Blackdown Hills Transition group

The local churches: meeting places for hundreds of years, offering a feeling of community, support and care and social contact.

A locally strong sense of general community and neighbourliness, together with an attitude of “let’s get on with it” and “yes we can!”  This strength is evident in groups such as the Blackdowns Support Group with over 100 active volunteers.

Good communication channels across the CBO area, through the CBO Parish magazine, the way people put info up on telegraph poles, and good old rural gossip grapevines.

The way in which local schools are so strongly supported and valued.  Some have school gardens, offer after school care/extended hours, pre-schooling, Forest Schools and eco clubs, as well as encouraging walking and cycling to school.

The CBO community bus, with 23 accredited drivers and over 35 member groups

Great local food and drink production, providing for basic needs as well as luxuries.  The Culm Valley organic veg farm, for example, delivers veg boxes, and there are monthly rotating village markets too.  People who want allotments have got them, and others grow their own veg in their back gardens.

Natural environmental resources such as wind, water, land, trees and methane, all potential providers of energy

The very high level of creative people living and working in the Blackdowns, both artistically creative, and people with a strong sense of entrepreneurialism

The current grant system in which the Blackdowns is a priority area for investment for economic and other kinds of development.

Primary Schools could have sustainability higher up on the agenda, but find themselves fire fighting to stay financially viable

A community shop

A more active food group

More vegetables available at local markets

Food co-ops for shared buying, with somewhere to store stuff

Exploitation (in the nicest possible way!) of natural resources such as wood, water, wind

More capacity (skills, knowledge, time) to tackle the grant system processes

Local transport that had more buses, car clubs, car shares, together with safer ways to cycle and walk

Changing more people’s attitudes, expectations and behaviours

More intensive use of the resources we already have e.g. the community bus

Bringing more like minded people out of the woodwork, through tapping in to what may motivate them, coming up with a catalyst of some kind to excite people, or readying the group to help when there is a “shock to the system”. 

Recognising just how much it helps to have people who have already thought about how to respond to “shocks”, as well as examples of practical actions that can be rolled out or duplicated.

Recognising that people may be hooked through different agendas, including healthy eating, grow your own, home insulation, cutting bills etc.

To come up with a project that would inspire community ownership e.g. PV on village hall roof, insulation of village hall walls

Getting small groups of people together for example through using the Transition Together handbook

Use this list as a possible agenda for a next meeting.

And for people who are still to start up a local group, screen a film with a post film chat, and have a plan for how to follow up if people want to do more.