Zero Carbon Castle

Love you bike day! Is your bike sitting in the shed feeling neglected and in need of some TLC? Not sure how to fix those little problems or get your bike into shape? Well on Saturday 11th July we have the event just for you! Transition cycles will be doing three free bike maintenance workshops. Also, the police will be security stamping bikes and there will be a family cycle ride along Route 51 with prizes and freebies for those finishing the ride! Bring a picnic and refreshments to enjoy in Willington.

If you can help by delivering some leaflets to advertise the day, then either comment on this blog or email  zerocarboncastle at hotmail.co.uk

Online letter writting tool

After a very long period and a reduction to only a fraction of the wind turbines, the council have not made a decision on the Santa Pod wind farm. Now more than ever, those who support the proposal should make their voice heard. Over 80% of windfarms in the UK are refused planning. This new online support tool emails the planning officer direct, whilst enabling you to tailor the response.

As a member of the Soil Association, I just received a request to sign their online petition to get neonicotinoids, the insecticides that are linked to the decline in bee population, banned in UK.  If anyone else is ineterested go to www.soilassociation.org/bees.aspx

kath

Which offer some generic details about car club prices (see http://www.which.co.uk/advice/car-clubs-explained/car-club-prices/index.jsp for eg.). It says that :

“Car clubs’ pay-as-you-go charges are usually based on a combination of time (from £3.95 to £8.95 an hour, depending on the company and the type of vehicle offered) and miles travelled (often 19p to 22p a mile). ”

But there’s loads more info on the web for those interested. The simplest of google searches and you’ll have more info than you’ll know what to do with!!!!!

The photos in this blog post are courtesy of Carl Munson and you can see a lot more images and podcasts.

This three day event, held in the centre of London, at the Battersea Arts Centre. Attended by 350 people from across the

The great hall at BAC

globe, of course the international nature was both ironic and inspiring, but there was something subtle but very different about this event. I’ll return to that later but firstly to the event itself. I arrived before the official start of the conference for an extra session on Community Supported Agriculture. Not knowing what this meant, during the session i went from not sure what to expect to thinking “oh my, what am i doing here” to a complete YAHOO moment, leaving totally inspired thinking i have to take this back with me to my group in Bedford.

My transition group will also be benefiting from all the little practical information that i picked up about EDAP planning and writing. A couple of other realisations about my group that i’ll take from the conference include, just how little we’ve needed conflict resolution and relationship management. Also, in my opinion, we’ve done well starting with a small geographical area, rather than the whole town of Bedford. We were unsure about this in the beginning but now i think we’ve got it right, keeping it personal and on a neighbour to neighbour level.

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The first ever Transition Bedford meeting is ready for the 22nd of June at the very beautiful Bunyan Museum and Church on Mill St in the town center. If you’ve never heard of the Transition Network take a look at this video clip for an introduction.

This an open meeting - free to attend – bring drinks and snacks to share and any photos and flyers of ongoing projects in your community. The overarching question is “Can Bedford transition to a sustainable and vibrant community?”

The Bunyan Museum has good town centre access for cycling and public transport and great big windows so no lighting needed.

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We’ve been talking about mapping these things for a while now and I thought we should get this organised so that we have a record of what could potentially be used for community use together with locations of trees  identifying unwanted fruit.

Stephen from Abundance Sheffield www.growsheffield.com who recently visited us on our food day said that they started with about 20 trees in the first year…not so many I thought! Lots of fruit off them though. There are lots of  trees in Goldington/Putnoe as well as the Saints/Kimbolton Road and Poets/off Shakespeare Road. I think with a bit of planning 20 aiming for access to 20 trees is definately feasible and likely. Oakley Environmental Group were looking at acquiring a fruit press with some other communities.

I am happy to help with mapping and knocking on doors. We need a plan/strategy and someone to lead this. Any takers? Also,  is there anyone that has the IT skills to help organise an online map where we could map specific locations (private and public) where (1) there are fruit trees and open spaces (2) the owner of the land is willing to let us harvest the fruit or use the land.

The Anglia in Bloom judges will be visiting Bedford in early July and our projects have been ear marked for definate visits. So we have to get moving and get them tidy and organised!

I am proposing to start a list of things that need to be done for the Eat Fish forest garden and the herb garden. Please feel free to add and update as you see fit.  Myself and Capt Carbon (AKA Spencer!) will get things rolling and our hands dirty this Thursday 28th if anyone cares to join us. 7pm prompt! We plan to bark the remaining areas of the herb garden as well. Bring barrows and tools if you’re planning to join us. If you’re not able to make it then but have other times when you can just check the list and diy! Please post here as and when you’ve  done any jobs etc.

TASK LIST:

remove waste in the two tonne bags to recycling centre Barkers Lane

chip herb garden (barrows and spades required!)

move remaining wood chip next to wood store (put into tonne bags)

prune underside of three remaining trees

map out social area and path using raised wooden edges - wood chip these areas

install 1000 litre water butt(s)  (locations within car park to be identified)

What does it all mean?

In this blog post the following questions are discussed but not answered;

1. What is a Transition Town.

2. What’s the difference between TB and ZCC?

3. How can ZCC support the creation of a TB?

4. Once a TB is up and flourishing how can it support ZCC and other community groups?

These questions have been discussed but not answered because it’s up to “us” i.e. Bedford as whole to answer these questions fully. You can join in the TB discussions here and please spread the word about the TB open meeting on Monday 22nd of June. Not only is it important, it could be said its essential, that the TB meeting brings together a divers group of community members and organisations that are interested or affected by the joint challenges of climate change and peak oil. So get your email address book out and start inviting!!!!

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Bedfordshire’s - Introduction to permaculture design

Permaculture ethical and design flower

A weekend course to introduce the basics of permaculture and show how this approach can be applied.

Date
Saturday 4th July; 9:30 start - Sunday 5th July 4pm finish.

Venue
Yelnow Organic Farm, Church Lane, Odell, MK43 7AD, North Bedfordshire.
Surrounded by Odell Great Wood             10 miles from Bedford & Northampton

Course tutor:
Hannah Thorogood

Who is the course for?
The course is open to anyone. No prior knowledge of permaculture is needed.

Find out all the details about the course here.