News

Saturday 21st August 2010 - Library Launches our Energy Saving Kits

Our eagerly awaited Energy Saving Kits for Loan Project has gone 'live'. The official launch event kicked off on the third Saturday in August in the Library Foyer. For the day we took over the entrance area to the library with a combined Transition Town and District Council exhibition. On behalf of the Council we had the ever-wonderful Lesley Stoner (WDC Environmental Coordinator) who came along with her display of insulation materials and the "Small Change/Big Difference" pledge forms. From Transition Town High Wycombe we have (at various times) Julian, Paul, Frances and Mark. From SolaSave we were joined by Mark Simmons and James Ingram who were absolute troupers helping us through the day.

At the 10.30am the official launch photo-op took place and Lesley Clarke (Leader of the Council and Chair to the Wycombe Strategic Partnership who funded the Kits) attended. The photographer wheeled us outside eventually so that the two Lesleys and Mark had the official "handover" photo in a windy and increasingly wet Eden Centre.

The day was a much greater success than we had intended. Originally we thought it would be fairly quiet and we would do the photo-op then hand the Kits over to the Library from around 3pm. The exhibition was really just as an Energy Saving backdrop. As it turned out the demand was phenomenal. The first five kits had been largely reserved even before the photo-op occurred in mid-morning. Demand was so high we had to release the first three kits by 11am with the fourth a short time later. We grimly held on to the fifth and final kit until the end of the day so we at least had something to show to library visitors.

We had a steady stream of interested visitors through the day and it seemed like nearly everyone we spoke to wanted to borrow the kit. One story we heard several times were of people who had received free wholehouse monitors from their Energy Utility company but they were too complicated for them to use. Of these, several willingly borrowed our kits on the basis that our instructions were bigger, simpler and more colourful. Clear step-by-step picture-instructions seemed to be a valuable selling aid, as were the Powerdown gadgets donated by the EST. Lots of people wanted these gadgets! They generated lots of interest. Only on the day did we realise that in fact there were two types of Powerdowns in the box from the EST. Half were TV Powerdowns and the others were for Computers.

If you had ventured up stairs to level two of the Wycombe Town Library, from around the second week of August, you would have seen the special Energy Saving Kits promotional stand. To support the promotion we had donated the four Transition Network books (see picture story below). When we had checked it out we had wondered why the Library hadn't put out all four of the books because we could only see one on display. It turns out that the other three were actual out on loan. Yes! People ARE borrowing these books.

The gentlemen of SolaSave certainly proved themselves as great team-members. James happily talked to members of the public about the Kits whilst Mark chatted with our Council representatives. Despite some initial nervousness (concerning the involvement of a commercial organisation in such a project) good old SolaSave charm & diplomacy showed how our faith in them was so justified. The project has proven a great networking opportunity for all the team members and everybody has got to know each other, and understand each other, much better. This really is the way to do it. The Library was so impressed that they asked all of us - Lesley Stoner (WDC), the boys from SolaSave and TTHW to come back in a few months and do it all over again.

Our special Library-support website is at www.transition-wycombe.org.uk/Library. Our thanks again to Wycombe District Council, the Strategic Partnership, Library services in Wycombe, SolaSave and the Energy Saving Trust for making this all possible.

Friday 23rd July 2010 - Transition Books for the Library

The four principle Transition Books have been donated to the High Wycombe Library in July. The books are Rob Hopkins' "Handbook", Shaun Chamberlin's "Transition Timeline", Tamzin Pinkerton's "Local Food" and Peter North's "Local Money". The books were dropped off by TTHW volunteer Frances Alexandra (pictured left) and TTHW Chairman Mark Brown (pictured right). They should appear on shelves in time for the Energy Saving Kits launch 21st December.

Sunday 18th July 2010 - Pann Mill Open Day & Solar Demo

Transition Town High Wycombe attended its first ever Pann Mill Open Day this July. Our original attendance had been arranged last year but it fell through when we were told that we required insurance to attend. This year the matter has been resolved. We affiliated ourselves to the High Wycombe Society in order to be covered by their group insurance. Pann Mill is our town's last working watermill. It occupies a small but significant footprint in the corner of the Rye and alongside the Abbey Way A40. The open days are held regularly and are an opportunity for the public to see the mill working. Various stall holders offer refreshments, bric-a-brac and such-like.

Following on from a trial setup at the Hamilton School Fete our solar demo team scaled up the idea of having cold water in a fridge. They brought a larger photovoltaic panels and a larger freezer. Our friends at SolaSave bought along an ample supply of bottled water which we were able to keep cold and give away to visitors through the day. Despite the half marathon in the morning we did not get quite the footfall expected. This was partly due to being on the way to the tea & cake stall rather than closer to the entrance to the mill itself. However we did find that the few people, who were there, were certainly all very interested in Transition Towns and Solar Energy. A surprisingly high number already had solar panels. Many visitors stopped to learn about the Energy Saving Kits and our film shows. Flyers, brochures and our "How to buy solar" factsheet were given away by the handful.

So we have rated the day as a success. Most visitors were stopping for a chat and the solar panel was quite a draw on the crowds. We got a lot of questions about planning permission and wind turbines. Our friends at the mill told us of their plans for a micro-hydro device to be installed near the mill. This is a very exciting development for the town. Not only would it earn a good income for the mill it would also demonstrate state-of-the-art technology working in harmony with heritage technology. The bottled water generated some minor controversy from our greener friends and was not the most perfect solution. In was a good way of demonstrating the power of the sun. The team debated at length how to do this better next time. We are open to ideas. The bottles presented the least-difficult option in the time available as there were no disposable cups and no health and safety issues to contend with. Only one couple objected to bottled water on principle. All other visitors were very happy with their freebie and our plastic recycling bin took care of the empties. We were especially happy to restock the water bottles of a family who had cycled down from Hazlemere. Our cold water got them home.

Our thanks to Mark and James from SolaSave for supplying the water and the freezer. Our thanks to the High Wycombe Society for hosting us.

Friday 16th July 2010 - FOOD Directory awarded further £1000 grant

The Transition Town High Wycombe's Local Food Group is very pleased to announce the award of a further £1000 from the Chilterns Conservation Board Sustainable Development Fund. The money was awarded for the Local Food Directory (to be called "Food On Our Doorstep") being produced by a team that mixes members of the Transition Movement with other interested parties. All credit for obtaining the grant goes to Mike Chadwick - local coordinator of Wycombe Friends of the Earth. It is a testimony to his hard work and perseverance. Hats off to Mike.

Transition Town High Wycombe's Chairman Mark Brown signed for the grant whilst on a visit (with Mike) to Nick Phillips of the LEADERS Fund in Thame. They were there to talk about Local Food Strategies and the shared interest of the Fund and local voluntary groups. LEADER is a new source of funding for farmers, foresters, rural businesses and community organisations. Learn more at www.chilternsleader.org.uk. They have £2.5million to spend in grants to 2013. Grants will cover a wide range of activities including farm diversification, tourism, improving rural business and projects that benefit local communities. On the way back from the meeting they were able to deliver the signed forms directly back to the Chilterns AONB Office in Chinnor. Whilst there we admired the high density of solar panels in that part of Chinnor. The AONB building itself boasted quite a large array of photovoltaic panels. Solar hot water panels appeared to have been fitted as standard to all the new homes in that part of town.

The money now available from the Chilterns Conservation Board Sustainable Development Fund is only available in arrears to be paid for specific expenses. It covers 50% of costs up to a limit of £1000. This includes the time spent by volunteers as well as the printing costs. At this stage of the Local Food Directory project the team are confirming (by telephone) that vendors are willing to participate in the Directory (it is free afterall). This requires further volunteers with time to spend on the phone. Phone call costs will be redeemed. 141 separate artwork pieces have no been gathered from two local schools. The project team is meeting to select the ones they want although it is hoped that all can be used unless there is any obvious duplication.

Friday 2nd July 2010 - Go-live date announced for Energy Saving Kits

At long last we have our ducks in a row and are able to plan the public launch of the lending of Energy Saving Kits from the Wycombe Library. We announced the project go-ahead on the 19th March when the Wycombe Partnership announced the funding. Since that time there has been considerable activity. Julian Ilett and Mark Brown conducted research involving speaking to a Council, who had launched such a service, and to a local wholesaler. This allowed us to select the equipment. We had a fruitful early meeting with the Wycombe Library team (Liz Shawney & Helen Goreham) who were very keen to start work. There was a period of delay during which the purchase request for the Owls seemed to get lost but finally everything turned up in May. We then approached the Energy Saving Trust who kindly sent us a box of brochures and freebie TV Powerdown gadgets.

We then approached SolaSave to sponsor the Kraft bags the kits will be loaned out in - they were happy to help. The kits were photographed from every angle and the Instruction Sheet, Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire and "Power Sheets" were all designed. A team of proof-readers picked over the Instruction booklet to hone it to perfection before everything was delivered to the WDC Design & Print Unit. By 2nd July everything was delivered to the Library who had, by now, appointed Mark Bateman to look after the kits. You can read a potted history of this Project, including the roles of the partners, at the new Support Page here.

The public will be able to borrow the kits on a three week loan starting from Saturday 21st August when there will be a launch event in the Wycombe Library foyer. We are hoping for maximum publicity from the event and our liaising with Bucks County Council in order to get a local dignitary to "cut-the-ribbon" on the new service. Once we know the time this will happen we will let everyone know. (We are hoping for a slot shortly after lunch.) We expect to take over the foyer for the entire day to stage an Energy Saving exhibition. This should involve the Energy Saving Trust, TTHW, SolaSave and the Wycombe Strategic Partnership. Physical lending of the kits will commence after the ribbon-cutting and after the press photographers can snap a  few pictures of this ceremony and our first customers.

Watch this space for news about the Go-live Spectacular.

Tuesday 22nd June 2010 - Local Community Partnership Planning

The Hub on Easton Street played host to yet another round of workshops concerning Area Planning via the Local Community Partnership. (Go here to read about the earlier work.) The idea was to arrange a "Meet the Expert" format so that the many questions arising could be answered. Eleven 'experts' attended from organisations such as Community Impact Bucks, Wycombe Youth Action, Bucks Community Foundation, Thames Valley Police and Bucks County Council. The experts were joined by around another 30+ attendees from community organisations as diverse as NAGs (Neighbourhood Action Groups), the High Wycombe Society, Bucks Fire & Rescue, Spotlight East Wycombe, Wycombe District Council and the Bucks New University.

After what was intended to be the Q&A with the experts the "Action Planning" workshop started. We focussed out attentions on the "Thriving Economy" sub-group. For reasons explain in the earlier news article, the "Sustainable Environment" theme contained no action points that had anything to do with the environment nor sustainability. If anything that theme listed highways and infrastructure issues that should be more closely connected with "Thriving Economy" or "Safer Communities". Our 'economics' section spent much time looking at town centre regeneration and many interesting points were raised. We questioned whether or not more of the town's heritage could be represented around the area to make it a more attractive venue for "Cafe Society". We also asked about how many empty rooms over abandoned shops were being turned into apartments to bring people into the town centre to live. We managed to get a "Buy Local" Campaign short listed as a "quick win" amongst four actions points.

Of the other groups the "Sustainable environment" promoted better parking (!?) and the community involvement in gritting neighbourhood footpaths & minor roads. "Cohesive Communities" promoted a better mapping of the relationships between voluntary groups. "Safer Communities" promoted community clean up days (amongst many other ideas). "Health & Wellbeing" promoted better perceptions of hospital services.

When the full minutes appear we will try and forward them around the group. Our overall impressions about the Local Community Partnership remains the same: it needs better steering and vision. The situation where "Sustainable Environment" is dominated by highways maintenance issues cannot be allowed to continue. Transition Town High Wycombe can offer that visions and leadership but it needs more members to turn up to workshops to steer them. If we don't then we have no say in our Community's priorities. Until that time we will have well-maintained roads but no allotments. That will not lead to a resilient community. This will have an adverse impact upon ALL the other themed groups: Thriving Economy, Safer Communities, Cohesive Communities and Health & Wellbeing - all of these are compromised without an over-arching/holistic vision of how we achieve these shared strategic objectives. The Sustainable Economic Prosperity Strategy 2026 (published January 2010) offers much better guidance concerning the things we have to do. We need to align the community with THESE objectives otherwise we are all pulling in different directions.

Saturday 19th June 2010 - Green Stall at Hamilton School Fete

A report from our friend and colleague Ivan Cicin-Sain: "On Saturday 19th June, Ivan organised (on behalf of Wycombe FoE and Transition Town HW) a 'green stall' for the annual fete at Hamilton Primary School. The most popular thing at our stall was the food competition organised by Celia. The display boards with posters were less popular. Apart from WFoE and Transition Town, exhibitors were Team Green Britain (biking), Wycombe Resource Zone (re-use) Council Rangers (conservation), Wycombe Wildlife Group, Revive the Wye and Freegle (re-use). Thanks to Julian, Celia, Victoria and Mike Chadwick plus thanks to Dawn Midwinter from Hamilton School who made this possible."

We can vouch for all this hard work. Although the TTHW Chairman wasn't able to help man the stall that day he did visit as a "tourist" to witness the good work. It was a nice family afternoon-out with a full veneue of 'arena-events' including May Pole Dancing (as illustrated - picture right). The Fete itself as well attended and we enjoyed some quite nice sunny spells. The "bouncy-castle" assault-course seemed particularly popular as was the Halal Barbecue. We should take note!

Monday 14th June 2010 - 'Wycombe 2026' - A Strategy with Peak Oil

Transition Town High Wycombe does not yet have an Energy Descent Action Plan. However the District Council does have the nearest equivalent: the "Sustainable Prosperity Strategy Wycombe District to 2026". TTHW were involved with the consultation that readied this document in September 2008. We returned to the WDC for a face-to-face workshop in January 2009. At the time our work was labelled a "valuable contribution" so we awaited the final report with interest. It "escaped" rather than was launched, in January 2010 with no apparent fanfare. Indeed TTHW were not informed of its publication despite our lengthy involvement. We only learnt of its existence when a copy was pressed into our hands at the Economic Summit in June.

So, what do we think? It was difficult to spot the difference at first so we went back to the 2008 Consultation Paper and compared new to old. In it we picked up around twenty text changes that appear to relate to our role in the consultation. It is certainly is step forward. However, many of the lines of text we objected to remain. The result is just as you imagine it - it is the sum of the input of the consultees. It is vision by committee. On the positive side it looks as if the most significant changes to the document are as a result of TTHW input - so we were influential.

The major changes are thus:

• Insertion of a sentence about the effect of rising fuel costs upon Farmers in the Introduction

• Insertion of a bullet point about rising energy prices and impact of extreme weather conditions (invoked by climate change) in the Introduction

• Nine insertions of the phrase "green business" (or variations thereof) throughout the document

• "Peak Oil" inserted as a "concern" in the Strategic Priorities section

• High Wycombe to Bourne End Light Rail link inserted as a policy objective

• More frequent reference to reductions in CO2 emissions and carbon footprints

• Promotion of cycling and walking inserted as a policy objective

• Promotion of "local food purchasing" inserted into policy objectives twice

• Promotion of energy efficiency, low carbon energy production, solar & wind installation plus support to related training inserted as a policy objective

• Insertion of a mention of the Bucks & Milton Keynes Food Group as a partner

One oddity was the insertion of several mentions of something called "Green tourism". Maybe WDC thought that was a good idea despite the fact that TTHW explicitly warned the Council about permanently degrading our rural economies to the status of a playground for urbanites. So the contradictions remains, but it is another small step in the right direction. Finally, Peak Oil has entered the WDC lexicon, even if it is only a "concern" for now. What is interesting is to compare this Consultation to the "Wycombe's Economy" Report prepared by the Buckinghamshire Economic & Learning Partnership (BELP). For more about that read about the Economic Summit (below).

Thursday 14th June 2010 - Economic Summit - no Green Economy?

TTHW attended the Wycombe District Economic Summit at the Bucks New University Gateway Building in early June. It was quite a short 'summit' (10am to 2pm) but very well attended with nearly 200 people packing the lecture theatre. Sixteen separate presentations were packed into the four hours available. As you can imagine each presentation was somewhat short - if mercifully so. Highlights included Cllr Lesley Clarke's presentation of the Wycombe Partnership's Annual Report 2009-2010. Despite only having been in the partnership a few months our Energy Saving Kits Project got a mention. This was followed up a short time later with Rupert Waters' Presentation of the "Local Economic Assessment" for Wycombe from BELP (the Bucks Economic and Learning Partnership).

The BELP Assessment and the contents of the rest of the speaker's presentations seemed markedly at odds with the flavour of the "Sustainable Economic Prosperity Strategy (SEPS)" presented by our friend Mayuri Naker (WDC Economic Development Manager). Whilst SEPS emphasised the rising Green Economy it seems that BELP are entertaining the idea that the "Space" sector is going to be a big growth sector. Those of us expecting to see large Government Spending cuts in non-essential research could hardly believe that the Aerospace sector is going to see any growth. BELP's suggestion seemed to set the tone for the event. The Green Economy didn't feature in any of the presentations. An obvious gap considering how much time was spent discussing the Arts or Furniture design.

Our overall impressions? Time was too short to really grasp the significance of the many middle-men who dominated proceedings. These summits have an air of unreality & tend to be dominated by an alphabet-soup of acronyms. BELP rubbed shoulders with WISER. SEEDA chatted with the 4C Partnership. What is it that all these different groups do? It seems like our economic prosperity is no longer in the hands of the captains of industry. Do any of these groups really know what the future holds? How many jobs are being created in truly privately-funded and sustainable industry?

The day concluded with a tour of the Bucks New Uni Gateway Building - much lauded for its "green" credentials. Unforunately our tour guide didn't mention the environmental performance of the building (everything is so "modern" she told us). Anyone wishing to know more about the Gateway eco-build might care to contact the Director of Estates and Facilities (I Hunter) for a personalised tour.

All the presentations from the event and the Connecting Business Brochure are now available for download from the economic development pages of the Wycombe District Council website at:

• http://www.wycombe.gov.uk/council-services/business/economic-development.aspx

Thursday 14th June 2010 - Farmer's Market to Return

The much missed Wycombe Farmer's Market is set to return to the High Wycombe Town Centre in the Autumn of 2010. Sources in the Town Centre Partnership told TTHW that the original Farmer's Market had been held in Frogmoor as a trial only. It had been dogged by problems and poor attendance. By early 2010 the plug had been pulled... Apparently the new Farmers Market is planned to be based in Church Street. It is understood that the Partnership are not keen for the market to head off to the Eden Centre as it is felt to be divisive. It is hoped that the new venue will be more successful. We have passed on our wishes for the Farmer's Market to keep its unique community-support role. It remains to be seen if the likes of TTHW or the National Trust will be able to set up for free at the new location.

Sunday 18th April 2010 - High Wycombe Hustings

We joined around 300 other people in All Saints Parish Church for this Election's Hustings. Four Candidates turned out to be questioned: Steve Guy (Lib-Dem), Steve Baker (Conservative), Andrew Lomas (Labour) and John Wiseman (UKIP). David Picken from the local Faith Leader's Forum Chaired the event which was co-organised with Wycombe Amnesty International. The audience came forward with eight very interesting questions. We were happy to say that the minds of High Wycombe voters steered away from parochial issues about pot holes or the locations of local building schemes. Instead we enjoyed a healthy range of topics from climate change to industrial farming, from energy security to asylum seekers, from gay rights to student fees and more.

After a few minutes for each candidate to introduce themselves the question started. TTHW's Chairman was first out of the starting blocks with a question about the candidate's views on local action to mitigate the impacts of Climate Change and Energy Security problems. (The microphone didn't work so many attendees at the back couldn't hear the question.)

This is a summary of the responses: Steve Guy; took the matter very seriously and was "personally passionate" about it. Steve G reminded everyone of the Lib-Dem's pledge to make the UK Carbon Neutral. Duty will be raised of flights. There is a "green thread" through all Lib-Dem policy. Former ship-yards will be put to work building wind-turbines. They will work closely with European partners countries. Andrew Lomas; the Labour Government is the first in the world to put legally binding emissions targets into law. Andy was concerned about fuel poverty and our over-reliance upon fossil fuels that clearly, he said, were "running out". His Government had formed a Green Investment Bank and backed a 'Green New Deal'. He also mentioned the important role of energy efficiency. John Wiseman: UKIP are not totally convinced about the human origins of Climate Change and believe it is "dodgy science". He believes it has been promoted by people who are making money out of the issue. They oppose all on shore wind farms but back Nuclear Power. Steve Baker; David Cameron has made environmental policies central to Conservative strategy. Steve B spoke about his own spiritual beliefs as a Christian and told us that cutting emissions was "essential". We should take the science seriously and any debate should be free of "egotism and hysteria" from both sides of the argument.  It is OK to ask questions about Climate Change. Energy Security is important and Steve B recalls reading "The Limits to Growth" many years before. He pointed to the problem of population but believed that the only solution was to make everyone prosperous through economics. (Of all the candidates Steve B was the only one who openly admitted to actually reading the TTHW web site and, although he couldn't agree with everything, he seemed to like what he saw. He suggested that Transition philosophy of "not waiting for big Government to solve the problem" was one close to his party's philosophy and that this might make all Transition Town High Wycombe members Conservative voters!)

On a follow-up question concerning the carbon-footprint of industrial meat-farming (from Wycombe Friends of the Earth member Gemma) the response were thus: John Wiseman; the system of subsidies has grown up to produce cheap food. He is against new, stricter, EU nitrate guidelines. Steve Baker; this is the "tragedy of the commons" and compares it to the fate of our fish stocks. His solution was for us to make this a property ownership issue. If we value the use of the land for its role in locking up carbon then it would be preserved. Steve Guy; concerned about unsustainable practices and animal welfare. Forests are essential for the carbon cycle and he is sympathetic to the cause of preserving them. Andrew Lomas; Government shouldn't regulate. Prefers a carbon trading solution. Described the green movement as an "anti-movement" and was skeptical about their approach.

The Hustings went on for an hour or more and it is impossible to give much more than a general impression of events and personalities here. The Transition Town movement does not recommend any particular party but we can give some general indicators. Given the position of the parties it would be fair to say that the Lib-Dems have the most "transition-friendly" policies whilst UKIP have the least. Labour & Conservative sit somewhere between the two with Labour having quite a good track record and Conservatives remaining unproven. In terms of the personalities all three of the main party candidates are very strong and any of them would be a credit to High Wycombe in Parliament. Steve Baker gave a very polished performance and his attention to detail will serve him well. Steve Guy is proud of his local community and is active locally in his children's schools as well as a local Councillor.  Both the Steves claim to be "engineers not scientists" (Steve Guy works as an IT Contractor) whilst Andrew is a Scientist working on Cancer drugs. Andrew spoke about his passion for human rights and freedom. John Wiseman is a local Farmer with a history of farming in Yorkshire and the former Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).

The evening's only note of controversy surrounded the views of John Wiseman concerning what he labelled as "Islamic extremists". This earnt the wrath of one audience heckler who suggested that such extremism is a result of UK foreign policy. This earnt a warm ripple of applause from the audience suggesting that High Wycombe is not ripe territory for the UKIP-style of policy.

It was great to see local democracy in action. Everything from the quality of the questions to the quality of the answers strongly suggests that intelligent democratic proceedings are alive and well in High Wycombe. Long may it remain so. Well done everyone.

Friday 16th April 2010 - UK Aware Show at Olympia 2

UK Aware is billed as the "UK's No 1 green and ethical lifestyle exhibition" and was born out of the ashes of 2008's failed Green Show. As with the original Green Show, UK Aware is held at Olympia 2 over two days. This is its second year so we thought we would pop along to see what was on show. One of the things we say here at TTHW is "get a life not a lifestyle" so we wondered just how far the concept of an "ethical lifestyle" would compete with the over-riding need to cut the carbon. Given the enormous size of the eco, green and ethical markets in Britain (lest us not forget organic foods too) our first surprise and disappointment was just how small the show was. Only just over 120 exhibitors attended. Of these some didn't show up whilst most enjoyed exhibition space the size of a child's bed. It was all shoe-horned into as small a space as possible which made it feel very busy. However most of the people we rubbed shoulders with were exhibitors not the general public.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised after this year's Soil Association Organic Market Report showed steep drops in the sale of Organic products (with Fairtrade holding its own). So, whilst 'low-carbon' is feeling the pinch the 'ethical' markets seem to remain stable. This seems counter-intuitive. Either way it is tough times to be putting on a show like this and it is all credit to the organisers, their volunteers and the garden shed they work out of, that this event went ahead. Putting aside the fact that Olympia 2 is looking a little worse-for-wear the event was extremely well organised. Clearly the organisers are experienced and everything looked slick and professional. There was a bizarre lack of food for sale with only the Olympia 2 greasy spoon offering food on site.

Alongside the exhibitors there were two small seminar areas offering a full day's program of short seminars on every topic imaginable from eco-funerals to green-weddings, from choosing the right solar panels to a debate on biofuels. There were 45 such seminars held over the two day although a high number were actually presentations by the exhibitors themselves suggesting they were just sales talks. We glanced through the seminar program in vain looking for any names we recognised. However we plumbed for "Sex, Slavery and the Planet" with "International Planetary Rights" Lawyer Polly Higgins (www.treeshaverightstoo.com) and Marlow's very own Carbon Coach (Dave Hampton) "chewing the eco-cud". (See picture above/right & our blog for a discussion about Polly's ideas.) This was followed by the only other name we knew - Brigit Strawbridge off the TV's "It's Not Easy Being Green".

The show is to be recommended but it has a long way to go before it competes with the likes of Eco Build. The admission price of £15 a head is likely to put people off seeing as there is such little to see. But from little acorns grow big trees.... It needs to be a lot bigger and attract exhibitors from a wider range of commercial sources. It would have been an ideal place to sell eco-home improvements as well as organic food. If you want eco-fashion and cosmetics then there were a few stalls of interest but the range of products and services were highly limited. We wish them luck. With two or three times the exhibitors and a lower admission price this could be a winner.

Wednesday 14th April 2010 - This Town's Largest Domestic Solar Array?

Regulars on the Transition Town High Wycombe scene will be aware of the Chairman's home in Totteridge and Mark's ongoing work to give it a complete 'carbon-neutral-makeover'. In 2008 it got the full insulation works after Mark's family moved there in May. Last year (2009) it benefited from a renewable heating system using a KWB Easyfire boiler powered by Wood Pellets. This year (April 2010) the roof was covered in Solar Panels to supply free electricity and hot water. The 2.96kWp photovoltaic system is probably the largest domestic system in the town. It is not that easy to see from the outside but anyone travelling up Hollis Road past St Wulstan's Church (on the right) should not fail to see the Solar Roof up ahead. The system also has 20 x 1.8 metre tubes to collect solar heat for hot water generation.

The Photovoltaic system was commissioned on the 9th April and generated 227kWh ("units") in the subsequent 18 days (a long spell of good sunny weather). The house has energy saving appliances throughout and all the light fittings have energy-saving lightbulbs. The monthly electrical usage is only around 260 to 330 units so a large proportion of this power will be exported. The Photovoltaics are so extensive that they generate a minimum of around 50 to 100 watts from the moment the sun rises until it sets. This is even on the cloudiest days. At peak sunshine periods in April it was already easily generating 2.5kW which is expected to go up to the full 2.9kW in the peak summer months at midday. The Solar Hot Water system required the fitting of a new twin-coil hot water tank that now supplies all the household needs. The boiler rarely needs to come on - even in April.

Details of the project can be found at Mark's Post-Carbon Living website http://www.post-carbon-living.com/Post_Carbon_Home_Solar_Panels.htm. The work is the first of several planned technology demonstrator homes for the Wycombe Home Power Group. This Group will endeavour to bring renewable energy to hundreds of homes in High Wycombe through discounts with suppliers & mutual support to buyers. TTHW will also work hard to promote the Feed-in Tariffs and the 2011 Renewable Heat Incentive which, together, provide a real financial return on investment - which is far better than money in the bank!

If you are interested in seeing this demo and talking to Mark Brown then please contact us.

Saturday 20th March 2010 - Green Day at the Eden Centre

Not, as some of you may think, a chance to meet a US indie rock band but rather an opportunity for the shopping public to meet us. We joined forces with our good friends in Wycombe Friends of the Earth to run a stand outside Starbucks. The event was laid on by the Eden Centre and we were joined by other groups including the Energy Saving Trust, Wycombe Resource Zone, Bucks New Uni, Amersham Field Centre and the Wycombe Wildlife Group. The Wycombe FOE were promoting their Plastic Bag Awareness program with a Plastic Bag Free Day. Bags made from recycled material (by the Wycombe Resource Zone) were available to shoppers for a small donation. In addition Eden laid on a 'celebrity' - Commander Compost - who gave away free bags-for-life.

Due to insurance restrictions TTHW shared a stand with WFOE but we were promoting our complementary activities. These were specifically the Solar500 solar club and (to a slightly lesser extent) local food initiatives. It was a chance to talk to shoppers about the Food Directory Project and GrowZones. We gave away fist-fulls of brochures for Solar500 and got quite a lot of new sign-ups for our E:Mail Newsletter. All-in-all it was a very successful day given the fact that few shoppers are shopping for either local food or solar panels whilst walking through the Eden Shopping area. The volunteers who manned the stand were all abuzz with talk about the latest Government Incentives for domestic insulation and renewables.

We would like to thank all at Wycombe Friends of the Earth - particularly Mike & Sally. Thanks too to our volunteers Celia, Paul and Julian who all did their shifts on the day.

Tuesday 2nd March 2010 - Special Report from Ecobuild, Earls Court

Some of us took the train into London in early March to take part in Ecobuild 2010 at Earls Court. This may not sound as if it has much to do with Transition Towns but you'd be wrong. The event boasted numerous lectures and debates from the leading lights of sustainability and the world of politics. For example we caught up with "Science and Technology: waiting for the lifeboat" in the main arena. This was a debate chaired by BBC Presenter Sarah Montague and included contributions from Chris Goodall (author), Prof David Fisk (former chief scientist at the Department of Energy), David Kennedy (CEO Committee on Climate Change) and Dr Rachel Armstrong (Teaching Fellow at the Bartlett School for Architecture & sci fi author).

Next up in the main arena was "What makes a sustainable community?" with Peter Head (Director of Arup), Rt Hon David Blunkett MP (former Home Secretary), Julian Baggini (philosopher) and Wilfred Emmanuel Jones (originator of the Black Farmer food label). (Photo left.) Next we headed over to Atkins Conference where we watched "Copenhagen consequences: how strong is the political will for a low carbon Britain" (photo below) hosted by BBC presenter Kirsty Wark. We heard a policy announcement from the Rt Hon Joan Ruddock MP (Minister of State DECC) concerning the "Pay as you Save" scheme for households to invest in extra insulation. The matter was then debated with Greg Barker MP (Conservative Shadow Minister for Climate Change), Simon Hughes MP (Lib Dem Shadow Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change) and John Sauven (Executive Director of Greenpeace).

If that wasn't enough we ended the day in one of the smaller lecture halls to participate in presentations and debate on "Sustaining Transition Town Initiatives". The Chairman of Transition Town High Wycombe presented a slot on "Lessons from a Transition Town" alongside Rob Hopkins (founder of the Transition Network) who presented on "Transition Towns today and in the future". Other presenters were Liz Cox (head of Connected Economies, New Economics Foundation) and Alastair Donald (Urban Designer). All this and we got a chance to have a look around the exhibition too.

It is a testimony to the outstanding growth of the "green" building sector as to just how packed out Earls Court was. Both halls and both floors were full. Of course there was a little bit of 'greenwash' here and there but mostly the industry seemed very sincere about the genuine opportunities before them. Most of the exhibitors were really interested in selling products to new installers entering the market. However there were good opportunities for the proficient DIYer to catch up with some of the latest developments. There was a lot of space devoted to green roofs with pre-planted mats of sedum now available. Some systems can now even be fixed vertically making a green wall if you want it.

We enjoyed sitting and chatting with Rob Hopkins. It was the highlight of the day and it was nice to finally meet him after having read so much of his work. Ecobuild is open on Wednesday 3rd March and Thursday 4th March. The seminars continue with such prestigious names as Sir Jonathon Porritt, Tamsin Omond, Jonathan Dimbleby, Aubrey Meyer, Rosie Boycott, Patrick Holden and others taking part. Find out about this and so much more at www.ecobuild.co.uk.

Wednesday 17th February 2010 - WSP ESG

We have now attended the second Wycombe Strategic Partnership Environment Sub-group meeting in Wycombe District Council offices. We had updates from the various partners on the projects they are working on. Representatives of the Wycombe Society, Marlow Society and Chilterns Society spoke about their "Revive the Wye" project. Transition Town Marlow gave an update on the Solar Club Project "SP100". Friends of the Earth spoke about their work with the Waste Reduction Project with the shops in the Town Centre. We then went on to discuss which projects would be recommended up to the Executive Board for funding. We understand that the amount of monies is now limited.

Seven Projects have been proposed by Transition Town High Wycombe. Two of the projects had been closely related to the Environment Centre. As this is due to close we agreed to park these in the short term. We learnt that the Chiltern Woodland Group may be planning the planting of an orchard if they can get a Lottery Grant. Of the remaining projects Lesley Stoner (WDC Environment Officer) suggested the Thermal Imaging Camera Street Survey. However it was felt that this would be very expensive and the survey's themselves would be volunteer-intensive hence the risk of failure would be high. The TTHW Chairman suggested the Library Lending of Home Energy Monitoring Kits might be a lot less expensive and far easier to implement as it uses existing facilities. This was agreed and this project was one of three that will be recommended. The other two will be the joint TT Marlow/High Wycombe Solar Club and "Revive the Wye". The Solar Club actually needed some assistance tying up some loose ends and it is hoped that the Council could provide some expertise. It was generally felt that the Council could support such initiatives with very little money. Often the sort of help required was legal, planning or simply publicity. It was also requested that the Council gives some thought to promoting the Solar Project internally amongst its contacts within Housing Associations and other Landlords.

The Local Food Directory was also discussed at length. The grant of £250 is from Councillor discretionary funds via Bucks County Council. These are not the funds at the disposal of the Strategic Partnership. Although the food directory could have been proposed for further WSP funding it was felt that it had only limited chances of success as the area is already covered by other local food directories. It was also recognised that getting enough funding to print and distribute such a directory would be a lot of work and would not represent the "quick win" that other projects offered. The result is that TTHW will proceed with the directory as a project outside of the WSP framework. This would actually make work a little easier as the team would only have to report progress to a single sponsor.

The meeting closed after a brief review of the Carbon Reduction Strategy for the Wycombe District. This is just a framework for now but Transition Towns would be one of ten partners contributing. It has been recommended that the district focuses on domestic emissions.

Thursday 11th February 2010 - Local Community Planning Workshop

February's Local Planning Event was held at The Hub on Easton Street. Invited members of Council and local community partner groups attended. The purpose of the workshop was to prioritise local issues for the Local Area Plan (LAP). The LAP is used to influence and co-ordinate service provision. It also assists members of the LCP (Local Community Partnership) in deciding how to spend future local priorities budgets. The draft plan should be completed in May/June 2010. Attendees were split into teams of around 5 to 7 people and asked to look at a variety of aspirations grouped by topic. These topics were: Sustainable Environment, Cohesive Communities, Safe Communities, Health & Wellbeing and Thriving Economy.

Each group took its turn to look at each topic in rotation. Facilitators helped attendees to rank each aspiration by using a card system. The cards were laid out in sequence and moved around until each group was happy that this sequence represented the correct priority. The priorities were recorded before each team moved onto the next topic. The 'aspirations' included such things as "More Police on the beat", "Local Community clean up days" and "A GP Surgery for Downley". This was a useful exercise and of great value if Transition Towns is to turn the local agendas to address the issues of sustainability and local resilience. Sadly no Transition Town members appear to have been at the previous events where these 'aspirations' were drawn up. If we were to have one big criticism of the process it would be that the 'aspirations' that entered the process were badly thought-through and badly categorised.

For example the issue of Doctors Surgeries for particular areas of the town would be repeated over-and-over rather than summarised into one single aspiration for a review or target for GP locations generally. Under "Safe Communities" we had an aspiration for "less car culture" but also "mending of pot-holes" without recognition that these are contradictory. There were several requests for extended gritting facilities for pavements in light of recent snowy weather. This seemed a little short-sighted. The loss of Holywell pool was recorded under "Health & Wellbeing" but the loss of the Environment Centre was not included. Thankfully we were able to add new aspirations as we went along. Some of the aspirations left many attendees scratching their heads. The relevance of some seemed tortuous. For example under "Thriving Economy" there was no mention of better apprenticeships, more support for Business start-ups nor any mention of strategic Council procurement to ensure that purchases of things such as biofuel were made locally. Instead we had aspirations as "somewhere for young people to go in the evening" and "more homes for families". One attendee did comment that she thought that the people who had inserted these things probably had no clue as to what the economy needed. Many aspirations came over as complaints about the failure to supply services that many attendees felt were adequately supplied but largely ignored by the community.

So we concluded that, although the process of prioritisation worked well the compilation of the aspirations left a lot to be desired. Next time we would like to be involved early on in the formulation of them. We took the opportunity to promote cycle paths, allotments, locally produced biofuels, the Environment Centre and a variety of other Transition topics. In future we must take these opportunities seriously as it will be our only opportunity to gently steer the Local Community Plan towards topics that will genuinely serve the community both today AND TOMORROW. Our thanks to Madeleine Howe, Area Coordinator (Localities and Safer Communities) at Bucks County Council for inviting Transition Town High Wycombe to this event.

Wednesday 20th January 2010 - Local Community Partnership

Two members of Transition Town High Wycombe attended the Local Community Partnership Meeting at the Royal Grammar School this month. Most of the meeting was taken up by a representative from Chiltern Rail describing the work they will be doing to upgrade the line and also to run an extension to Oxford. Apparently the fact that these works will go ahead means that the line will not be used for the proposed high-speed link  to the north. Fast trains from High Wycombe to Marylebone will have journey time reduced from 31 minutes duration (at best) to 22 minutes. Most of this will be delivered by Dec 2010 but with final completion scheduled for May 2011. The Oxford link will give a High Wycombe to Oxford journey time of 38 minutes although that won't be complete until 2013. A Wycombe Society member asked about the Bourne End/Reading link but this was dismissed as outside their remit. The light rail option would not be possible as so much of the land required was now in private ownership. A proposal to open more local stations in Wycombe eg Micklefield and West Wycombe was also dismissed as too expensive.

The other big topic was the Bucks County Council Transport Department handling of the severe weather conditions. Although the Bucks County Council representative spent a lot of time explaining how the operation had been undertaken there were many disgruntled residents. Many were unhappy about road gritting arrangements and the subsequent potholes. There was further discussion on how other agencies had coped, some sterling work by volunteers, and a plea for a community radio to facilitate communication in emergency situations. Unfortunately the licensing authorities are not prepared to grant a license for a new radio station in Wycombe although no reason was given.

Members felt that the meeting was a bit disorganised. The sound system wasn't working and attendees struggled to hear what was being said. There was no proper introduction to explain the purpose of the meeting to those who hadn't attended before, and no agendas available for the public. We will continue to monitor the usefulness of such meetings. Clearly they are opportunities for the community to somewhat 'vent their spleen'. If the Transition Town movement is make use of these opportunities then it needs to influence the agenda or move the discussion onto sustainability. Talk of how local Police and Fire services coped in the bad snows conceals just how vulnerable the community is when transport routes get cut. What was the impact on people's ability to heat their homes and feed themselves? What could we learn about how the community could be more resilient without relying upon Emergency and Council Services? Are we to outsource all of our responsibilities?

Our thanks to Celia and Paul for reporting this event. The next Local Community Partnership Meeting will be on the 14th April 2010 at 7pm. Location is to be decided although it was thought to be in Council Offices.

Tuesday 19th January 2010 - Transition Social

After the Winter snows melted the first "Transition Beds, Berks Herts and Bucks Gathering" went ahead at 8.00pm Tuesday 19th January 2010 at The Farmers Boy pub, London Road in St Albans (www.whatsonstalbans.co.uk). The purpose of the gathering was to meet socially with an opportunity to find out what we’re all up to, explore opportunities & enthusiasm for collaborating (and deciding whether there’s value in meeting again). It was ably organised by Jacqueline Breslin of Transition St Albans (www.transitionstalbans.org) and was attended both by official Transition Initiatives as well as by a whole host of 'mullers'. It was a good networking opportunity with many participants busily scribbling notes describing each other's work. There simply were too many people to allow everyone to meet everyone else as there were no formal introductions. Most of us found somewhere to sit and ended up chatting to whoever was sitting nearby. Some free food was supplied by the Transition-friendly land-lady (we thinks they made up for it on drinks sales!). The pub itself brews it own beer so could be described as relocalisation in action. We managed to get to talk to representatives from Bedford, Luton, Maidenhead, Chalfont St Peter, Chesham, Haddenham, Marlow, Letchworth and St Albans although there were also people in from Amersham, Abbots Langley, Hemel Hempstead, Hertford, Hitchin, Tring, Watford, Welwyn Garden City and Ickenham. Thanks to Cindy who gave us a brochure for the Maidenhead Solar Hot Water Club. Inspirational. Thanks to Jacqueline for pursuing this into action. Should we do it again? Well, maybe. The trouble is that it covers a wide geographic area and it is quite a hassle to travel long distances on work day evening. For people concerned with re-localisation it seemed a little contradictory! We also didn't get a chance to talk to everyone. Maybe an online forum would be more suitable with occasional get-togethers for more formal presentations?

Tuesday 8th December 2009 - Official Members - Wycombe Partnership

In a welcome and surprising move the Leader of the Wycombe District Council announced her wish for the local Transition Towns to join the Wycombe Partnership. Leslie Clarke made her announcement at a full meeting of the Wycombe Strategic Partnership Executive in Council meeting rooms. Both Transition Town High Wycombe and Transition Town Marlow were in attendance for an earlier section of the meeting where we gave presentations. Our Chairman was 'up' first to give a brief over-view of Transition to the Executive members gathered there. Despite battling a heavy cold Mark managed to illustrate the meaning of transition through the decline of Whale Oil for lighting between 1800 and 1860. His talk concluded with a quick run down of the seven projects that we wish to work on in the Town. Philip Ditchfield from Marlow came next to talk about the Solar Power Club running in his town.

Leslie's announcement actually came quite late in the meeting after Philip and Willi from Marlow had already left the meeting. The official membership invite is to the Environmental Sub-Group which meets next year on the 27th January at 2.30pm. Work will start then on integrating the proposed and existing Transition Projects into the task list of the Partnership. The invite extends to Friends of the Earth who are already actively engaged with the Packaging Project underway. The meeting will discuss how everyone can work together and to prioritise which projects are recommended for funding.

Saturday 5th December 2009 - Wycombe Waves for Copenhagen

From mini-wave to crashing tsunami - did you join "The Wave"? Fifty-thousand demonstrators took to the streets of London. Several contingents met up in High Wycombe for the Train journey into the big smoke. The Wave was this year's incarnation of the annual Climate Change March organised by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition. It was designed to surround Parliament with a sea of waving blue humanity. This was a special event to coincide with COP15 Climate Change summit in Copenhagen.

The Wycombe Wave started early with a brisk walk from the Environment Centre across the Rye and into The Eden Centre. Many friends came and went during the walk around Wycombe with our numbers peaking when we met at the Railway Station. In London we set off to Cavendish Square to join up with Medical Staff from the local NHS having their own mini-wave. From there down to Grosvenor Square to meet up with the main march. Sometime after 1pm we started to trundle off south to Parliament via Piccadilly, Regent Street, Trafalgar Square and Whitehall. Despite a lovely bright start the rain came down at 3pm as we got to Trafalgar Square. By 3.30pm we were in Parliament Square only to find we had missed the 3pm waving extravaganza. From there the crowd dispersed and we made our tired-way home. Do these events change anything? Well certainly both Gordon Brown and the Secretary of State for DECC (Department of Energy & Climate Change) Ed Milliband made a point of meeting with the crowd. It also was covered live by both the BBC and Sky News services through the day. We were there to remind our negotiators that thee is mass support for big change at Copnehagen. Let's hope they take the hopes and prayers of the wavers to Denmark with them.

Wednesday 25th November 2009 - Age of Stupid Premieres

After months' of build up and intensive publicity the climate change blockbuster "The Age of Stupid" finally came to High Wycombe. The movie night at High Wycombe's Environment Centre attracted over seventy members of the public and went down a storm. The film proved to be a big hit with several audience members considering showing the movie yet again to their local Church or in local Secondary Schools. To our surprise the evening managed to attracted an audience from as far afield as Maidenhead and Oxford. There was even a school party. The cosy atmosphere in the centre allowed people to react in a way that was less obvious at the Maidenhead premiere earlier this year. There were occasional gasps and howls of laughter - swiftly followed by involuntary grunts of anger. Even those who have seen the movie several times could not remain unemotional. What can you say when you stare human fate hard in the face? We have been warned of what the worst-case-scenario could yield. Maybe, just maybe, it is time to do something....

Everyone at Transition Town High Wycombe would like to thank our friends in Wycombe Friends of the Earth for their help with publicising this event. Also thanks to everyone who turned up and contributed.

Saturday 21st November 2009 - Wycombe Farmers' Market

Did you know this Town had a Farmers' Market? You do now. You'll be forgiven for not having noticed it as this current incarnation only arrived in Frogmoor in September 2009. By the time Transition Town High Wycombe showed up, to lend its support, the show had already been running for three months. The market is there on the third Saturday of the month. Although "Farmers' Market" is the name they have chosen it is, by rights, a local food market. To learn more about the High Wycombe Farmers' Market go visit their web site at http://www.tvfm.org.uk. At the market you will find freshly baked bread, homemade soups, local meat products, organic foodstuffs, cakes, vegetables and many other items.

Transition Town High Wycombe was there on a wet and windy day on Saturday at the invitation of the market. We had our big movie to advertise - "The Age of Stupid" for Wednesday 25th November. We setup our stall near the entrance to The Chilterns. We were grateful for the help of Dave Lyons at Transition Thame & District for lending us the use of his gazebo. We had it up in no time at all although it did need some lubrication at the joints. Ironically a can of WD-40 came in very handy! It did rain a little during the day but mostly it was dry. Wind was a significant problem with all of our leaflets held down by spare bathroom tiles recovered from the attic of our Chairman. It was a very busy day with a steady stream of visitors including our MP Paul Goodman who stopped by with his young son. We had our stall next to the National Trust people who were advertising the Christmas opening times for Hughenden Manor. They were very helpful as they ran around catching various loose leaflets and secured our gazebo against the wind.

Transition Town High Wycombe would like to thank Diane Harker for her kind invite and help on the day. We understand that maintaining this market remains a struggle. It needs the fullest support of everyone in the community. So please, everyone, try and make it down to Frogmoor on the following days:

• 19th December 2009

• 16th January 2010

• 20th February 2010

Wednesday 28th October 2009 - Wycombe Strategic Partnership

Transition Town High Wycombe and Transition Town Marlow have had their first chance to meet up with the Wycombe Strategic Partnership. The meeting took place with the Environmental Sub-group at Council Offices one early week-day afternoon. There were four members of the sub-group representing the Bucks New Uni, CEAC, the Environment Agency and the High Wycombe Society (in addition to Lesley Stoner the WDC Environmental Co-ordinator). Transitioners included Mike Chadwick, Philip Ditchfield and Dermot Fitzpatrick.

The remit of this sub-group is to setup and oversee flagship environmental initiatives. This includes work on sustainability and carbon footprint reduction. They also supply feedback on the Community Plan and Wycombe Development Framework. Hence Community resilience and security are of great interest to the Strategic Partnership. The meeting had allocated an entire hour for our local team to present what 'Transition' means to the area. We spoke about our work with the community and our concerns about fossil fuel depletion and climate change. Our views were well received by members who understood us well and appreciated what we had to offer. The meeting was successful and we have been invited to contribute further in the future. We look forward to it.

So... Now is your chance to SHINE. We have been invited to submit projects for proposal. The right projects could receive a small amount of funding. So get your thinking caps on! There won't be enough money to build a light-rail system or employ staff, but there is enough for smaller expenses such as publicity, insurance, tools, printing and so on. We will need volunteers to run the projects but we'll have some help from the Partnership, ie, guidance or research. Projects should be educational, high profile, leading by example and encouraging community participation. The ones that might attract funding are those that would not attract grants through other means. Current projects include packaging reduction and green travel planning. We can contribute ideas such as a new Community Allotment, Tree Planting schemes, household energy auditing, Thermal Imaging surveys, energy efficiency exhibits, home renewable energy clubs, eco-homes weekend, oil vulnerability auditing, local food directory, energy saving kits for library loan and so on.

Saturday 24th October 2009 - Marlow Bikers Cycle for 350

In Marlow we helped out with the second of 350 day's local events. Transition Town Marlow held a "Carbon Cycle" - a family bike ride from the Crowne Plaza to Higginson Park. The purpose of the ride was to support council schemes to provide cycles routes, get fit, have fun, reduce car use, promote sustainable transport and support the 350.org day of action. The mums, dads, kids, grannies & grand-dads set off from the Crowne Plaza at 3pm and headed into Marlow along a route strung with marshals. Up they went into Fieldhouse Lane, up the Parkway, left into Little Marlow Road, along the main road into Chapel Street, over the mini-roundabout, into Spittal Street, left at the Memorial, down the High Street and into Higginson Park.

In the park there was a rally where we enjoyed music from a couple of local folk acts as cyclists and marshals gathered. The Mayor of Marlow Neil Marshal delivered a short speech before we heard from Newsnight journalist and Marlow resident Liz McKean. Both Neil and Liz took part in the ride. Liz told us how only a few years ago the BBC felt it necessary to give both sides of the climate change debate but now this is no longer required as that discussion is settled. She spoke in glowing terms of the Transition Movement locally. We all went on to the area of the park next to the river for a historic 350 photo.

350 International Action Day involved 5200 events in 181 countries and generated 19,000 photos. See them all on flickr here.

Saturday 24th October 2009 - Environment Centre Sits Down for 350

The 350 Day of International Action was a people-power event organised on a global scaled by people concerned about Climate Change. The idea was simple - people would gather together in the shape of "3", "5" and "0" or simply hold banners and placards with this number on. Pictures would be taken of each event and then shown to the internet, the world leaders and on the big screen in New York's famous Times Square. Thus it became a kind of "virtual" tidal wave of people from all over the planet all dedicated to change. So what is the significance in the number 350? 350 parts per million is the estimated maximum concentration of Greenhouse Gasses tolerable in our atmosphere.

The best science we have now all points to this one conclusion. We are well over this target already hence we have to massively scale back our usage of fossil fuels. If not then, if we continue as we have done, then we will simply tip the Climate into runaway Global Warming and we will not be able to stop it. 350 is our only target. Get there and we have a future on this planet. Simple. Locally we had a bit of a sit down at the Environment Centre. The original plan had been to stand out on the Rye and have the photo taken by a trainee pilot out of Booker Airfield. However low cloud and drizzle put paid to this plan and the event was held indoors. Space precluded getting all three numbers at once so we made them up one at a time. We hope to have the pictures here soon. Our thanks to BNU and the Bucks Free Press for their help with this event.

350 International Action Day involved 5200 events in 181 countries and generated 19,000 photos. See them all on flickr here.

Saturday 24th October 2009 - Copenhagen Summit Exhibit opens

You may have already seen some of the major News outlets running with this story: the lead up to the massive Climate Change Summit at Copenhagen in December. So, what is happening at Copenhagen? Soon the Kyoto Treaty will be ending. Something must replace it. This has incredible significance for every species on the planet. We may well be making the decisions that end the age of stupid. Or we can slip back into the dead-end (and short-lived) age of oil addiction. We shall see. To help everyone understand what is about to happen the people at the Environment Centre have laid on a special Copenhagen Exhibit. This has largely been the work of our very own (and very busy) Celia Carter. TTHW has quite a big display there too (see picture).

Tuesday 13th October 2009 - Julian Darley speaks in Jordans

Local resident & energy-depletion expert Julian Darley spoke out recently in praise of relocalisation. He is an international energy expert and co-founder of Global Public Media and the Post-Carbon Institute (www.postcarbon.org). In 2008 Julian he received the ASPO USA M. King Hubbert Award for his work. Julian, who authored "High Noon for Natural Gas: the New Energy Crisis" in 2004, was talking at a public discussion organised by the Seer Green and Jordans Society. (It was their AGM which, to everyone's relief, was blissfully short and actually quite entertaining.) Julian's talk played out to a packed crowd with members of both TT High Wycombe & Marlow attending.  Julian is a Seer Green resident now after his recent return from the USA where most of his work on Energy and Climate was completed. His talk, entitled "Climate Change & Energy - What are we going to do about it?",  was on the UK's future low carbon plans and how we could be involved in implementation, both locally and nationally. Julian has an impressive (and diverse) list of academic qualifications and experiences.

In a personal talk afterwards he revealed that he is taking more of a back-seat these days preferring to focus on screen-writing for fiction films. His move from the USA and his change of job suggest that he is taking a career break & trying out something new. Elements of his talk covered his growing frustration with the speed of change in our society. He sees Peak Oil & Gas as an immediate threat - more so than Climate Change in the short term. He has rubbed shoulders with those in Political power which reveals that Politicians do understand the problem. The apparent failure to start a debate on the matter reflects political pressure from the electorate and misinformation from the media. He cited only two newspapers (The Guardian and The Independent) who were capable of reporting the issues correctly. Although food and energy remain very cheap the media and the electorate maintain pressure on our leaders to keep things this way. As Julian points out we pay far too little for these resources and under-value them. Here-in lies the problem. The cost is externalised to some dim-distant (and highly discounted) future.

So, what were his suggestions? Moving towards more local solutions obviously, but only as part of a bigger package. We cannot act locally without pulling the national system of governance with us because National Government could undermine local efforts. (The Transition 12 Steps actually has us engaging with Local Government only - but it is the same principle.) We should actually engage with the political process by getting better leaders into power by putting aside our petty short-term interests when voting. Those Politicians must be given a mandate to act. If they do so they should be appropriately rewarded.

This may not have actually been the message some of us expected but it certainly rang true to many in the audience. We often blame public indifference upon politicians but fail to see that we really get the indifferent politicians we deserve. The lack of leadership is a reflection of the general public aspiration for the maintenance of the status quo. This does seem somewhat 'chicken & egg' though. Good leaders should also inspire an electorate to think about the future.... We must learn new stories about ourselves.

TTHW want to thank Mary-Anne Hall & the Seer Green and Jordans Society for holding this event. We wish Julian every success in his new career path but hope to see more of him. We need more bright, well informed and passionate public figures, such as he, with an eye-opening & informative points of view. Julian's talk was well received and he took time to speak to members of the Transition Town High Wycombe team afterwards.

Tuesday 6th October 2009 - Sustainability PAG

What on earth is a PAG? A PAG is a Policy Advisory Group. They are a group of Council officials and elected Councillors who meet to, as the name suggests, advise on Wycombe District Council Policy. This "PAG" covered "Sustainability". The topic for the evening meeting (17:30 to 18:50) in Council Chambers was to cover National Indicators set by Central Government for action on Climate Change. Transition Town High Wycombe were invited to present and answer questions within the first half-hour slot. Two members of Transition Town Marlow were also present. The presentation was deliberately geared to demonstrate our understanding of the challenges local Government face. There was not enough time to walk through the entire background of the Transition Town movement so we focussed on our philosophy, the actions we had undertaken and our aspirations for helping the Council.

There were two follow-up presentations by Council Officials Charles Brocklehurst and Lesley Stoner. Charles presented his progress on surveying the potential supply chain for local forestry waste & coppiced products. This can be turned into wood chip - a bioheat fuel. Lesley presented her (now familiar) work on local Building Codes. (Both activities were recommended in TTHW's 2008 submission on the WDC's Sustainable Local Prosperity consultation.)

It was a great evening attended by around 15 people. We were only a little surprised that the elected Councillor members of the PAG didn't have wider general knowledge of the progress & solutions towards a low carbon economy. No doubt this is why they are on this PAG - to learn more. It indicates that the bright sparks in the Transition Town movement should not be shy in offering their help as they have so much to contribute.

Our thanks to Lesley Clarke (Council Leader) and Lesley Stoner for arranging our attendance.

Saturday 26th September 2009 - Planet-Friendly Farming Debate

Various members of Transition Town High Wycombe joined Friends of the Earth High Wycombe at a debate one Saturday evening in September. As part of the Nationwide FOE Campaign "Fixing the Food Chain" the local Team held a debate entitled "Is Planet-Friendly Farming Possible?". It was held at the John Hampden Grammar School and included guests Ian Waller (farmer from Hampden Bottom Farm), David Emmett (farmer & organiser of Marlow's Farmers Market), Virginia Deradour (local organic farmer) and Paul Goodman MP.

The evening kicked off with a film and presentation by Mike Chadwick covering the unsustainable nature of meat production where South American Soy is used as feedstuff. Rain Forest is destroyed to produce the Soy and the carbon footprint of its transportation is high. FOE are pressing Government to end the perverse subsidies that pay farmers to intensively farm using Soy feedstock. Secondly they are working to get an ombudsman appointed to over-see Supermarkets who have driven down farming revenues.

There were many questions to the panel from the audience. The discussion covered a variety of topics including the panellists' motivations to stay in farming and "can organic farming feed the world?". From MP Paul Goodman's point of view planet-friendly farming may well be possible but it will be difficult to sell the alternatives to the electorate. From a Transition Town viewpoint we would heartily agree with the sentiment that the solution to building a sustainable food chain is to relocalise. We will inevitably eat less meat and more local produce. That Transition is inevitable as the alternatives don't bear thinking about...

Our thanks to the local FOE Team and a big "well done" to them, the panellists and the audience.

Saturday 26th September 2009 - Thame Launch Local Food Book

The Thame Food Festival had beautiful weather - just as well it was outdoors. Dave Lyons and the Transition Thame & District Team had a stall outside as well as the Book Launch inside the Town Hall. At the latter venue they showed episodes of "The Powerdown Show" to the general public. Dave enthusiastically went about drumming up interest in Tamzin Pinkerton & Rob Hopkins' new Transition title which went on sale this month. Outside various stalls sold organic and locally produced food on what was a perfect day....

You too can own a copy of "Local Food" by Tamzin Pinkerton & Rob Hopkins. For yours pay a visit to http://transitionculture.org.

Monday 7th September 2009 - Climate Rush Caravan comes to Town

We have been honoured by a visit by Tamsin Omond and her Climate Change Suffragettes from Climate Rush. They visited the Environment Centre on their way to Haddenham. It is part of a 300 mile journey by horse and cart - a true climate caravan. Climate Rush are famous for their demonstrations outside Parliament and inside Heathrow. Now they are on the road.

They stopped at our Environment Centre for a spot of lunch with the volunteers and local dignitaries. The caravan consisted of 16 Suffragettes, 3 horses, 2 caravans and 1 dog.

From High Wycombe they went on to Haddenham where they lead a Youth Service at St Mary's Church the next day. The "Climate Rushettes" then went on to Aylesbury to meet up with celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and local MEP Caroline Lucas. From there they headed off to Oxford before winding their way through the South of England ending up in Totnes on 30th September. The tour had begun on 4th September in Sipson, the village doomed by the planned third runway at Heathrow. You can follow their progress at www.climaterush.co.uk. The Bucks Free Press met them for a story in High Wycombe. Although the story didn't make the paper it did make online copy (link below) and featured extensive interviews as well as excerpts from the TTHW Press Release covering this event.

http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/localnews/wycombe/4585316

Sat/Sun 18th/19th July '09 - EC Weekend Exhibit and "Big Lunch"

On the weekend of the Wycombe Half Marathon the Environment Centre threw open its doors for an "open weekend". All the groups associated with the Centre had exhibition stands including Friends of the Earth, the Rangers, the Beekeepers and Transition Town High Wycombe. As the core of the FOOD Group were busy elsewhere (largely running the event!) it came to the Energy Group to but on a display of gadgets and books. To hand we had a fun quiz for all the family with a free home-made-organic-cake-of-local-ingredients to win.

The team also had a fist-full of Climate Change Pledges from Wycombe District Council for the public to fill in as well as the FOOD Group survey. The two days flew by and we had many chances to chat with the citizens of the town and surrounding area.

On the Sunday we broke at twelve midday for our Sunday Lunch which came this year in the shape of our TTHW "Big Lunch" Picnic-on-the-Rye. Unfortunately the heavy and frequent rain showers kept many participants away or in the Environment Centre. This was a shame because several of us did indeed have our picnic outside under the "Environment Centre Logo Tree". The tree was a great sheltered spot and the ground was dry. So we laid out our picnic blankets and ate local food. We even had an Electric Bicycle to keep the gadget fans happy - a few members took it for a spin around the Rye. Next year let's hope for better weather and a few hardier souls who are willing to make an event of it. Will YOU be there?

We would like to thank Celia for her near-super-human courage and enthusiasm for organising the Environment Centre Open Weekend. Congratulations to Colin Nancarrow for winning the cake with a score of eight-out-of-ten.

Tuesday 7th July '09 - Conference on our "Carbon-constrained" Future

On the 7th July Wycombe Town Hall played host to the "Creating a Sustainable Wycombe 2026 Conference". The day was split into three sessions starting with a Business Breakfast on economic growth and land use. This was followed by 'Strategic Transport Goals' before concluding with a period on 'Quality of Life' and the 'Environment'. Despite the attempt by Transport for Buckinghamshire to follow this format the three sessions proved to be largely identical in content and format. The event was intended to help shape the Sustainable Communities Strategy and the Local Transport Plan however most of the time was spent on Transport. Despite our low expectations, the presentations proved surprisingly refreshing. It was nice to see so many great plans that (without exception) talked about getting people out of their cars and onto their feet - walking - or onto bikes or buses. Not a single action had been taken to improve the lot of car drivers. The only possible exception was the multi-storey car-park proposed for the Train Station - but even that was intended to drive up train-passenger numbers. A new wind of change now blows through Council thinking. Top of the Agenda is now something called "Climate Change".

Anuradha Fitzwalter, Group Manager for Transport Services, twice spoke of the "carbon-constrained" future and the need to build more resilient "shock-proof" communities. TTHW's Chairman (Mark Brown) spoke to Anuradha afterwards. Despite her words it seemed as if she was unaware of Peak Oil issues or the Transition Town movement. In the final session we heard Richard Harper (of Chiltern Railways) describe an 'external' factor as being "fuel security" whilst Paul Adcock, of Arriva Buses, talked about the opportunities for expanding the use of biodiesel on his fleet. However, when we approached him afterwards it proved less exciting because the group bulk-buys all their fuel. He was unable to make a local decision on the matter. So much for recycling chip-fat.

Despite all these good words no one was willing to volunteer a word specifically on Oil Depletion and its impact upon Community well-being. It remains the elephant in the room wrapped in a cloak of its "carbon footprint". We suspect that few have even heard of it. There was only the vaguest of gestures about possible fuel price increases but it was always termed as some future "unknown". Thought had only been given to Climate Change and the possible impact this extreme weather would have on Road Repairs! A clear lack of joined-up thinking. Bucks County Council display little clue as to how Climate Change will effect the Community. It is also diverting their attention away from the impending crash in Fossil Fuel supplies. After 'Climate Change' the Council objectives lists 'Economic Growth', as if the two are unrelated.

Other aspiration include "equality" and "opportunity" however the Transport-nature of the conference rode rough-shod over any serious attempts to address genuine 'sustainability'. It was all business-as-usual-with-less-carbon-please-on-buses. We hardly knew where to begin as this really wasn't the right venue to even start untangling the obvious confusion our Council is in. We can only suggest several separate workshops where we unpick some of the objectives in a forum where we are not addressing transport solutions. This town still deserves a proper "Sustainable Communities" Conference. This wasn't it. The transport measures ARE thrusting in the right direction. All we need now is to cover local economics, local food and local energy. This may start to tackle the challenges this Community really faces. The last thing we need is more economic growth. We can, and must, do better.

Transition Town High Wycombe would like to thanks Transport for Bucks for running this event.

Tuesday 7th July '09 - Ride Against the Tide

Methodist Minister, Richard Sharples, is got on his bike to highlight the need for action to curb Climate Change. Between July 6-9th, along with Rev Simon Topping, Richard will be cycling from Gloucester to London carrying a life-size willow statue of King Canute. On a wet evening in July Simon and Richard landed in High Wycombe where they were greeted by the Bucks Free Press and Transition Town High Wycombe's Chairman - Mark Brown. We gave the cyclists an escort down to the Town Hall so they could meet a few delegates at that day's Sustainability and Transports Conference - an appropriate coincidence! From there they left Mark and rode down the A40 to meet Frances Alexander for supper and a discussion on the planting of trees around churches! They slept over night at the Methodist Church before proceeding onto London for the final leg of their journey.

Richard says, in his blog: “King Canute is remembered as the one who believed he could hold back the tide by royal command. In that sense, he represents the blindness being shown by rulers today in the face of global warming.” The ride will begin on the Isle of Alney, in Gloucester, the present site for the Castle Meads electricity substation, which in the July 2007 floods was temporarily put out of action because of rising water levels on the River Severn, causing 48,000 homes to be without electricity.

“The Isle of Alney is connected with King Canute,” explains Richard. “It was there, in 1016, that Canute signed a treaty with Edmund Ironside which led to him being crowned king of England later that year. When we get to London, we are going to place the statue of Canute on the Thames river bank at low tide, opposite Westminster, and then allow the tide to rise up and submerge the statue.” The event is timed to coincide with the meeting of the world richest nations (the 'G8') in Italy. “Our message to the G8 Leaders is that they are acting like King Canute. Their feeble responses so far to global warming do not recognize the environmental limitations of the world we live in. They believe that sea level rise caused by global warming can be contained without a fundamental change in the way we relate to and use the natural world. I think we would also want to say that we cannot just wait for the G8 to do the right thing. We ourselves need to act now, reshaping our communities and local economies so that they reflect the natural limits of our world.”

Getting on his bike is nothing new for Richard. For the past few years the family have not owned a car. “I wondered whether we could make it work, but between cycling, accepting lifts and the occasional bus and train ride, it's never been a problem. In fact it has been a joy and has added to the quality of our lives.”

Read more from Richard's Blog at http://cnut.posterous.com/

Wednesday 20th May '09 - TTHW Visits TT Reading

One Wednesday evening in May the Transition Town High Wycombe team met-up with Transition Town Reading at RISC (http://www.risc.org.uk). We delivered a presentation on the Post-Carbon Living's 'Post-carbon Home' in High Wycombe. It was also a chance to learn more about the Government's proposed Renewable Heat Initiative. It was a good chance for the two groups to compare notes on their Transition initiatives. TT Reading is a very new group that has only sprung up in early 2009. We described the birth of TTHW to them and shared the pitfalls of Transition. It was an enjoyable evening and we thank Colin Pearson and RISC for hosting the event. The Presentation can be seen here.

The presentation covered TTHW Chairman's efforts to create a resilient Post Carbon Home. This work predates the formation of TTHW and has been covered on the Post-Carbon Living web site for several years. If you wish to learn more about this work then please visit www.carbon-cutters.com or contact TTHW so we can deliver the Presentation to your group.

Sat/Sun 4th/5th April '09 - TTHW in the Wycombe Library...shhhhhh!

Whilst not quite on the scale as the Technology Showcase the TTHW had a discrete presence in the Wycombe Library over the weekend of the 4th and 5th April. On Saturday Celia braved the crowds and enjoyed some interesting chats plus a bit of networking with the passers-by. Mark took up the challenge to man the stall on the Sunday. As you can imagine it was a Sunday in a Library on a sunny day - so it was a little quiet. However he still managed to talk to a few brave folk that day before summoning the strength to pack away the stall and man-handle it clear across town to shoe-horn it into his car! Oh the things we do......

Saturday March 21st '09 - Technology Showcase

TTHW had a stand set up at the Energy Savings Trust's "Technology Showcase" held at the Reggie Goves Centre. We put on quite a show with an electric bike taking centre stage. We also had a big pile of leaflets, posters and a large variety of solar-powered and wind-up gadgets such as radios and torches. The day was not that busy with few of the crowds that thronged High Wycombe that day bothering to stop and talk. This appears to have been a common feature of the other shows put on by the EST in the region. It may be due to lack of advertising or the credit crunch (although the latter didn't seem to empty the shops). However, as we had managed to get Renewable Heat Solutions (from Great Missenden), Biofuel Refineries and Nature's Warmth along it did prove to be, instead, a great networking opportunity. Most of the vendors that day spent some time at each other's stands learning about what was going on in the world of solar energy, insulation, double-glazing and wood stoves. We certainly had an enjoyable day talking to the vendors and members of the public.

Our thanks to Wycombe District Council and the National Energy Foundation for their help setting the day up. Also our thanks to Julian and Paul, who manned the stall all day, and to Jenny, Martin, Ellen, Elsa, David, Mike, their friends & family and the Bucks Free Press who came to see us during the day. A special thanks too to Frances & the Environment Centre for loaning some of the materials for the day.

Sunday March 15th '09 - TTHW Help Launch "The Age of Stupid" Movie

The most astounding drama-documentary about climate change hits our cinemas the weekend of the 20th March 2009. TTHW were there at the launch with the People's Premiere in Maidenhead. The cinema was packed (see photo's) for a thrilling evening. There was a live satellite link-up to Leicester Square where the glitz & glamour of a Movie Premiere all got shoe-horned into a solar-powered marquee for the show. 80 venues around the country shared the experience with us, making this an official World Record for the largest simultaneous movie premiere. We watched both the pre-show "green-carpet" arrivals and post-show launch of the "Not stupid" Campaign (see www.notstupid.org). Afterwards there were short speeches locally at Maidenhead by both Dave Hampton (who helped fund the movie) and the head of Transition Town Maidenhead, Cindy Barnes. And the movie? Brilliant. Words (almost) cannot describe it....

So what's it all about? It's a documentary-drama-animation hybrid from Director Franny Armstrong (McLibel, Drowned Out) and Oscar-winning Producer John Battsek (One Day In September, Live Forever, In the Shadow of the Moon). Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off, The Usual Suspects) stars as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055. He watches 'archive' footage from 2008 and asks: Why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance? Runaway climate change has ravaged the planet by 2055. Pete plays the founder of The Global Archive, a storage facility located in the (now melted) Arctic, preserving all of humanity's achievements in the hope that the planet might one day be habitable again. Or that intelligent life may arrive and make use of all that we’ve achieved. He pulls together clips of “archive” news and documentary from 1950->2008 to build a message showing what went wrong and why. He focuses on six human stories:

• Alvin Duvernay, is a palaeontologist helping Shell find more oil off the coast of New Orleans. He also rescued more than 100 people after Hurricane Katrina, which, by 2055, is well known as one of the first “major climate change events”.
• Jeh Wadia in Mumbai aims to start-up a new low-cost airline and gets a million Indians flying.
• Layefa Malemi lives in absolute poverty in a small village in Nigeria from which Shell extracts tens of millions of dollars worth of oil every week. She dreams of becoming a doctor, but must fish in the oil-infested waters for four years to raise the funds.

• Jamila Bayyoud, aged 8, is an Iraqi refugee living on the streets of Jordan after her home was destroyed - and father killed - during the US-led invasion of 2003. She’s trying to help her elder brother make it across the border to safety.

• Piers Guy is a wind farm developer from Cornwall fighting the NIMBYs of Middle England.

• 82-year-old French mountain guide Fernand Pareau has witnessed his beloved Alpine glaciers melt by 150 metres.

Our impressions? This is a highly moving film. During the premiere the audience gasped, cried and laughed. It is that diverse. It is probably the most profound movie you will ever see and makes "An Inconvenient Truth" very dull. Al Gore's work is commendable but is just a polished delivery with a little emotion during the end-titles. "The Age of Stupid" is different. With the same peer-reviewed mainstream science it manages to connect directly to the heart as well as the head. Although the timescales are little accelerated, for dramatic effect, it studies how Climate Change will impact people's lives. It also voyages into controversial waters by touching upon peak oil, consumption, corruption in politics and recent wars-for-oil. If you liked "An Inconvenient Truth" or "The Day After Tomorrow" you will love this more. If you are intrigued about our near future and what we should do about it - watch this movie. Go see it, then see it again, then take all your friends and family. It will knock your socks off and scare you silly. It will haunt you for the rest of your life. There are so few movies where you'd expect to be telling your children about it in twenty years. But this IS one of those movies. Expect it to become a MASSIVE hit with somewhat of a cult-vibe. Do NOT miss this at the cinemas. Your life will never be the same.

Saturday March 14th '09 - BTCV Community Gathering

We attended the BTCV Community Gathering at Amersham & Wycombe College, Stanley, Amersham on Saturday 14th March 10.30am to 3.30pm.  Learn more here:

• http://www2.btcv.org.uk/tandc_eac_gathering.pdf

• http://www2.btcv.org.uk/display/btcv_thamesandchilterns

Wednesday March 11th '09 - Energy Efficiency/Microgeneration Training

Thanks to everyone who came down to the Environment Centre on Wednesday evening (11th March) for an Energy Saving & Microgeneration teach-in with Lesley and Derek from Wycombe District Council. It was a very enjoyable one-and-a-half hours and much was learnt. There was much excited talk around the table as different individuals discussed the pros and cons of the various ideas they had tried at home. It was clear that everyone involved was already quite experienced 'dabblers' all eager to learn more on how the Council represent these issues to the public. It was also very good networking as it gave TTHW and WDC more time to chat.

One thing we agreed upon would be for TTHW to help WDC, on an informal basis, at the up and coming Technology Showcase at the Reggie Goves centre on the 21st March. So we walked away with a massive box of brochures!

Wednesday March 4th '09 - Our Blogs starts with the Bucks Free Press

Regular visitors will now have noticed our new link to the Bucks Free Press blogs. We started posting to our long-awaited blog this week, kicking off with a piece on stupidity in Television Documentary making which lead us nicely to a plug for "The Age of Stupid". One person wrote in to complain the piece was too 'preachy'. What ever next? A pope being too catholic? Afterall, aren't Bloggers meant to be opinionated? Oh well. Click the button on our lower menu bar for the "BFP Blog" and find out for yourself. Controversial or not - these are the views of our members. See if you agree with them.

Saturday February 14th '09 - Allotment Exhibition Opens

On Valentines Day this year the Transition Town High Wycombe's Food Group launched its "Community Allotment" Exhibit at the Environment Centre on Holywell Mead. The show kicked off at 11am with a short introduction by the Chairman before the floor was given over to the Food Group's Celia Carter who gave a speech on the history and value of allotments. Unfortunately Jenny Rogers - a fellow Food Group member - was not able to make the day (due to ill health) after all her hard work on the exhibit. The opening was well attended with Environment Centre Trustees, local Councillors and the local press turning up to cover the event.

The event was over-shadowed by the sudden and bizarre closure of the allotments on Bassetsbury Lane due to alleged "contamination". We are ascertaining the facts but believe it to be a trivial issue concerning the previous use of the area as 'landfill' dating back hundreds of years. Hopefully it should be back in operation in a few days. However we were all mightily cheered up by Councillor Trevor Snaith who kindly bestowed upon us a cheque for £150 on the day. Thanks Trevor!

Monday January 5th '09 - Workshop with District Council

Sunday December 14th '08 - Work Starts on Transition Allotment

The first ground has been turned at the new Transition Town High Wycombe Allotment. On Sunday morning Julian, Spencer, Justin and Celia (of the Allotment Group) arrived for the first dig. Bad colds prevented two further team members from making it on the day. However the digging will continue through the Christmas break. Spencer's son William certainly made up for the absentees! 10 square meters of ground was cleared in addition to a similar size area uncovered by the removal of tarpaulin. Hot Tea kept the team going although the mulled wine failed to show as poor Frances was tackling computer problems! Please let us know if you wish to join the team. We are seeking Experienced Gardeners and local Permaculturists to advise us. Can you help?

The current plan is to divide the plot up into demonstration segments. One will follow conventional UK gardening techniques. The next will follow permaculture techniques, ie, a forest garden. One will have raised borders. Other plots will experiment with "no dig" techniques and anything else we find in the books that we would like to try. It will be a great chance for us to learn and share skills. We'll start an Allotment page on this web site so you can track progress. But why just watch? Please come and help!

Thanks to Julian for the photo-journalism!

Saturday December 6th '08 - TTHW hit the streets of London

6th December saw a mass rally in London by thousands of Climate Change protesters. A few members of the TTHW team went along to experience the day. (Although the Transition Network takes no formal part in demonstrations, campaigns, rallies, protest or lobbying, many individuals and Transition Towns do support such initiatives apolitically.) We met up at High Wycombe Station at 9.30am and caught the train. We met up with friends in town before heading off to the rally point at Grosvenor Square. Although we had no banners or placards we were soon given some by the Green Party and the Campaign for Climate Change. Soon 5000 people had turned up and we set off for Parliament. The march took us through Mayfair, down Berkeley Street, left along Piccadilly, through lower Regent Street, left into Trafalgar Square and then down Whitehall. Finally in Parliament Square we were treated to speeches by various people including Caroline Lucas MEP, Nick Clegg MP (Leader of the LibDems) and John McDonnell MP (Hayes & Harlington). Sadly Michael Meacher MP and George Monbiot did not show up as promised. This peaceful day coincided with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Poznan, Poland, as well as similar marches and rallies in multiple countries around the World. We rubbed shoulders with a diverse range of groups including other Transition Towns, environmental groups and charities. The march was enjoyable - more carnival than protest, but it was clear from the speeches that many campaigners are tired of marching and are ready for action. Political and public.

Click here for a full review of the day in pictures.

Sunday November 23rd '08 - TTHW Allotment Team Prepare for Battle

It was a rather cold and wet Sunday afternoon when a small band of TTHW folks joined forces for a walk down to the new Transition Town High Wycombe Allotment. We have kindly been granted access to use one-half of an allotment allocated for the Environment Centre. We were joined by two mullers from Haddenham and Thame who wanted to know what it was like setting up a Transition Town. We shared our experiences later on over hot tea and mince pies courtesy of our friends at the Environment Centre.

Saturday November 22nd '08 - Free Banner Ads Launched

Regulars on our web site will have noticed something new appearing at the bottom of each web page. Free banner ads have now been added in support of our friends, neighbours, affiliates and members. Normally web sites charge for adverts but, in true Transition spirit, we see this as us supporting our community. So far we have got adverts from Post Carbon Living (Carbon Cutters), Biofuel Refineries & the Environment Centre with a promise or more from Renewable Heat Solutions and Baregardens. If you have any ideas for organisations and businesses that might benefit then drop us a line.

Tuesday November 18th '08 - TTHW becomes Official Town in Transition

Congratulations everyone! After our application to the Transition Network we were sent an E:Mail by Ben Brangwyn who confirmed our application was successful. We went "live" at the same time as Montpelier (USA), Belsize (London), Lancaster (England), Peterborough (Canada) and Portland (USA).

Monday November 3rd - TTHW provide "Much food for thought" - WDC

Wycombe District Council's Strategy Department has welcomed Transition Town High Wycombe's constructive inputs to WDC's "Towards a Sustainable Economic Prosperity Strategy - Discussion Document". This was received by the Team in late August 2008. We constructed a formal response which was sent on to WDC in mid-September 2008. By early November we received a letter from WDC stating that they found our comments "very valuable". All the feedback from various groups in the area have been compiled into a matrix which will go on to final consultation steps in early 2009. The Matrix states that the TTHW response has provided "much food for thought". These three documents are downloadable here:

• WDC's Consultation Document

• TTHW's Formal Response

• WDC's Consultation Matrix

The WDC have suggested that they hold a workshop with TTHW to "examine and explore" all the issues raised in the formal response. They go on to describe how WDC require a "range of policy options for future economic development that reflect a decline if fossil fuels and therefore the need to consider renewable energy – scope to shape around a think tank approach". Furthermore they told us they would review the action plan to "strengthen activity to support local produce" and "consider position and role of renewable energy". The WDC has promised to look "beyond the green agenda" as well as "review core value to reinforce seeking low carbon footprint/high renewable element from development". Concerning our views on transportation WDC say "Yes there needs to be a shift towards more sustainable/accessible forms of transport which currently points towards foot, cycle and public transport". The general response can be summed up with their words "The impact of the depletion of fossil fuels and need for renewable energies has been considered and is something that requires a debate around a radical policy approach which it is hoped that the current strategy will facilitate over the coming months and years. The bottom line is that this debate needs to be at a higher level given its strategic nature – the goal of the current strategy and associated processes will be to start a debate that secures support and input from all stakeholders and, as a result, mainstream the issues".

Sunday November 2nd - TTHW Meet Local Biofuel Pioneers

Local Biofuel pioneers Nitesh Patel, Alan Teoh and Alex Liao welcomed a small team from TTHW to their brand-new Refinery in High Wycombe this month. This preliminary visit was set up to gain a better insight into the workings of their business and whether it offered a sustainable way forward. Although biofuels have gained a bad reputation (when sourced from imported palm oils grown on former-virgin forest areas) this should not close our minds to the possibilities of converting local used cooking oil into diesel for essential local services. The visit actually proved far more interesting than we imagined if only because it was so easy to get caught up in the enthusiasm of Biofuel Refineries' small team who - by all accounts - work unpaid 24/7 in an unheated cattle barn to launch their enterprise. (Our hearts certainly went out to them on the chilly afternoon we popped in to see them.)

We sat down over a cup of tea to learn about making biodiesel, the opportunities and the problems (which include finding both supplies and customers). We learnt on their pride in what they are doing and were impressed by their entrepreneurial spirit. Once we were satisfied that they were genuinely recycling a waste product (from the London area) we pledged them our support in winning both a secure local supply of raw material but also local commercial customers. We will be happy to line them up as the first external affiliate to TTHW (to be confirmed). In turn they listened to our numerous suggestions including the idea to hold a formal opening by someone such as Prince Charles (they already supply his Royal Train) to launch the business onto the public consciousness.

TTHW team members and members of the public are all welcome to join us on future visits. Contact us and we'll set something up. Or call Alex on 07894 353818. We'll also be sure to be there as guests of honour at their formal unveiling next year. To learn more about Biofuel Refineries in High Wycombe please download their Factsheet. You can find them at Unit 6, Abbey Barn Business Centre, Abbey Barn Lane - opposite the entrance to the ski slope.

www.biofuelrefineries.co.uk

Friday October 31st - It's All Good News

After our chat with the Bucks Free Press we made a feature article on their web site the very next day. We would like to thank them for their work. However the original web site article went under the title "Oil Crisis Survival Project" which earnt a comment from the Chairman to the paper. By the time of the Friday print copy this had, thankfully, been changed to "Town Faces 'new reality' " headline. It was nice to see our friends from High Wycombe Friends of the Earth on the same page (Sam pictured with graffiti wall) plus an article on the expansion of recycling facilities in the town centre. We remain a little mystified by two of the comments. We wonder if our colleagues over in Lewis, Kinsale or Totnes had to face so much venom? We can only guess the new reality is not for all.....

Saturday October 25th - TTHW Chilterns Showcase

We had a busy day on the 25th when the TTHW crew trooped off to the Chilterns Shopping Center in High Wycombe. We set up our stall and tried to tempt passers-by with a competition/quiz to win our sumptuous basket of local fruit, vegetables, jam, honey and bread. The quiz was a ten question multiple choice one on energy & sustainability. Congratulations to Kathryn Day who won that prize with a good score of eight out of ten. In town that day both the RNLI and the Friends of the Earth were on show. Local FOE were campaigning with a petition to MP's to firm up decisions on Renewable Energy targets in Parliament. Meanwhile, in the Chilterns the Royal British Legion launched their Poppy Appeal for the year. This gave us several wonderful opportunities. First we had an interview with the Bucks Free Press. Secondly we had a quick chat with a very busy local MP Paul Goodman and, last, but not least, an equally quick chat with an equally busy Mayor. They all walked away with our brochure and an invite to our Film Shows. We should also give our thanks to Sam at High Wycombe Friends of the Earth who kindly agreed to give out our brochures in exchange for TTHW promoting the FOE Petition at our stand.

Impressions of the day were very favourable and the team enjoyed the event. We had a broad slice of the population stopping to take an interest - all ages and communities. Maybe the low point was the sad reflection of one elderly gentleman who told us that he was very glad to be old in the face of Climate Change. However there were many high points and humorous moments. One lady berated us for a Parking Fine confusing us with Wycombe District Council. We had a local lad, working on an Eco-schools project, take a great interest in our Peak Oil display. Many small children enjoyed the opportunity to stroke our roll of Black Mountain Sheep's Wool Insulation as the grown-ups filled in the quiz. Two youngsters, at the end of the day, returned three times to try and have multiple goes at the quiz. Finally they dragged their mum along to help.

Thanks to the Management at the Chilterns Shopping Centre for hosting the event and being so helpful to us on the day. Thanks to everyone who took part and the various friends, family and volunteers who turned up to help. Big thanks to everyone who donated various items for the hamper. Thanks to Julian for the Quiz and a big thumbs up for Frances who battled the flu to stitch together our wonderful banner. Our biggest thanks of the day must go to Celia for arranging everything and for pulling in so many members of the public to do the quiz. It was smashing.

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