Transition Town meeting

"Nice to see you here, missing Stitch n Bitch again!" Simon (one of the organisers) said to me.
I grinned. "They'll have forgotten what I look like!"
This was, I thought, a bit more important than getting a few more rows of my shawl knitted in pleasant company.
As it was, I was one of the last people to come in, and there were only a couple of seats left down in the basement of the Globe. Peter Lloyd, the mayor, was speaking - he's very much in favour of the movement - and then he handed over to Simon.

They had three short films to show us first. One explained simply what Peak Oil is (and even more simply, it's the point when half the total oil in the world has been used up. From that point on, we've had all the stuff that's easy to find, and it gets more and more difficult to extract. At the same time, we have become so dependent on oil that demand will continue to rise - so it gets more and more expensive.)
The second showed an unlikely advocate for green issues - Jeremy Clarkson, talking on a clip from the BBC website about the terrible state the world is in, and how the really bad stuff hasn't even started yet.
The third showed places like Stroud and Totnes - and Brixton - where people have begun to do something about the problem. Stroud and Totnes are always at the forefront of anything to do with green issues, but Brixton impressed me, digging up the rather miserable lawns outside flats to make raised beds and grow veg.

Then we heard from Steve Rawlings and Alison Colebrook, who had come up from Chepstow, where they've been working towards Transition for a while now. Chepstow is bigger than Hay, and mostly a commuter town, so some of the things that would work there wouldn't necessarily work here, but it was interesting to see what they thought was important and why. They're aiming to be the Most Insulated Town in Britain, amongst other things, and their pilot scheme increased home insulation in that area by 92%!

Here in Hay, we discovered that, with 10 people on the waiting list for allotments, the Council are about to provide some more near Warren Close. I think if there are more than 6 people on the waiting list, the Council are obliged to act - a hangover from the Dig for Victory days of the Second World War. The transition team have a few ideas to try out over the coming year - bread and sausage making workshops, for instance, and planting apple trees. As Hay already has a plastic bag banning campaign, they don't need to do that, as the Chepstow group did, and they're keen to work with other groups, so there aren't two or three little schemes all trying to do the same thing in isolation from each other. They want to find somewhere local for green compost to be made - the recycling bins at the car park and the Co-op are well used, and get trucked off at the moment to I don't know where. Talgarth is also going for Transition Town status, and they have the Porthamel Farm biodigester - though I understand there is still local opposition to the plant in Talgarth. And they're keen to work with Talgarth and the Golden Valley, and other places in the area, on cycle routes.
They're starting off by trying to do two or three things well, rather than trying to spread themselves too thin, but further down the line, Simon is keen to get Stitch n Bitch involved, both to keep old handicraft skills going, and to help people to repair or reuse clothes instead of just throwing them away.
For anyone local who would like to get involved, you can contact Simon on 01497 831225 or Dave on 01497 831624. There will also be a meeting at the Swan on Wednesday 11th February, 7.30pm, just something informal so people can talk about what needs to be done.

During the short interval, I found that I'd sat down next to Richard Booth, who is now (obviously) back from Egypt - several weeks in Luxor, apparently. He was quite keen for the transition town group to use the Castle lawn, in return for bartered vegetables - and he said he was thinking of introducing a local currency called the Bootho, which would be better than the Euro.

After the question and answer session, I went to get some of the tasty soup on offer (local ingredients) and got talking to Athene, who is in Friends of the Earth. They're having a seed swap at the Globe on Saturday 21st February - it all fits in together, making Hay more self sufficient and encouraging the community to work together.