Sustainable Redhill » Transition towns

Beginning of an Energy Descent Action Plan

editor — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:01:33 +0000

At our last meeting at the Home Cottage, we began to put together an Energy Descent Action Plan for Redhill and Reigate. We had a talk from our new Councillor, Jonathan Essex, about how to work best with the local government, and from Peter Lambell’s father Toni, who gave us an insight into what life used to be like without cheap oil. Constance from Transition Dorking joined us to give us a very good understanding of the concept of Peak Oil, and Jeff from the local business T4, came to tell us about the air source heating systems that they are installing in the local Rugby club.

Between this and some delicious green cup cakes, we all visioned into the future and brainstormed on subjects such as energy, food, transport, and water, in an effort to come up with ideas and plans for how we can make our town more sustainable over the coming years. The plan we came up with is a work in progress and will be posted on the website in the near future for everyone to comment on and add to. See also Toni Lambell’s notes which are well worth reading.

South East Transition Towns conference

editor — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:52:57 +0000

On Saturday the 13th of March, I ventured down to Brighton to meet various other Transitioners, at the South East Transition Towns Conference. It was an all day event, held at the Friends Meeting House, which flew by very quickly. After an introduction and a few words about various projects being run over the South East, we moved into an open space style meeting, where there were a number of different things going on in different areas of the building. The idea was that participants would be able to flit between them as they wished. Among others, there was a composting corner, a “What is Transition” talk, an Economist explaining the set up of a local currency and how it works, and a talk on Solar Panels.

I spent most of my time learning about Solar, and learnt that “Southern Solar” are about to launch a new deal, where you can buy your Solar panels without paying any money up front. Southern Solar will just take the money that you make from the government each month, called a Feed In Tariff. The government have guaranteed that for the next 25 years, they will pay you for all the electricity that you generate at home, regardless of how much you use, and this is your Feed in Tariff. In effect, the Solar Panels will really pay for themselves! Can you imagine Reigate and Redhill’s main shopping streets lined with solar panels on their roofs?

Lunch was also an open space meeting, so after buying my homemade veggie pastie, I sat down to chat about CSA’s – Community Supported Agriculture. In these programs, the community pays the farmers up front at the beginning of the year, for their entire years worth of produce. If it is a good year, the community make a good return in food, and if is a bad year, the community share the burden. This eliminates the problem of farmers growing food, only to have it go to waste because the market is not there.

After lunch was my favourite group. I missed out on the Energy Decent Action Plan in 2 hours being organised upstairs, so that could learn how to spin wool with a stick and a potato….It was great fun, and I now have two bin liners full of sheep’s fleeces to get to work on. If anyone would like to learn, please contact me. We will probably run a work shop in the summer so that I can pass along this amazingly simple but important knowledge.

Rebecca Harris

Transition Town Reigate & Redhill

editor — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:48:00 +0000

In response to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change, a new group in Reigate & Redhill has been formed adopting the transition model.

Transition Towns is an environmental movement whose goal is to help communities build up resilience to the effects of climate change and peak oil (The time at which the maximum rate of oil extraction is reached, after which the rate of extraction can only fall.) It is a grassroots effort which encourages people to get together in thier own communites to make their town more sustainable, more self sufficient, and therefore more resilient. There are currently +/- 300 Transition Towns across the world, all doing projects in their own community such as creating local currencies, business waste exchange programs (matching the waste of one industry with the needs of another), re-skilling classes in woodwork, local food foraging, mending old products, bicycle maintenace, etc. and encouraging local food and energy production.

Reigate and Redhill are joining the Transition Movement along with Sustainable Redhill which already does a lot of projects with the same goals. We meet at 8pm on the first Tuesday of every month in the Venture Inn on Lesbourne Road in Reigate, to discuss ongoing and future projects. If you would like to get involved, please feel free to just show up on the day and introduce yourself.

If you have any further questions, please contact Rebecca at rebecca@sustainableredhill.org.uk or call her on 07942344801 /01737668584