Transition towns

Last month I started attending Remade in Brixton meetings: this is a group of interested locals who collaborate to learn how a waste-free Brixton could work. Brixton, in south London, is the closest town centre to Pli’s workshop and if we’re going to learn how to work more closely with our local community, here’s where we need to start. Brixton also happens to be the location of my favourite cinema and Japanese restaurant, so I never need an excuse to get down there.

Lambeth Town Hall (photo: Steve Cadman)

Brixton is a Transition Town — a community led initiative to make a low-energy future viable and attractive for the people living in a particular town, with help and support from local authorities and businesses. Transition town initiatives get on with the job of creating a sustainable way of life in local communities without waiting for anyone else’s say-so. There’s a website all about transition culture that explains the values of the movement pretty well.

Lambeth Council held a Green Communities open meeting last Monday at the Town Hall, supported by lots of the groups who are working towards transition objectives under the banner of the Transition Town Brixton. The meeting was attended by councillors, council officers, and loads of volunteers. The Town Hall was full of visitors from 6 until 9 pm. I took along one of our Reee chairs to demonstrate manufacturing from recycled materials and got a good grilling from the visitors who wanted to know every little detail of the carbon footprint, manufacturing locations and raw materials. It was fun getting put through my paces.

Mark Shearer from Project Dirt introduced himself and his project–a social networking type online community for linking progressive people in south London. If you’re interested in ‘transition’ issues then Project Dirt is worth a look.

Like any community, there are people I agree with more, and others less, about our common needs and aims. I’m glad I’ve become involved in Transition Town Brixton through the Remade group. I feel a lot more connected to my community in Lambeth than before, and there’s a huge cross-over between my professional and personal interest in getting more involved over the coming months.

If you’re involved in a Transition Town movement in your neighbourhood, tell us about it here…