Transition Leicester became an official Transition initiative in March 2008!

Our Aims and Objectives

At this stage our objectives include:

  1. raising awareness locally about Peak Oil and Climate Change, and the relationship between these issues
  2. building connections with local groups and organisations working on these issues
  3. forming work groups (on issues such as Food, Energy, Transport...) to start looking at the changes we need to make locally to address Peak Oil and Climate Change
  4. encouraging neighbourhood groups to form, to enable people to take action on these issues in their local area
  5. developing practical projects that help reduce Leicester's carbon emissions and increase the resilience of the local economy

In the longer term we intend to engage the people of Leicester in developing an Energy Descent Action Plan for the city. This plan will chart our pathway from our present fossil-fuel dependency to a place of oil independence and enhanced local resilience

Brief History

Inspired by other Transition initiatives around the UK, a small group in Leicester met in October 2007 to discuss the idea of setting up a Transition initiative in Leicester. An initial steering group of four volunteers emerged out of that meeting to take the idea forward and started meeting regularly.

In November 2007, this group submitted a response to Leicester City Council's consultation on the city's Local Development Framework, and in December 2007 the group promoted a showing of the Peak Oil film "A Crude Awakening" at the Phoenix cinema.

In February 2008, we went public, hosting two well-attended events, including a visit to Leicester from Transition Network co-ordinator Ben Brangwyn. We also submitted a response to Leicester City Council's consultation on Big Ideas for the future of the city.

In March 2008 we hosted a talk by Peak Oil expert Richard Heinberg, and gained official Transition initiative status.

Since that time, several new work groups have been formed (Awareness Raising, Food, Heart and Soul, Reskilling...), and we are aiming to continue the process of awareness raising through our own events, stalls at public events and through giving talks to anyone who'd like to hear from us.