Transition Town Poole Meeting – Tues 13th April 2010
Intended to be at Coffee, Cake & Candy – venue not open
so moved to the Lord Wimborne (Weatherspoons)
16 of us migrated up the high street or found the note and revised venue
Leigh was facilitating the meeting
Started by suggesting that in 2s or 3s we talk about our visions for 10 years time, and some progress or something good that had happened since the last meeting.
Some of the ideas that were fed back
- zoning to protect and value urban centres of food production – agriculture and access to land, not just considering everywhere for further development.
- valuing meaningful relationships
- community supported fisheries – localising, providing a market to minimise transportation
- that people appreciate and value the local area
- car free days (these happen, how do we get people to adopt/obey them!)
- that the normal mode of travel will be 2 feet – with needs met within walking distance
- local and fairtrade food availability, desire for local food businesses in the area
- promote communal ownership (rather than just being anti-private ownership)
There followed a discussion about how we get local communities voices, and a wider discussion about residents associations, often formed at a time of crisis, but subsequently a focal point for looking outwards, and potentially engagemen with TT by either us individually joining their groups, or by aiming to get invited to go and talk to them about Transition.
Again I couldn’t quickly find a list, but perhaps we can construct one
Residents associations I could find online
Intersting link to perhaps follow up
Dorset Federation Of Residents’ Associations, 15 Broom Road, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset BH12 4NL
Email: w.herring@virgin.net
There must be many more, potentially without websites
Abundance
- Cherry, Andy and Gwyn met at Gwyns. We mapped out the roles that would be necessary, a few candidate trees, and the tasks needed. Aim to do this in a manageable way so that we can celebrate the success of feeling our way through the process rather than be overwhelmed by an abundance of produce that we can’t distribute etc.
Looking for volunteers to “adopt” a tree, or a part of the process. We need commitment early in the year to assure ourselves that we will cope at harvest time.
Turners field
- planning to get to know the site better this Saturday, with a litterpick 2-5pm. Bring binbags and gloves. Plan to hand out leaflets to people passing too.
Working with Schools
- Stanley Green headteacher is keen to look at the whole orchard as an outdoor classroom resource. She wants our help to do a proper design before inviting parents back in to do the work, there was too much enthusisasm and too little direction. wants to broaden out to community involvement.
- Old Town Childrens Centre. Claire runs a session monthly, second saturday of the month. Keen for support if people are willing.
Feedback from events
Dorset Transition Gathering – at least 60 people there, well run, using openspace meeting style. Best bit was probably to realise that all Transition Towns across the area are in a similar place, struggling with getting from talking about acting to actually achieving progress. And a nice bunch of people.
TBH West Howe – event this Friday 10-12noon Harriet looking for volunteers – making Mors bags, recycling officer will be there. Opportunity to engage with local public.
PHP (Poole Housing Partnership) – Very keen on agenda around growing food in grounds of sheltered accomodation (for residents). Wanted support of local community groups. Andy wrote on TT Poole’s behalf in support of a bid they are writing.
Transition Tales Walker. Steph Bradley from Totnes walked through yesterday, met Harriet and Gary, and stayed with Andy. Part of her walk is an exploration of how Transition is getting on in various communities, also a theme of taking an item from one group to the next. We offered a Hazel sapling to take onwards to Transition Wimborne, and received a carved cherrywood dibber from the Purbeck PEAT group.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/steph-bradley/
Public Health Association Annual Conference – at the BIC
Gary, Harriet and Andy were invited to attend and speak at the UKPHA conference 25th March. Gary found the keynote speech inspiring- John McKnight from Canada talking about sustainable communities, but also the need to allow them to grow bottom up, and the sometimes bad impact of grants – where recipients are perversely incentivised to keep the problem going in order to attract funds. The challenge laid down to those involved in Public Health – Local Authorities and PCTs, was to create the opportunities for communities to develop themselves. http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/people/mcknight.html
Andy was impressed that overall, the conference chose to be vegetarian catered, turned off the escalators, encouraged arrival by other than the car, using recycled bags (or making one – he tried), and generally led by example on being so far as possible a low carbon use conference. There were opportunities for bike rides, yoga on the beach etc. too !
Gary’s talk was in a session on food and health. There was a speaker from Tower Hamlets, where they had mapped the location of fast food outlets , and shops selling fresh fruit and other basics. Very hard to access good food within the borough.
Someone from Solihull talked about their initiatives to try and bring services to communities.
Gary talked abotu the patch, and tried to emphasise the overall yield, not just the food extracted from the site.
The room was then divided to debate topics.
The session that Andy spoke in included talks about a couple of projects in Scotland – School food in Lanarkshire, where the catering manager took the initiative to source local good food, at about a 20% price premium over the cheapest obtainable. But also, valueing the catering staff and getting results in good nutrition. He went on to talk about the backs of tenements in Edinburgh, which had largely fallen into disuse as wild spaces. One community came together to create a communal space with areas for washing lines, play, chilling, wildlife, and bicycle repair workshops and other communal activities. They have spread the idea, so many such communities now exist and have taken back their space in a communal way.
Two trainee doctors talked about how they were plotting their journeys and travel choices and the carbon impact of these, and trying to influence placement locations and journey choices.
Andy talked about Transition locally, but trying to highlight some of the opportunities and resources that are out there to find Transition groups and other initiatives.
Project opportunities
Mark mentioned a grant scheme from Barclays, we would fall under the Southwest area. A public debate on who gets funding £50K, with voting for the most popular scheme. He said there could be an opportunity for us.
Gwyn mentioned the Transition Town Poole Food co-op will be placing another order late April. He is up to Bristol 28th April, so can collect again. Contact Gwyn, Andy or Jamie for details.
Gwyn also mentioned Purbeck Vinyard, which is a very small vinyard just outside Swanage. 1 hectare of land, growing 7-8 varieties of grapes. He will be organising to go and help with the harvest sometime Aug-Oct, if anyone wants to get involved.
Tony mentioned the absence of debate in the Election discussions so far on Climate Change. The more questions to BBC and ITV news about candidates views on climate change, the better.
Next meeting Weds 12th May
Venue possibly Coffee, Cakes and Candy in the high street, or maybe upstairs in the King Charles in Thames Street
Harriet and Kate agred to facilitate the next meeting. Andy cant make it so someone will need to scribe !
Gary can’t make Weds, but offered to facilitate the meeting afterwards if a Tuesday.
