North Howe Transition Toun
Fife, Scotland
North Howe Transition News, December 2008
As the festive season comes round again I have been reflecting on all that has unfolded over the past year. It was around this time last year that a few folk locally came across the concept of Peak Oil - the end of being able to take for granted a cheap supply of oil - and all that will imply for our current way of life. Well, that certainly got us thinking! But we were unclear what to do about it. Then a friend mentioned the Transition model of community response to Peak Oil and Climate Change. And that was the start of it.... A year on we are a constituted group and have done numerous awareness raising events around Giffordtown, Monimail/Letham and Collessie in the north of the Howe of Fife and have attracted some attention from the local press who have done an interview and have covered a number of our events. Out of a population area of under 1,000 people we now have 27 members and a contact list of 36 additional people/households and rising.
Due to popular demand we have set up a Traveling Transition Tavern to fill the gap of having no remaining pubs in our area, and we are working in collaboration with the Letham Hall Committee on combined tavern and musical events the Letham Nights. We have also piloted a community allotment idea in collaboration with Monimail Tower Project and are hopeful that this model can be developed in other villages in the area, where there is local interest.
So while all this was going on, more and more people were beginning to say that they would like to get involved in other practical ways and we got the sense that the group was ready to move onto the next stage of Transition. We held a public meeting in November, with a presentation on the transition model followed by discussion and the formation of our Transition Action Groups on Food, Transport and Energy, to add to our existing Events group and a coordinating group to help it all hang together!
Although our Food group is already off to a flying start, the official launch of the Action Groups will be at the upcoming Letham Nights event on Friday 12th December. Over the next couple of months we plan to begin work on a vision of local, sustainable living for 2025 and to identify the first practical steps that we can take now in the areas of Food, Transport and Energy. We are hopeful about obtaining grant funding next year to support us with these plans. With best wishes and hopes for 2009 a year of growing awareness, growing community and growing food!
Leilani van Koten, Chairperson, North Howe Transition Toun.
Feedback from public meetings May/June 2008 regarding community responses to Peak Oil and Climate Change.
The North Howe Transition Toun hosted a series of public film screening and discussion evenings in Letham, Giffordtown and Collessie over the past month. The theme of the meetings was Peak Oil: what it is, what it means, and how we as a local community would like to respond to this issue.
The questions posed were:
What can you individually do to make a difference?
What can we as a local community do to make a difference?
What can the local or national government do to make a difference?
There was a wide range of responses to these questions, with a particular emphasis on food, energy and transport.
Food: There was a lot of interest expressed in growing more food, or learning how to grow food, with ideas of sharing produce and establishing community gardens and orchards, as well as requesting increased provision of council allotments and buying more locally produced food. The Monimail Tower Project fed in that they have an open volunteering day on Mondays for anyone who would like to learn more about organic gardening (phone 01337 810420 for details). The idea of community supported agriculture was also touch upon.
Energy: There was discussion about renewable energy systems such as solar water heating and wind and solar micro-generation of electricity as well as home insulation and reducing domestic fuel/electricity usage. There was also a suggestion about stricter requirements for new-build housing, and support for accessing grants for installing renewables.
There were suggestions about larger-scale projects to produce electricity for our whole local community, and another theme was establishing community woodlands and harvesting wood for fuel.
Transport: Ideas around transport included walking and cycle routes; improved public transport and increased parking charges, as well as personal action such as walking, biking, car-sharing and using public transport more.
Getting involved:
The newly established Monimail Woodland Group is aiming to set up a community woodland locally and is looking for new members.
There will be a Transition presence at the Big Tent festival at Falkland in July which will be an opportunity to learn more or to get involved in setting this up .
At our recent meetings there was interest in the idea of additional themed public meetings, perhaps with invited speakers or a panel for discussions. We will notify people of future events and anyone interested in helping to organised events is welcome to get in touch.
We are looking at applying for funding for a community gardening support project to help people in getting going with growing food. Anyone interested in being involved, either to learn or to offer skills or help set this up, please get in touch. There may be sessional posts available.
There will be a public talk and discussion in Cupar on Wednesday 2nd July at 7-30 pm in the Cupar Farm Shop opposite the foot of Lady Wynd. This is specifically aimed at people who are interested in learning more about the Transition Towns model and will cover how to go about setting up a Transition Initiative in your own area, if there isnt one local to you already.
Our very own travelling Transition Tavern will be launched this autumn, offering a local meeting point, travelling around the village halls an idea that seemed to go down very well when mentioned in our public meetings!
For further information about any of this please contact: Leilani van Koten on 01337 810 346 or e-mail leilani@dsl.pipex.com.
Here we are! June 2008
Small, but moving fast, the North Howe Transition Toun first met in January 2008 and by May we were constituted and an official Transition Initiative.
May also saw the start of our first series of public awareness raising film nights, showing A Crude Awakening and The Power of Community in the local village halls. Having leafleted all the villages and farms and spoken with a fair few local folk we were rewarded with a surprising turn-out for this area.
North Howe covers three local community council areas, including seven small and tiny villages. There are three community halls, one primary school, one post office/shop that is under threat of closure and no pubs. Hmm we are planning to redress this last omission by instigating a Travelling Transition Tavern, which turns out to be a very popular idea!
Another current initiative is a community alotment which five local families have been attacking with vigour this spring. A lot of weeding and digging has been done and we now have a thriving veggie patch with two polytunnels under construction.
