The Bulletin - June 2008



in this issue of the TTL Bulletin:

Upcoming TTL Events in June:

... and an invitation to:

Transition Town Lewes News:

Transition Movement News:

National and international news: Surging oil prices

The Great Reskilling

Upcoming TTL Events


June 18

TTL Transport Group presents:

Transit in Transition

An exhibition and talks taking place during national Bike Week:

  • Riding on Empty - Designing our travel infrastructure for the end of cheap oil : A Cycle Stations exhibition by Fourth Door Research
  • Talks by THE two leading UK sustainable transport experts John Whitelegg and John Grimshaw


7.00pm (exhibition) 8.00pm (talks) Pelham House, St Andrew's Lane, Lewes
Admission: £3 on the door
First 50 to arrive get in free, courtesy of Lewes District Council's Think Air initiative.

Riding on Empty
This exhibition highlights the research and development work which has emerged from Fourth Door Research’s Cycle Station Project during the last ten years, beginning with the Cycle Station prototype and evolving into a fully-fledged platform for exploring synergies between sustainable design and transport infrastructure.

Professor John Whitelegg
Professor John Whitelegg is the leading British academic on sustainable transport. He has been working on sustainable transport projects for 30 years in the UK, Europe, Australia, China and India.

John Whitelegg is visiting Professor of Sustainable Transport at Liverpool John Moores University, Professor of Sustainable Development at York University's Stockholm Environment Institute and runs the consultancy Eco-Logica, which specialises in providing consultancy on sustainable transport issues.


John Grimshaw, founder and, for 30 years, CEO of the UK's leading sustainable transport charity Sustrans.
Sustrans' flagship project, the National Cycle Network, is now around 12,000 miles and runs within one mile of over half the UK population.
Grimshaw has recently helped secure £50 million for Sustrans’ Connect2 project from the People's Millions fund. Connect2 will revitalise walking and cycling in 79 communities across the UK by creating new routes for the local journeys we all make every day.



June 21

TTL Energy Group, in association with OVESCo and Lewes District Council, presents:





WORRIED ABOUT RISING FUEL PRICES? COME TO LEWES ENERGY FAIR FOR SOME SOLUTIONS

10.00–2.00pm
Energy Fair in Cliffe Precinct

3.00-5.00pm
Talks and Film in St Thomas a Beckett Church Hall




More and more people are looking to make their homes more energy-efficient, but are confused by the great variety of products available – and by the media emphasis on expensive new homes, rather than the houses and flats that most of is live in.
Lewes Energy Fair will provide sensible, down-to-earth ideas, with a local content – and a lot of interest and fun for the whole family.

The Fair in Cliffe Precinct
Fuel prices starting to worry you? If you are looking for some answers come along to the Lewes Energy Fair for some low-carbon energy solutions.

Talks and Film St Thomas a Beckett Church Hall, Cliffe
Speakers include Russell Smith of Parity Projects on how he turned his own house into a zero carbon home and local architect Duncan Baker-Brown, recently featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs Live, on how highly effective new materials and design principals can make all new buildings extremely energy-efficient.
The day will end with a screening of The Convenient Truth, an excellent short film by Greenpeace on why renewable energy and energy efficiency are the convenient solution to energy needs.



June 28

Oliver Dudok van Heel presents:
Changing the Dream Symposium



10.00am – 5.00pm
St Thomas a Becket Church Hall, Cliffe High Street, Lewes
Cost: £25, including lunch (concessions £15)
Further information and bookings:
Be the Change or Oliver Dudok van Heel on 07803 207100


The Changing the Dream Symposium will explore the possibility of creating an environmentally sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulfilling human presence on this planet as the guiding principle of our time. Be ready to be inspired and moved to action!

An invitiation

Slow Food Brighton & Lewes and Transition Town Lewes Food Group, in association with Pelham House, invite you to:

A CELEBRATION OF LOCAL FOOD AND DRINK

Sunday 20th July 6.00 - 9.30pm

Terrace Room, Pelham House, St Andrews Lane, Lewes

TASTINGS, FOOD DEMONSTRATIONS & MUSIC • BAR SERVING LOCAL BEER, WINE, CIDER & FRUIT JUISCES • BBQ AND FOOD USING LOCAL INGREDIENTS • BRING YOUR FRIENDS AND ENJOY A SUMMER EVENING IN THE LOVELY SETTING OF THE TERRACE ROOM & GARDEN AT PELHAM HOUSE

R.S.V.P. 12 Priory Crescent, Lewes, BN7 1HP, 01273 476444, j.kenward@gmail.com

Transition Town Lewes News


The Food Plot

On a hot Sunday in early June a small group of us Transition Towners and Lewes Little Gardeners met at Lewes Arms to stroll around the backways of Lewes to look at current and possible future edible planting of all the green in-between areas. Someone had planted some vegetables in a little patch up Pipe Passage. Another person had a herb garden outside their front door. The Paddock allotments were all bursting at the seams - currently the waiting list for allotments is twice as long as those available - and someone else was growing lettuces and runner beans outside their front door.

We ended up at the old Town Pound - now a privately owned garden at the junction of Abinger Place and St John's Terrace - whose owner wanted to grow vegetables on it but didn't have the time.

In an hour our small team transformed the patch into a low-maintenance, no-dig instant edible urban garden more>>


Open Kitchen Gardens

In September, The Food Group wants to offer an open gardens event – one of the next steps in a series of projects on food growing.

In order to find out what this might entail, Polly opened her minute garden as part of Southover Secret Gardens on Sunday 8th June. Space being so limited, a one way system for visitors kept the people coming and allowed time for Polly to chat with Lewes residents about the importance of growing our own, the benefits, and some of the practicalities.

This was supported by a display of TTL literature, photos of the other places that Polly gardens as part of the Food Group’s Garden Buddies scheme and a list of all the edible plants that have been given room in her small back yard.

If you would like to share growing edible plants in your garden, balcony or allotment as part our empowering Lewes to feed itself then please consider (it was fantastic, meeting such lovely people and then contact Polly.


Join TTL Arts Group

Janette Scott is looking for new people to join the arts group and help create awareness of TTL. 'Arts' covers all creative enterprise including contemporary visual art, fine art (sculpture, painting, drawing) film, etc) performing arts (music, theatre, dance, etc) and illustration, design, photography, crafts and literature.

Events so far have included an environmental pub quiz 'Whales, weather, water and waste', a screening of the film 'Art from the Arctic' and a discussion, 'Is apathy going to kill us?'.

You don't need to have arts experience, just interest and enthusiasm and a willingness to make things happen. There's more information here.
Please email Janette for further details. If you'd like to know more and/or are interested in joining the group.

Transition Movement News


South East Transition Initiatives

Mike Grenville from Transition Forest Row and Adrienne Campbell from Transition Town Lewes met representatives from Interreg, a European funding body as well as SEEDA, the South East Economic Development Agency, to talk about South East Transition Initiatives (SETi), the Network for all transition communities in the South East, and to open the door on working together. If anyone is interested in helping them progress this work please contact Mike or Adrienne.

Meanwhile, SETi has a new social networking facility and everyone from TTL is invited to join this website and add themselves to the Lewes group – if you're interested in networking outside Lewes here's the chance!


Preparing for Peak Oil - transition communities take the lead

The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC) has prepared a Peak Oil report aimed specifically at local government in the UK entitled: Preparing for Peak Oil.

"The purpose of this report" it reads "is to summarize which authorities are doing what, and to draw together the most promising polices for tackling peak oil, so that all British local authorities can benefit from best practice being developed both at home and abroad."

The section entitled: 'Preparation - UK Towns and Cities' is all about the Transition movement; it begins:

"Preparation for peak oil in the UK has been pioneered by the community-led Transition Town initiative, which originated in Totnes and has now gone viral, spreading rapidly out from the South West to the rest of the country. The first British Transition Towns were small towns or rural communities, but the network now includes large cities such as Bristol, and potentially London, Edinburgh and Liverpool. The movement is inspired and led by Rob Hopkins, a lecturer in permaculture and natural building techniques, whose first project in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, established the principles of how to prepare for a lean energy future in a report called The Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan."
more>>


Can we have rationing now please? - Rob Hopkins talks to David Fleming

Dr. David Fleming, the originator of Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) and Founder Director of the Lean Economy Connection, spoke to Rob about the oil crisis, the energy market and TEQs.

"As the UK’s energy crisis unfolds, the first places where an energy famine starts to hurt are becoming clear. The rural poor, those whose livelihoods depends on it and those living in those places designed on the assumption that cheap oil will be here forever, although its impact is starting to be felt across the board. On the train the other day I overheard a woman asking those around her if they took the train often. They replied they did, and she said it was her first time, she always drove, but last week she had sat down and worked out that it was cheaper to go on the train than to drive. More and more stories like this emerge every day as the scale of the credit crunch/recession/peak energy shock begins to sink in." more>>

National and international news: Surging oil prices


£100 to fill up the tank?

Queues at petrol stations may be a chilling taste of things to come. Prices are soaring, experts warn of shortages ahead, and some say the world is running out of fuel. Already people are getting out of their cars and finding other ways to travel, while less scrupulous drivers are stealing diesel. Has the motor car just stalled - or are our driving habits changing for ever? more>>

Oil touches record high

The price of crude oil has hit a new high of close to $140 a barrel in New York trade, despite Saudi Arabia agreeing to increase output in July. more>>

The Great Reskilling


Reskilling opportunities

Everything from forest gardening to wild days for kids, and much more:
a superb programme of reskilling opportunities for all ages available locally can be found here.

Get involved: contact one of the Group contacts on the Groups page