Welcome!!
Transition meeting - 1 July 2009
Here are brief notes from our meeting on Wednesday. All comments are welcome, as always. And come to the party!
Blues in the Barn, Woodland Valley Farm, 24 July 6pm - 12. Free beer and sausage. Tickets £10. Proceeds to Ladock Playing Field, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Transition Grampound Road and Ladock.
1. Village market. We have an excellent atmosphere though still not large numbers attending - and we need to understand why - anyone any suggestions? The times are being changed to 930 -1130am. Oliver will deliver more fliers round the village. Chris is going to ask about putting a notice in the school newsletter mentioning a 'let's get cooking' club doing teas at the July market. Ideas for boosting nuimbers included bacon bap for £1, tastings and demo's. Any more?
2. The oil group. Going fine, still getting good prices. We'll advertise again in the Ladock News.
3. Events. We had several ideas for a programme of events - top priorities are energy, food and finance. A few of us will meet again to firm up ideas - anyone interested in joining us, please say.
4. Allotments. There are now 9-10 holders in Chris's field. Anyone interested please contact Chris direct at Woodland Valley.
5. The Fife Diet. We're going to review how to take this forward after the Food Mapping meeting in St Austell on Thursday.
6. The community wind turbine. We discussed some of the obstacles presented to anyone wishing to find out about installing turbines and we are going to follow up some suggestions at the meeting to start the process moving.
7. The election. Chris Dodwell and Oliver both reported on a positive response to canvassing. It seems that there is 100% understanding of the fact that the future will be very different from the past post oil and climate change.
8. Copenhagen Declaration. We offered our support to the Declaration (see below)
9. Housing. There is huge concern over the figure of 68,000 new homes needed in Cornwall in the next 15 yrs. We need time to consider and discuss at our next meeting, but definitely need to get together with Ttansition Cornwall Network, Parish Council etc
10. Awards. Caroline has printed the Co-operative Transition Towns Awards Scheme application form from the web site. Grants up to £150 are available - we need to decide how we'd spend the money if it was awarded.
11. Blues in the Barn. Chris Jones is holding a fundraiser at Woodland Valley Farm on 24 July 6pm - 12. Free beer and sausage. Tickets £10. Proceeds to Ladock Playing Field, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Transition Grampound Road and Ladock.
Present at the meeting were: Chris and Jane Dodwell, Anne and Chris Brown, Caroline Cudmore. Oliver Baines, Chris Jones, Jenny Kwee. Kate Lutey, Jane Wade and Linda Pelham had sent apologies.
Here's the Declaration:
CLIMATE CHANGE THE CORNISH DECLARATION
We, the people of Cornwall and our visitors, pledge to ensure that our families and communities will survive to freely enjoy the bounty and beauty of Cornwall.
We pledge:-
to strive to restore balance between nature and society
to strive to lead sustainable lives
to strive to leave positive footprints on the path to Copenhagen and into the future.
We want Cornwall to be part of a planet which lives within its means
At Copenhagen in December 2009 we want the Prime Minister and his Ministers to forge an agreement amongst all nations to keep the increase in temperature of this planet to below 2 deg. C.
Here are the notes from our meeting on Wednesday 6 May 2009 in Ladock.
Present: Ali, Caroline, Chris Dodwell, Kate, Jane, Jenny, Maureen and Oliver
1 Caroline gave an update on the Village market (addition of chocolate, bread and cheese to the list of stalls; change of cake supplier) A draft flyer was passed round for comment. This will be circulated to all houses in Grampound Road, to raise awareness of the market and what is on sale there. There was discussion about having a market where craft stalls are also included, (the market organising group had thought perhaps around Christmas) or the possibility of a separate Craft market once or twice a year.
2 The Fife Diet/CHESS talk in April was discussed (notes are available on request) and those who attended gave a brief outline of the issues covered.
Jenny and Jane reported that after the local elections, they are proposing to devise a questionnaire to get information on how aware local people are of the origins of what they buy to eat and e.g. how many of them deliberately look for local/Cornish produce when they shop. Following on from that they hope to find people prepared to prepare “free lunches”, using donated local produce, to spread the word within the community.
Cornish residents may be much more aware of buying local than was the case 3 years ago in Fife and hopefully this will become apparent through the questionnaire, but issues of easier access to local foods may be something we could focus on as a group.
3 Chris Jones has made one of his fields available for allotments and several people were working there on Saturday market, clearing plots. The field is on the right, immediately as you turn left to go to Ladock at the top of the hill in Grampound Road. Oliver reported that there is quite a lot of space available and Jenny mentioned the Physick Garden that Chris seems keen to establish presumably on that site).
Caroline reported that Truro Transition have started a herb garden in the grounds of the Cathedral.
There were contradictory reports about the amount of the allotment rent p.a. CJ to let the group know the annual cost.
CC will pursue an application to the Co-op for a grant for the allotments –e.g. shelter belt, compost bins, water butts etc.
4 The Orchard planted at Grampound Road school is in blossom and looks good. Oliver proposed that we look for another site and it was agreed that he should try again for the edible avenue at the Grampound Road Cricket Club site for next year. The other suggestion of putting fruit trees into our hedgerows does depend heavily on the goodwill and commitment of the landowners concerned, as it means the hedges cannot be slash cut in the standard way.
Oliver reported that there have been Country Stewardship grants for laying hedges and if fruit trees are planted into freshly laid hedges, maintenance is easier.
5 Community Wind Turbine – Chris J wants to pursue this as a windspeed survey in and around Ladock showed some very favourable results. The big issue will be accessing the Grid as there are many thousands of projects already waiting to be connected.
6 Oil orders - nearly always go to Watson’s who have been very responsive to the opportunity to pick up a group of customers, but as summer approaches, the numbers of buyers is reducing and so the discounts will be less (12 people in January, 4/5 in March and April).
7 The idea of a Fabulous Feast, with art based on and celebrating local food production has been shelved for the time being. The funding cannot be used for the kind of purposes first believed so Jane and Jenny felt it better to concentrate on the survey and possible lunches outlined under 2 above. There would have been difficulties cooking in any of the local halls on the scale originally envisaged, because none of them have a full kitchen.
8 Oliver suggested that the group should consider a non-plant/food based project and suggests Transport. Everyone asked to consider what this could be for the next meeting.
9 As the Grampound Road magazine (The Road) has not appeared for perhaps a year now, the idea of a Transition group newsletter was raised as a means of making the village more aware of what the group is doing. Various views were discussed on matters to do with the size, the quality of printing, the inclusion of advertising, whether it should be delivered / free / subscribed to. Oliver suggested no more than 4 sides of A4 would be plenty and probably best without advertising. A subject to add to the next meeting’s agenda for further thought.
And here are the notes from our previous meeting, on 4 March 2009
Grampound Road Village Market
A quieter market in February, probably due to half term. Still, great refreshments and stalls, and a good response - thank you to everyone who came. Come again! The next market is Saturday 21 March, at the school.
Work is going on to attract some additional stalls - covering bread, pasties, cheese, chocolates. We may not do pasties because of hygiene requirements. We may also add fish, following a suggestion by Vivien: Caroline is making enquiries.
Joint advertising with Grampound and Ladock is being discussed, though we must bear in mind that Ladock is not a transition market and its independence from us should be protected. The markets are being advertised in 'Food' magazine.
We shall need a transition table with leaflets(books?) etc.
The Fife Diet initiative
Some important changes here, for anyone who has been watching developments.
We've decided that time is against us and any thought of organising a feast of local produce by the middle of April is beyond our means. So we are revising our plans, to have a
public meeting on Friday 17 April, 730pm, in Grampound Village Hall
when Mike Small from the Fife diet programme (in which families and individuals pledge to buy as much of their food as they can from within Fife, and 700 indiviiduals have so far signed up) will speak, together with other speakers, to be invited. Our plan will then be to test the idea ('Towards a Cornish Diet') over the summer months and, if there is sufficient interest, introduce our own scheme at a harvest feast in September.
We agreed that Oliver would talk to Traci Lewis about speakers, and to Bob Egerton about our link with Transition Grampound.
We also agreed that Jane D would talk to Jenny about the possibility of redesigning an invitation and poster. Oliver would provide the background text on the Fife Diet. Invitations would be circulated as agreed before, although the event would also be open to the public.
Allotments
We are very keen to raise interest in allotments, and there is a possibility of additional land being made available on the outskirts of Grampound Road, depending on the level of interest, and planning permission. Karen from the shop has suggested a number of people - and especially those who currently have allotments in Probus may like to have one in GR instead. Chris J is to follow up with Karen, and Marcia Tickle when she's back from holiday.
A message for everyone: we need as many people signed up as possible - we have 4 already. There's a sheet in the shop at Grampound Road. Please pass the word on.. and sign the petition or contact Chris on 01726 882268
The community orchard at Grampound Road School
This has all been agreed, including where the trees will go, a community grant received from Carrick thanks to support from Cllr Des Mennear, and now all that remains is for the trees to arrive (imminently) and be planted. Chris J is co-ordinating this, and will be asking for help with the planting when the trees come. (They've arrived! 10 March)
Nuts About Fruit
This is an initiative promoted under the transition network banner. Julie Tamblin, who organised a very successful public meeting in Lostwithiel with 6 speakers talking about different aspects of fruit and nuts (including orchards in the landscape, growing fruit trees, the role of bees, etc) is keen for the next meeting to be held here - as are we. Chris J had met with Julie and it looks as if the meeting will be at the end of the month or the beginning of April, at Woodland Valley.
Ash coppice
We'd had a successful visit to Simon Trehane's ash coppice woodland at Pencoose: the main outcome being a realisation about the huge requirement for land within the parish if we were to expect to grow sufficient wood for all our heating requirements.
The oil group
This is going really well - Chris D had 10 people ordering in February with a total order of 8000 litres and a saving for everyone of 4p a litre. Anyone reading this who's interested - Chris is on 01726 883261.
A carbon audit for Ladock
..and this is not! Oliver, Chris D and Jenny need to meet to work out how we might approach this for it to have value for residents, and only then talk to the school again. Chris has suggested a sampling process, rather than asking everyone to fill in complicated forms. More thought needed.
Book group
Jane D is going to look at the idea of introducing a book group for Grampound Road.
Age of Stupid
Finally this film, the follow-on to An Inconvenient Truth, is being preveiewed at Eden on Sunday 15 March. Whether or not it goes on general release depends on how many people see it on that night.. so anyone who can, please come and see it and reserve a seat by phoning the Eden Box Office on 01726 811972.
The debate
And following all of this we had a full-on debate about us and transition and how we are viewed (not always flatteringly) and how we can raise awareness of climate change and resource scarcity without people glazing over or being scared witless.. or thinking we are slightly mad. And we need your views too, so do write. Are we doing the right thing? Should we be more political? Less political? Not political at all? What do you think??
And the next meeting..
..will be on April Fool's Day! We're keeping to the first Wednesday in every month, so it's 1 April 2009, at the Fourburrow, Grampound Road. Come along!
At the meeting were: Jane and Chris Dodwell, Jane Wade, Oliver Baines, Vivien Stals, Chris Jones, Caroline Cudmore. Jenny Kwee, Linda Pelham and John Bampini had sent apologies.
The January meeting
Here are some notes from our meeting on Wednesday 14 January 2009 in the Fourburrow (posted 20 January).
We had a fine turnout at our latest meeting at the Fourburrow in Grampound Road on 14 January - the more the merrier, and it's in the Falmouth Arms in Ladock next time!
Grampound Village Market - the market on 17 January at Grampound Road school seems to have gone very well - we hope any of you who went enjoyed it! It will continue to be held on the third Saturday of the month for the foreseeable future, with Ladock's on the first Saturday. Grampound are starting in February, on the 4th Saturday!
Fruit and nut - Jenny Kwee has been doing some research at the Records Office and is going to see if she can identify local ancient orchards. This will help us plot where existing or redundant orchards are, at the same time as we plan for new ones.
The Grampound Road School orchard is to go ahead: the plan is to plant within the next few weeks.
We are hoping for a visit by the Fife Diet group (600 families in Fife who buy 90% of their food locally) but it is slightly delayed as Eden hasn't been able to agree a date with them.
Woodlands - we've had a meeting with the Forestry Commission and Duchy Woodlands about the community's use of woodlands. They are interested in the idea, but we will need to come up with a good plan. This will be a long term project! Chris Jones and Oliver Baines are going to continue exploring it. There is going to be a huge requirement for fuel from woodlands - maybe beyond our capacity to meet, even in a rural community like ours.
The oil buying group is doing well under the sharp eye of Chris Dodwell, who achieved a 5.5p per litre discount for January - that's £27.50 on 500 litres. Anyone interested needs to phone Chris Dodwell by the 15th of the month on 01726 883261.
One of the most interesting findings of the Ladock household energy survey was how many of us either have no insulation, or don't know how much we have (50%). We are going to talk to Community Energy Plus to see if they can provide stands to be shown at events like the Grampound Road village market (and at Ladock if that's possible). We are also going start looking at a follow-up survey.
Our next meeting is on Wednesday 4 February, 730pm, at the Falmouth Arms. Do come!
these are our notes from November
come and join us, we have much to do!
First, well done Caroline and Jane and Jenny and Chris, what a triumph the Grampound Road Village Market was yesterday! Great atmosphere, good stalls (loads of cakes, yum), lots of people, altogether as good as we could possibly have hoped.. did anyone take any photos?
Second, anyone still wanting heating oil, Chris - 01726 883261 - is taking orders up till the end of today. It's a 4p a litre saving! For Christmas orders the deadline is 15 December.
Third, it's the Wind Energy meeting at Woodland Valley on Thursday 27 November
Fourth, Ladock school put in a fantastic performance on Thursday, delivering 100 household energy survey forms to every house in Ladock - and thanks Jenny, Chris and Chris who helped with the delivery, and to Caroline who also helped with collection - but mainly to Lisa and Elaine and the 5th and 6th year children, who excelled themselves and were perfectly behaved both in the village and for the film crew. Our response rate currently stands at 40%, with more yet to come in. Very pleasing. The first results should be ready for the wind energy meeting.
previous notes:
15 October - Orders for heating oil! Please get your orders in with Chris Dodwell (883261) for heating oil for this month, by 15 October at the latest. He willfind the cheapest source and get a discount - and for us this also means just one delivery to the parish rather than lots of deliveries. The plan is to order monthly after the 15th of each month.
22 October - Farming in a low Energy Future 30 places booked to date - please keep passing the news around - we've various plans we're putting in place (Mays, Griggs, Pengelly's, etc) but need to get the word out especially to farmers. Can anyone help on the door between 645 and 730pm?
13, 14 November - Ladock Household Energy Survey Lots of preparatory work to do here. We'll need volunteers to help the children deliver the forms (300pm on 13 November for one hour) and collect them (300pm on 14 November for one hour) though volunteers will need CRB clearance. Anyone?
15 November - Grampound Road Village MarketWe'll have 10 or 11 stalls here - looking good. The school's signed up for refreshments (cakes!!). If the market works Caroline Cudmore (882325) expects to run it for a further 6 months after Christmas, on the 3rd Saturday of each month so as not to clash with Ladock.
27 November - Public meeting on energy - Neil Farringdon, Community Energy Plus This will be chiefly on wind energy - domestic wind energy although focussing on larger scale community wind turbines. We're looking to have information available on wider issues too, around insulation, other forms of microgeneration, grants available, etc. More info to follow.
Eden We're following up the approach from Eden urgently and I'll circulate the date and time of the meeting as soon as it's arranged - do please come if you want. The purpose of the meeting will be to explore ways in which we can work together..
Next meeting We've changed the date (no-one has a meeting of Guy Fawkes' Day!) to Monday 3 November at the Fourburrow, Grampound Road, 730pm
Contacts
Oliver Baines 01726 882501 oliver.baines@virgin.net Kathy Marris 01726 883861 mickmarris@tiscali.co.uk Chris Jones 01726 882268 jones-farm@btconnect.com Caroline Cudmore 01726 882325 caroline.cudmore@btinternet.com Caz Stennet 01726 882782 cazstennett@hotmail.co.uk Kate Lutey 01726 884408 klutey@btinternet.com Chris Dodwell 01726 883261 chris@dodwell.demon.co.uk Pam Russell 01726 883682
Transition Ladock and Grampound Road – latest (11 September 2008)
The Blues in the Barn fundraiser took place at Woodland Valley on the 29th of August – copious refreshment was taken, a feast of music was enjoyed (three bands, including Vince Taylor who only signed up his crew on the morning of the event, having heard about it that morning on Radio Cornwall – well done and thanks Vince). Transitioners came from as far afield as Lostwithiel and Falmouth, as well as all points between. Many thanks to all those who came along, and especially to those who contributed time and effort to making it work, James, Viv, Janet and Alex in particular, and of course the musicians. Thanks to everyone’s generosity £600 was raised, which has been split between Ladock School, Ladock Playing field, and the Transition group.
Earlier in the month we were lucky enough to have Barbara Heinzen (author of Feeling for Stones, www.barbaraheinzen.com ) and Mike Jones of the Resilience Alliance come and lecture at Woodland Valley. This event took place at pretty short notice less than a week, but we had an audience of 32. They gave thought provoking presentations on resilience and current thinking on that topic, along with examples of how humanity has dealt with crises and rapid change in the past. A constant theme of Barbara’s is that of neighbourliness, and how vital that is if we are cope with the (rapidly) changing world.
We had our regular meeting at Grampound Road Village Hall on the 3rd September, where progress on various projects was reported on. One outcome of this meeting is that Caroline Cudmore is going to work rapidly now towards getting a village market set up for November 15th in Grampound Road: As Faith Truscott will verify this is very hard work, and we would ask that as many as possible turn out to support this event. Other projects are also afoot, so please watch this space, and our next regular meeting will be at Ladock Village Hall on Wednesday 1st October at 7.30pm.
Coming up we have a meeting with guest speakers David Rodda and Rob Hopkins on the 22nd October. David Rodda will be representing the Cornwall Agricultural Council, and Rob Hopkins is the man who initiated the Transition Towns movement in 2005. Anyone reading this who is remotely curious about the future of our Parish really should attend this event, as the subjects under discussion affect all of us.
If you want to find out more about us, why not join our email group – send your address to oliver.baines@virgin.net
Our July report:
Ladock School. We have been talking with Lisa Deeble and the year 4, 5, and 6 year groups at the school about carrying out an energy audit of the village. With your help we can find out how much energy is being used – and that will help us to plan how to meet our requirements in future. For more information contact Oliver Baines.
Local markets We want to do all we can to support Ladock Farmers Market (first Saturday of each month) and are researching the possibility of opening a local market at Grampound Road, to include other things as well as food. For more information contact Caroline Cudmore or Caz Stennet.
Allotments We’re keen to support anyone wanting an allotment – and there are several available in the parish. For more information contact Kathy Marris, or, if you can get 6 names together, you can petition the Parish Council – contact Kate Lutey.
Reopening Grampound Road halt A group of us went to see the County Council, with our county councillor, Des Mennear, to start the discussion again about reopening the halt. The County Council’s going to do some feasibility work and talk to Network Rail, and we’ll meet again at the end of the summer. Anyone wanting to be kept in touch, contact Oliver Baines or Chris Jones.
Woodlands We’re exploring some of the possibilities here, including community orchards and woodlands, woods for fuel and recreation, charcoal and briquette making. At the moment we’re working out what our priorities should be. To keep in touch, or to join us, contact Chris Jones.
Oil buying group We’re going to be negotiating a discount on heating oil deliveries this autumn, for standard lorry and small tanker deliveries. Anyone who wants to take part please let Chris Dodwell know by 1 October for early October delivery.
Energy meter We have an energy meter, kindly bought by Pam Russell, for anyone wanting to test their household energy use. Please contact Pam.
Meetings Our meetings are all open to everyone. Our next one is on
28 July, 7.30pm, at Ladock Village Hall. If you want to be added to our email list, please contact Oliver Baines
Contacts
Oliver Baines 01726 882501 oliver.baines@virgin.net Kathy Marris 01726 883861 mickmarris@tiscali.co.uk Chris Jones 01726 882268 jones-farm@btconnect.com Caroline Cudmore 01726 882325 caroline.cudmore@btinternet.com Caz Stennet 01726 882782 cazstennett@hotmail.co.uk Kate Lutey 01726 884408 klutey@btinternet.com Chris Dodwell 01726 883261 chris@dodwell.demon.co.uk Pam Russell 01726 883682
Transition Ladock and Grampound Road is part of a movement addressing the two great issues of our time: a changing climate and declining oil production. Our aim is to find ways of reducing our energy use in all aspects of our lives.