tenants of Hastings Borough Council.
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Transition Town first housing meeting
We held our first housing meeting after Ken Davis’s talk on eco-refurbishing homes.
12 people attended and the conversation was really lively.
Here are some abridged notes from the meeting:
One member gave some background information about Neighbourhood Plans. She is Chair of the Tulse Hill Neighbourhood Plan in South London.
Some funding was made available via Locality for some initial consultation within the area (they set up a stall in Brockwell Park). They asked one question: “If you could change anything in your neighbourhood what would it be?”.Map out an area for your plan – Tulse Hill asked all those who came ot the Brockwell Park stand and then put a pin in a map for each person to create their boundary.
Once the group has 21 people committed to the plan it’s possible to apply to be a Neighbourhood Planning Forum. A Neighbourhood Plan must relate to the established local plan but the forum writes it’s own. The plan produced is then statutory.
One attendee shared his ideas about appropriate language. He does not like the word ‘housing’ as it is not a noun. He prefers to talk about ‘making places’. He said that there are three essentials for people: Food, Community and Place.
All present in the meeting shared what things they’d like to change in the town:
- Better design of the local environs
- Use of meanwhile spaces
- Use of empty/derelict spaces
- Better quality affordable, rented accommodation
- Joined up thinking (eg how waste water is managed within developments)
- A greater sense of community
- Improved awareness of planning activity
- More spaces for people to interact – many live in isolation
What should we call this group? Making places, environment, neighbourhood, community… Ideas?
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Talk on energy conservation in houses, August 1st 2015
Thanks to Ken Davis for making our first talk a great success. Ken gave a very informative talk, discussing how best to approach improving the energy efficiency of our homes.
Here are the key ‘take homes’:
- Building need to adapt, conservation can’t continue to keep things the same as before.
- We need to establish some new building techniques and methods and find new ways to understand buildings.
- Breathability is important in older buildings, use materials that maintain air flow
- Leave a year after moving into a property to understand how it breathes and how moisture moves around it.
- Maintenance is the first step – review and fix gutters, etc
- Insulate with natural materials such as wool, don’t use fibreglass.
- If considering alternative energy sources and you can’t do anything else, start with a condensing boiler.
- Do basics first- draught proofing and insulation.
- Water recycling is expensive – start with a water butt.
- We need better education about buildings, policy changes.
- Use radiator thermostats
- Use fans in kitchen and bathrooms to reduce moisture.
Ken’s presentation can be downloaded here.
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This month’s highlighted campaign
Listen Up!
Right now renewable energy co-ops are unable to sell clean power directly to their neighbours. They have to sell their energy to a big power company for 4.5p, then buy it back for 15p or even 20p* – we at http://1010uk.org/ourpower want to change that.
We are collecting signatures to ask Amber Rudd to bring in a ‘right to supply’ for community energy groups. We are planning to put this petition on Amber Rudd’s desk in mid-July.
We believe that winning a ‘right to supply’ for community energy is the single best thing we can do right now to boost clean energy* and give more people a chance to benefit from it.
So if you want to buy your power direct from local wind and solar and stop the Big Six from buying your local wind and solar energy, and selling it back at 3 times the price-
Sign the petition to help make it possible!
http://www.1010uk.org/ourpowerPlease follow and like us:
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Update July 2015
Since the vision’s event at the White Rock Hotel we’ve been very busy and wanted to update you on our progress so far:
- We’ve started a Guerrilla Gardening group to look at which area/s in the town we could grow vegetables and flowers. This is partly ‘guerrilla’ and partly organized planting with the fundamental element of encouraging the targeted community to join in.
- We’re organising some Foraging Walks led by Ben Fairlight to learn what we can use around our countryside for food and good health. We hope to be walking, talking and enjoying a picnic partly made up of foraged food!
- We’ve arranged a visit to the Crowhurst Community Supported Agricultural (CSA) project (run by some of the original TT group) and usually there between 10-12 on Saturdays.
- We’re looking at visiting the Real Junk Food Café in Brighton soon. This is a project using left over food from shops etc, cooking it and giving it away! For everyone to enjoy and donate what they can….or nothing if they can’t.
- We’ve organised a talk on Energy Conservation & Alternative Energy Sources in Building by Ken Davis on 1st Aug at The White Rock Hotel at 11am-12.15pm, on a first come first served entry basis.
- Our Energy Group has met several times and has its next meeting on 30/7/15 at 7pm at Hastings Trust office at Silchester Mews, 17a Silchester Rd, St Leonards, TN38 0JB. All welcome.
- Next Core Group meeting is Monday 20/7/15 from 7-8pm at White Rock Hotel, and then from 8-9pm there will also be the first Local Economy Group meeting. Anyone welcome.
- Warrior Square Station Community Garden project. We have asked about the possibility of using the north side platform of St Leonards Warrior Square station for growing veg and flowers for the community.
Please get in touch if you want to get involved in any of the projects and activities.
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Visit to Brighton Real Junk Food Project
© https://instagram.com/realjunkfoodbrighton/ Several members made a visit to the Brighton Real Junk Food Project with Hastings Matters. They intercept edible food and serve it on a pay as you feel basis. Find them Wednesdays at the Churchill Square market and Fridays at the One Church.
The visitors were really impressed with the organisation and are considering doing something similar in Hastings.
Here are some observations by Carol Ridge.
Set up
- Community Interest Company with six directors.
- Ten chefs who include people who prep.and cook. Three to four people hold Food hygiene certificates.
- Individuals are responsible for various tasks. Book keeping, Food collection etc
Volunteers
This group is from the community and includes anyone with a day to spare. It may also include people with mild learning difficulties. Volunteers are introduced a few at a time.
Food collection
Food is collected from supermarkets and shops/markets. Lidl supply a large proportion.
Venue
One Church in Gloucester place Brighton. Fully equipped kitchen with large ovens, work surfaces and dish washer. Crockery and utensils are provided by the church. Three shelves are allocated to the project in the pantry for “Dry stores”.
Diners pay as they wish but we saw many that did not pay at all. Biodegradable take away containers are provides for those who wish to take food home with them. There is also a small area where people may help themselves to items such as boxes of cereals, fresh fruit and snacks. It depends what is available each week. Any number from one to three hundred people are fed.
Diners from all sections of the community
The day we visited diners included the young and the elderly but on this visit there were more young people. The unemployed and the employed, the poor, the disabled, students, single mothers and their children and whole families. Even a group of international young people who were part of the “Couch surfing “organisation.
The atmosphere is so upbeat and positive.
Any unusable food waste is sent to SILO. This is a restaurant that has a super compost machine.
You can visit their website at http://www.realjunkfoodbrighton.co.uk/
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A feature on Peak Oil in the Hastings Independent Press
Article on Peak Oil and a brief intro to Transition Town Hastings Please follow and like us:
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Vision Day at the White Rock Hotel.
On Saturday 18th April 2015 we had our visions event at the White Rock Hotel, a fantastic afternoon when more than eighty people came together to contribute ideas for a more sustainable town. Here is a taster of some of the ideas discussed, including a few quirky ones:
Food growing
- Community Gardens
- Edible bus stops / guerilla gardening
- Garden matching schemes
Transport
- Car free days on the seafront
- Travel passes for integrated transport system (including new funiculars to the West/East Hills)
Economy
- Local currency
- Skill share/swap
Energy
- 100% renewable energy owned by Hastings Community
- Bio-digesters to generate energy from local garden waste
Housing
- Rent reform / Land tax control
- CPO / planning reform
- Eco-housing including Eco Open Houses
Waste
- Community composting
- Packaging-free shops
- Acknowledge the value in waste and use it.
Also, the presentations about Transition Town Lewes, Community Fruit and Veg Project, Trinity Wholefoods Coop, Energise Sussex Coast and a short film of a TED talk emphasised the power of community.
As such, it feels important to consider the following in the future work of Transition Town Hastings:
- work with existing community groups
- bring people together to create a friendlier and safer environment
- bridging age gaps through common activities
- developing Transition Streets
- encouraging broader engagement
We were excited to discover lots of people at the event had valuable skills to offer and we hope to see these in action soon.
On Monday 25th May at 7pm there will be a core group Transition Town Hastings meeting in the Notley Room at the White Rock Hotel.
This meeting is for those wishing to be involved in deciding the next steps. We will be looking at how we form and facilitate working groups, develop projects and raise funds. (Photos © John Cole).
Chris Rowlands from OVESCO 
Visions session 
Visions and ideas 
Discussing ideas Please follow and like us:
