December 2008
As the festive season comes round again I have been reflecting on all that has unfolded over the past year.
It was around this time last year that a few folk locally came across the concept of Peak Oil - the end of being able to take for granted a cheap supply of oil - and all that will imply for our current way of life.
Well, that certainly got us thinking! But we were unclear what to do about it. Then a friend mentioned the Transition model of community response to Peak Oil and Climate Change. And that was the start of it....
A year on we are a constituted group and have done numerous awareness raising events around Giffordtown, Monimail/Letham and Collessie in the north of the Howe of Fife and have attracted some attention from the local press who have done an interview and have covered a number of our events. Out of a population area of under 1,000 people we now have 27 members and a contact list of 36 additional people/households – and rising.
Due to popular demand we have set up a Traveling Transition Tavern to fill the gap of having no remaining pubs in our area, and we are working in collaboration with the Letham Hall Committee on combined tavern and musical events – the ‘Letham Nights’. We have also piloted a community allotment idea in collaboration with Monimail Tower Project and are hopeful that this model can be developed in other villages in the area, where there is local interest.
So while all this was going on, more and more people were beginning to say that they would like to get involved in other practical ways and we got the sense that the group was ready to move onto the next stage of Transition. We held a public meeting in November, with a presentation on the transition model followed by discussion and the formation of our Transition Action Groups on Food, Transport and Energy, to add to our existing Events group and a coordinating group to help it all hang together!
Although our Food group is already off to a flying start, the official launch of the Action Groups will be at the upcoming Letham Nights event on Friday 12th December. Over the next couple of months we plan to begin work on a vision of local, sustainable living for 2025 and to identify the first practical steps that we can take now in the areas of Food, Transport and Energy. We are hopeful about obtaining grant funding next year to support us with these plans.
With best wishes and hopes for 2009 – a year of growing awareness, growing community and growing food!
Leilani van Koten,
Chairperson,
North Howe Transition Toun.
The North Howe Transition Toun is an Unincorporated Not-For-Profit Association that covers the community council areas of Collessie, Giffordtown and Monimail/Letham and aims to work on addressing the issues around Peak Oil and Climate Change on a local level.
Postal address: Monimail Cottage, Monimail, Cupar, Fife, KY15 7RJ.
Contact: Leilani van Koten, Tel. 01337 810 346 or leilani@dsl.pipex.com
