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Welcome to the Transition Town Shaftesbury web site!

Click here to read our March 2010 newsletter

CALL TO ALL CYCLISTS

We've been asked by Shaftesbury Town Council to form an advisory group to contribute to the planning of new cycle routes and cycle facilities in the Shaftesbury area. If you are a cyclist and would like to see safer cycling in and around the town please take advantage of this great opportunity to change things for the better. You are welcome to join the advisory group and come along to our meetings with the council or you can simply email your comments and ideas to us and we will make sure they get a hearing. Contact Robin at mail@transitiontownshaftesbury.org.uk

WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO AT TTS

We’ve been really busy at TTS and have been involved with some really great projects, including setting up Shaftesbury Homegrown, a new community farm to grow and sell locally-produced veg, and working to produce a Seasonal Food Recipe Book with the Shaftesbury Local Food Festival. It was great to launch our recycled bicycle flying machine from the top of Gold Hill at Gold Hill Fair on 4th July. And for everyone who was there to witness Professor Junk and his young team of wizard scientists counting down to lift off, be reassured that Robin - our amazingly brave test pilot - flew all the way down the hill and is still alive and in one piece! We're going to put up some photos and a video of the great event soon, but for now look in Past Events to read about it. We also all enjoyed the Big Lunch street party in St James on Sunday 19 July - it was a great picnic and even the sun came along to join us! It was also great to see so many people at our showing of The Age of Stupid at the Arts Centre and thank you for all the support at our AGM.

Our most recent project was A TIPPING POINTan eco-circus that was piloted at Abbey School, Shaftesbury (see you tube clip above). We had wonderful support from the staff at Abbey and had great fun making things and singing songs with the children. We also really enjoyed meeting and singing with staff and children in the other local primary schools in Fontmell Magna, Semley, Motcombe, Ludwell and Shaftesbury. Thank you to everyone who was involved - all the cast, musicians, helpers, teachers, children, the green Road Show and the audience members - for making it such a great show.

ABOUT TRANSITION TOWN SHAFTESBURY

In response to the twin pressures of Peak Oil and Climate Change, some pioneering communities in the UK, Ireland and beyond are taking an integrated and inclusive approach to reduce their carbon footprint and increase their ability to withstand the fundamental shift that will accompany Peak Oil. They are all part of the Transition Network.

Rebuilding local resilience, reducing carbon emissions.

This website is a wiki for use by all those involved in helping Shaftesbury in responding to the twin challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change. Anyone can contribute to or edit the content of this site or any of the Shaftesbury groups. Email mail@transitiontownshaftesbury.org.uk stating which group you are interested and we will send you a password.

What is the Transition Movement?

The Transition Movement aims to help ordinary people reconnect to their local communities, re-energise their local economies and change their lives for the better.

Totnes was the first place to ‘unleash’ as a Transition Town in September 2006 and now there are 50 official Transition Initiatives including cities like Bristol, Bath and Exeter, areas such as the Isle of Wight and the Forest of Dean, and towns such as Glastonbury, Frome and Stroud. There are also 700 ‘mullers’, or communities like us thinking it over, and these include local towns and villages such as Tisbury, Dorchester, Martinstown, Sherborne, Bruton and of course Ambridge!

10 points about Transition

1. It offers a positive vision. Instead of telling us that our future will be an apocalyptic nightmare of floods, famine and economic collapse, it acknowledges that there are uncertain times ahead and offers ways to build community resilience.
2. It shows that climate change and peak oil can be an opportunity to make a happier society which has less ‘stuff’ and more time for friends, family and community.
3. It offers a practical step-by-step guide which is not set in stone and can be modified by different communities to help them work through complex issues such as energy, transport, food supply and waste management.
4. It doesn’t blame anyone. There’s no finger pointing at 4x4s or supermarket shoppers. It knows that the changes ahead will affect everyone and we will only weather the storm if we work together.
5. It doesn’t wait for someone else – government, big business, the UN – to sort it out for us. Local people are making local changes, taking power into their own hands.
6. It welcomes local politicians and knows that the political parties will have to get on board. As the word spreads about this movement currently unelectable policies will become electable.
7. It acts as an umbrella group which acknowledges and supports the work of many others, from green groups and allotment holders to churches and WIs, to local councils and charities who have been working hard in their communities for years.
8. It wants to support local businesses and local farmers developing services such as Oil Vulnerability Audits to help them assess how rising oil prices might affect them.
9. It values everyone, the young people who will inherit our world and the older people who have so much to teach us from their memories of a world that was not driven by fast cars and consumerism.
10. It makes the whole thing fun, encouraging music, art, storytelling and craft as well as hard-headed thinking about the problems we face.

Mural in Shaftesbury Town Hall painted in 1979 by Phyllis Wolff.

Transition Town Shaftesbury

What are the challenges ahead of us?

How can we meet them?

What kind of future do we want for ourselves and our children?

We welcome your ideas and involvement. Transition Town Shaftesbury aims to include everyone in the town in thinking about our future. The people working on things now are not ‘in charge’. We don’t know enough! But we do know that we can all work together for a better future. We do not need special skills or knowledge to join in – we just need to care!

What are the two major problems we face?

• Peak Oil
  • The oil price has fallen from its $140 a barrel high but many experts predict that it will rise again
  • Future scarcity will transform the way we live our lives
• Climate Change
  • Global warming means freak and dangerous weather – floods, droughts, storms and heatwaves – it’s not a day at the beach!
  • Less food and water around the world will impact upon us all

How can we get people thinking about these issues in Shaftesbury?

• Show films, invite speakers, host discussions, stalls at local events

What can we all do to make sure life stays good in Shaftesbury?

• What do we all need to think about?
  • Energy
  • Food supply
  • Water
  • Transport
  • Health services
  • Education
  • Reviving skills

How can we all do this?

• Encourage workshops, training events, art and craft days, and the setting up of small groups to tackle each issue

What can the people of Shaftesbury do right now? How about making Shaftesbury ‘plastic bag free’?

• http://www.morsbags.com
• http://www.plasticbagfree.com

How about encouraging our schools to be more eco-friendly?

• http://www.think-energy.com

Shaftesbury is a wonderful place to live and there’s so much going on already: We’re now a Fairtrade Town; we have a community orchard; we have a food festival and so many different groups working for the town – let’s build on this to secure our future!

"The uncertainty of our times is no reason to be certain about hopelessness." - Vandana Shiva

Contributing to this site

For documentation on using this wiki go to documentation index. The basic editing page describes how to create pages in PmWiki. You can practice editing in the wiki sandbox.

Contact

For help or information about this web site please click here for Orion I.T. Ltd contact information. For all other information about the Shaftesbury Transition Movement contact mail@transitiontownshaftesbury.org.uk.

This web site was built and is maintained free of charge by Rob Frost - Orion I.T. Ltd.