Transition Towns Social Evening

I was at the Swan early, as it was Stitch and Bitch night - not that anyone else turned up this week. This quite often happens over the winter; we save our energy for the first Thursdays of the month when someone will do a demonstration.
So I sat and knitted while I waited for the Transition Towns people to show up. The social took over the back bar - and one man came armed with a flip chart, which looked a bit serious!
As well as having a pleasant drink together, it turned out that we were also there to do a bit of brainstorming to decide what the committee should concentrate their efforts on in the coming year! Splitting up into groups was quite a good idea, as we all got to know who the other people we were sitting with were, and why they had come along. The group I was with had come from Clifford, Llanigon and Painscastle, and a lady with a house that needed altering found that the man who mends bicycles is also an architect, so that was useful for both of them!
Gareth Radcliffe was in the other group, so it was no surprise that their ideas centred around waste management. Gareth is very keen to make the Council more efficient in this regard. He was also able to give advice about the guerilla gardening ideas - there may be grants available to plant bulbs, or vegetables, around town!
One success from last year was shown by the map of where the new allotments are going to be - 16 of them on a ten year lease, just across the bridge and on the hill up to Radnor's End.
They've also signed up as a group to the 10:10 campaign, to reduce emissions by 10% over the coming year. Several individuals had the 10:10 tag about their persons, too, and a big achievement was for them to persuade the Hay Festival to sign up - though they're going to find it difficult to cut down, as they fly some of the speakers in!
Transition Hay have a page on the WyeLocal website, which they say they will keep updated with current and future projects.
There was a lot of enthusiasm, and optimism, in the room, and quite a few people new to Hay who seemed very keen.