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Copland Neighbours - updates and stories

This section gives a snapshot of some of the actions, discussions and activties of this group as they progress through the programme (most recent session first):

Copland Neighbours Big Lunch -What a Good Day!

 
It was blustery enough for Winnie the Pooh on Sunday 19th July but that didn’t keep the Copland Meadowers from their al fresco lunch! Tablecloths firmly clipped down and umbrellas anchored, about 50 neighbours gathered together to share good local food, and excellent company. This was the “Copland Meadows” Big Lunch.

The Eden project’s big lunch idea was to bring our streets to life, get neighbours, often made strangers by busy lives, to share some of their time.

The Copland Meadows event was organised by a group of neighbours who have been working together on a “Transition Together project” as part of Transition Town Totnes. Over the last few months they spent several evenings working out ways of becoming more environmentally friendly by sharing their ideas and information. Most did not know each other before. They saw so many benefits from meeting each other and enjoyed it so much that they decided to set up the street’s Big Lunch and invite all 70 houses to join in.

The response was fantastic. Everyone who came brought something to share so the food was excellent, and plentiful. There were people of all ages, many of whom had not even set eyes on one another before!

“So what number are you?” was the most frequently heard question. This often followed by musings about how time rushes by so fast that we don’t leave enough of it to make moments like this, to say “Hi, how are you?”

This turned out to be not just good food and company but a surprise world premiere event as well! Glen Park performed a song she had written about Transition and the Big Lunch, very ably accompanied by Dave Harwood. (Garage music at its very best!)

Copland Meadows Big Lunch was a success on so many fronts: we all met neighbours we had not spoken to before; we shared our food and drink with each other; we shared our thoughts, life experiences and ideas, children who didn’t know each other met and played with each other; we began conversations we can pick up on later; we felt like a community.
Many thanks to Barbara Hales for organising us and to Liz and Mike Waterson and Maggi and Keith Fielder for sharing their garden space and much more, to enable this to go ahead.  And thanks to Copland Meadowers for being neighbours! - Carole Whitty

Session 6: Getting around

Discussion on the difficulties of travelling by public transport...  Malcolm wondered why it is that in Germany it is so much easier to get around.  (Integrated tickets and transport system?). Keith said that you can register with the Internet Line.  Also look at the man in Seat 61 on the Internet for planning journeys across Europe.  We, as a group, feel that the transport system here is so complicated.  Not user friendly.  [We need a more integrated system – this would encourage people to travel on public transport more].

CYCLING/WALKING - Barbara's daughter had to stop cycling because she was breathing in the fumes – which made her asthmatic. Malcolm talked about the health benefits of going by bike, as well as the sense of being part of beautiful landscape. Maggi said that she would like to cycle more, but being asthmatic, she is thinking of getting an electric bike – (the electric bit for the hills). The discussion then went on to the lack of safe places to park our bikes (especially for an electric one).  And we needed clear signs to show where the bicycle ‘park’s would be.  Malcolm suggested, if you had a really nice bike, making it look less attractive, therefore less likely to be stolen!

Carole mentioned the lack of integrated planning for the new primary school at Dartington.  Everyone will have to get their children there by car as it is too dangerous for the children crossing the roads in that chaotic traffic system.  Local peoples’ objections didn’t make any difference.  She felt this was an example of how Planning doesn’t work with the intention not to use the car. Some of us already do multiple tasks when we have to take the car out for one reason or another, e.g. going to the recycling centre, charity shop, etc. as well as whatever purpose we had to use the car for…Tommy mentioned Panniers for bike.  You could easily push the bike back after shopping, with proper panniers.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT - Buses are inconvenient – not enough when you want them, to the places you need to go ….  Difficult to time.   Barbara has tried to take buses to work – but the times do not match up, so it does not help, especially if you are taking someone to the doctors for instance. Maggi mentioned that if you wanted to get from, say, Totnes to Princetown (Dartmoor) on the bus  -  there is not a timetable which covers the whole journey, as each area has it’s own and does not give out other (neighbouring) areas timetables. This is not user friendly and doesn’t encourage Tourists, for instance, to use an alternative to the car – even if they want to (which quite a few of those who come to us do).

FLYING - we all agreed there needs to be an international coherent solution. Someone in the group mentioned the family in The Age of Stupid who didn’t accept the free flights they had been offered because they didn’t want to add to the emissions problem, BUT others would have taken their seats … and enjoyed the holiday.  And the plane would have gone anyway, even if only half full – so in a way it is better if it is going to go, to be full. [Ed: yes but they will keep going so long as we are all creating a demand! The only way to reduce demand, and so the number of seats on planes, is to stop flying - then fewer flights will be put on as they are all half empty and therefore not profitable!].  Hence we need an international solution to this.

WWF and Friends of the Earth are not happy about people buying trees to offset carbon emissions, because who is going to look after the trees once planted?  There needs to be follow-through on this.  It’s not just a question of planting trees … there needs to be follow-through to see that they are cared for on an onpoing basis.  And that is not happening in India, for instance (according to Mark Tully –  BBC’s India Correspondent).

Discussion re. India and China – who don’t see why they shouldn’t have the things that we have had for so long.  This is why we need international laws to deal with the problem. Carole thought that if travel broadens the mind – and we have travelled extensively – but other countries haven’t had that benefit – and we have the luxury of saying OK we will reduce our travel – but may be they are going to have to travel and meet some of us and have that dialogue.

Maggi thought that those countries could be a wonderful resource.  They could  teach us how to live on less.  When you walk down the streets of India, especially in the evening, you see all the ‘recycling wallas’.  They recycle everything (old bicycle tyres, for instance, to make new soles for shoes or vice versa).   Their imagination and creativity is amazing … (it has to be because they are so poor). If somehow they could – or we could help them – realise what a wonderful RESOURCE they are/they have.  May be there could be educational travel programmes (instituted perhaps by the British Council) … for people from such countries to visit us in the West to see first hand the problems we have created (or will they just  be glamourised by the materialistic way of life once they get here?) – and to hopefully realise the resources they actually have (recycling-wise), which could help us and them, as perhaps we could pay for their ‘expertise’ in some way… so that they could have more wealth, but in an eco-friendly way … 

CAR CLUBS - [Ed: See www.moorcar.co.uk and register your interest] - Maggi has phoned Jeremy Farr who runs the Moor Car car club (based in Chudleigh) – mentioned in the Workbook. He has spoken to just about everyone who is anyone who would be able to help.  He says that out of all the places he deals with Totnes has by far the most people wanting to car share. The locations, if such a car club were available here, would be:

- the station
- High street
- Bridgetown

He would love to have Copland Meadows on the website list – for any of us who were prepared to join the scheme.  And the more people we could get to join the better …  If anyone were prepared to let their car be used in the car share scheme that would be really helpful.

Maggi wondered (if one were to donate one’s car to the car club) – about the cost of insurance, tax, repairs etc. – and whether people would look after the car properly.  Jeremy said that in his experience people who car share look after the car better than their own, as they know it will be used by other people.

Glen has done a car share with a neighbour.  She would be willing to do a Copland Meadows one.  We could talk about that at the Big Lunch.Tommy thought we could not only share cars, but lawn mowers, wheel barrows, leaf-blowers etc. etc.  We should make a list - ACTION POINT FOR FUTURE MEETING AGENDA.

LIFT SHARING (shopping) - Tommy – we all know we need to do a shop at some point during the week.  We could coordinate it. Maggi suggested we could email one another when we were going anywhere – or knew we’d be likely to go somewhere – to see if anyone needed any shopping. Glen goes to M&S every 6 weeks. Malcolm goes to Sainsbury once a week – every Tuesday. M and K don’t have a specific day for shopping, but will email to see if anyone wants anything when they are going, e.g. to Riverford. Keith said there was a free bus to M&S.  To check. Keith thought we need a MESSAGE BOARD – email to the whole group so you could just offer a lift or whatever.

Holidays in the UK: All agreed we had had wonderful holidays here. Malcolm loves ‘Singing Camp’ on Dartmoor with Daverick Leggatt and Brad Richcouer. Glen – good beaches in Cornwall where you can body surf (i.e. surfing with a smaller board than a surf board); walk coastal path. Good music and literature festivals. Walking holidays with a theme (e.g. making cider, painting etc)  in Dorset and Devon.

GENERAL - Carole showed us a book – SDUK2050 – from the Gov’t/Council?.  She wondered how the Government can get people to do these things? Keith thought it had to be economical. Tommy thought that with Obama in power things could change. Glen said that the ozone layer is reducing, so we have done things in the past … so we can do other things.

People felt that this chapter is the most ‘drastic’ (obviously why it’s last).  These are the biggest changes people have to make and the ones most likely to be last …

Session 5: Wasting away

VERDICT ON ‘THE STORY OF STUFF ' DVD - it was really worth watching.  Local schools could watch it.  We should find out if they do watch it, if not, encourage them to do so. 

The group felt this was very good: entertaining as well as serious and thought-provoking.  People felt this was more what ‘The Age of Stupid’ could have been like.However, some of us felt that – although excellent – it could have given more info. on WHAT we can do to reduce waste.  More ideas on how we can go about reducing it, as it did leave you on a bit of a cliff-hanger as to what one could do.

BIGGER PICTURE: Where is the cut-off point on when it is cost effective to replace something old with something new?  It’s difficult to get old things repaired.  After a certain time you can’t source spare parts any more…… That is obviously the cut-off point. There also comes a time when you are spending more money to re-use something than to buy new … another cut-off point.

There was mention of a number of places where one could take things you no longer need for recycling, e.g. ReFurnish (bottom of Wills Road, just off Babbage Road –  take furniture etc).

Tommy wondered if we had evidence that the stuff we put in for recycling really gets to where it’s supposed to.  Does it really get recycled?  Malcolm had come across an instance in Germany where it was NOT recycled at all. Barbara had seen different coloured sacks being flung into the same compartment in the dust lorry.  When she queried this they said they would sort it out at the other end.  (So what was the point of putting it in different bags in the first place?). Carole felt this is a very important point and wanted to raise this as an issue to check on. ACTION:  Carole  (see response below)

Here is an email from Chris Lucas, Head of Environment Services at SHDC to Tony, which explains what happens to recycling collections in Totnes:

‘We have found that due to the success of the dry recycling scheme the caged vehicles were struggling with the amount of material being placed out.  We trialled placing the sacks in a refuse compaction vehicle.  It was found that less than 5% broke.  On days when we drive directly to our processor at Plymouth the processor separates the sacks on the floor and then the material is processed in the normal way.  That is paper in one direction, Plastics and cans in the other.  On the days when we take the material to Torr Quarry we employ a person to again separate the sacks on the floor.  We then transfer the material in larger lorries to Plymouth. We still achieve 99% recovery.

Another issue we have with the caged vehicles is a health and safety issue in that the sacks have to be loaded by hand.  When the vehicle gets about half full, the sacks have to be thrown up high onto the ever increasing pile on the back of the vehicle.  We are at present looking at bringing on more refuse compaction vehicles which will take away the health and safety issue.

You have my assurance that the material is not going to landfill.  If the system did not work then I would not continue with it. Best regards, Chris Lucas’

Tony said there was another issue: different places have different methods of dealing with the waste.  So you can’t save money on doing things on a larger scale, because “all of the districts do it differently. It is one of the arguments for a Unitary Devon, that one system could operate across the whole County. Locally West Devon, SHDC and Teignbridge are looking to integrate their operations, which should eventually give them the ability to save money. It is referred to as Integrated services and they are working with the county as well on this to achieve economies of scale in different areas”.  (Tony).

Recycling

Embossed on the base of many plastic objects is the recycling triangle logo with a numeral inside.  Barbara thought it would make quicker and more accurate sorting to follow instructions such as ‘plastics numbered 1 to 4 can be put in the blue sacks, Numbers 5 and 6 can be recycled at the Babbage Road site; the rest has to go in the grey bins for landfill’.  Examples can also be given, as at present, e.g. shampoo bottles, yoghurt pots, not flowerpots.

Glen thought we could have a different Copland Meadows person for different recycling initiatives, e.g. Tommy with the bottle tops, and other people could do other things – other ‘drops’, e.g. juice carton drop etc. ACTION:   Carole suggested we should all think this through before the next meeting.

The discussion then turned to ‘hangers’ for plastic bags to go on.  Tommy mentioned Reba Hangers.  www.rebahangers.co.uk.

Session 4: Spend less, eat well

We had a very constructive, creative and fun evening!  The group bond is getting even stronger and people are taking the initiative to help one another with various ‘projects’.  See below.

COPLAND MEADOWS LUNCH!

Lunch initiative with locally grown food.  We could create a Copland Meadows Lunch … have tables in the street, or in one another’s houses; each one of the team could do something different i.e. something that each one specialises in, e.g. Maggi’s breakfast.: with home made Almond milk, Bio-Muesli (made with sprouted oat groats), fruit etc. Barbara suggested we could have each course in a different houses. Liz felt this would help to build community and trust – and Maggi hoped it might be an opportunity to interest people in what we are trying to do

ACTION:  Discuss street party  at next meeting

Growing our Own Food

We could do something similar with growing our own food, take small steps, start in small ways. Food share:  we could plan our shopping list for say, two weeks.  Order from Riverford - A mini veg. box can last 1 and a half weeks. Liz had found that her food and meat boxes work out to about £30 per week – if planned carefully - and one could easily spend far more than that at the supermarket. Many of us are Vegetarian or chicken/fish (but no red meat) eaters …so we’d need to plan it carefully. ACTION:  MAGGI:  BRING UP AT NEXT MTG. TO ORGANISE

Buy sensibly and fair trade.  Tommy has been on at Morrisons to sell more Fair Trade and more Organic … and the supply of these is now going up. It was felt that it’s better to send an email to the Manager, rather than tell staff on the tills, who are too busy to deal with such comments.  Also, to frame what we say in a positive way.

Buy a £5 hand-whisk – really helps with making stock etc. from leftovers – can make delicious soups etc. – and the handwisk saves on electricity (and probably good exercise for the hand …?!).

Refills:  Riverford (farm shop) – do refills for Ecover (as does the Happy Apple - Ed). Landscove ‘Hillside Nursery’ do hanging baskets with tomatoes in. Recommended book: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver - story of a family who turned‘green’ growing own food etc.

Totnes Pound.  Difficulty getting hold of it? Glen thought one must make a point of  going to the TTT offices to buy it.  Liz agreed that we have to make a definite thing to do that, otherwise it won’t happen.  Because the more of us that use it the more it will work. (Ed: Buy it from Totnes Museum, Totnes Pet & Garden, the TTT office, Gazebo, the Cider Press Centre or Harlequin book shop).ACTION:  Everyone.  Buy your Totnes Pounds!

Recycling Bottles v. Cartons

We can recycle plastic cartons, juice cartons, milk cartons etc. and plastic containers at the back of the Civic Hall – in the car park behind the market place. Food containers can make good seed propogators though. Tommy is happy to take our (Copland Neighbours) plastic bottle tops for recycling.  We can leave them outside his door.ACTION:  ALL –Tommy can take our plastic bottle tops for recycling.

OTHER ACTION POINTS:

* Only take organic dairy produce - all. * We could share organic milk?

* Action re. Bigger Picture: lobby government etc.      

* Allotment:   we could share an allotment.  Tommy could look into this through his neighbour who might be willing to let us use part of his allotment – which is too big for him.  (Maggi has her name down for an Allotment, but will most likely take a long time to come up). ACTION: TOMMY

Lastly Glen shared a very exciting idea she had had, which we were all enthused by and will help her with it when the time comes:

BIGGER PICTURE/ACTION PLAN:

PHOTOVOLTAIC IDEA

Glen showed us her first draft, which she had prepared after seeing ‘The Age of Stupid’ film.  A one page letter, with tear-off slip, which we could take round to everyone in the street, to ask them if they agreed that it would be good for the government to provide PV cells for every house to help the environment. 

The cost would certainly be far less than all the money they have been paying out to bail out the Banks over the past few months and would also create new jobs.Glen is going to work on this a bit more (she has been in touch with Philip who makes PVC) and will send us a new draft.  Once approved we will all help her put it through all letterboxes in Copland Meadows.

- Take stamps with us which people can buy, to make sure they do send them off!

Better to send handwritten letters/envelopes rather than email.  Government takes more notice of handwritten ones.We could also send it to government, to other groups, other political parties.

Malcolm mentioned a company he knows of in the NE who are making PVCs for less than £2,000, as opposed to at least £7,000 in other places.  He is going to check with them and let Glen know.
 

Session 3: Spend less on water

We did  a 'photo call' this morning  with the Water Meter.  This was hilarious as our neighbour's water meter seemed to have disappeared. So we had a 'search for the missing meter!!!' - which involved various other people in the street - looking somewhat dazed -   some spontaneous photos (see below), a mobile phone call to the South West water, followed by a visit to the depths of our neighbour's cellar - where it was eventually located. Turns out that it is read by SWW using a wireless radio link, no less!

Liz Waterson (facing camera) and Maggi Fielder (looking down), reading Maggi and Keith's water meter. So far, so good...  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh no! Where's it gone?!  We lifted the lid .. but no meter inside ...  Those in picture:  Tommy Palm and Liz Waterson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Session 2: Spend less on energy

Bulbs
 

ACTION: If anyone wants any energy saving bulbs, Lidl have 5 for 40p. Michael says that the energy saving light bulbs have mercury in them.  Need to be disposed of at local recycling centre.

Electricity Monitoring

Malcolm has an electricity monitor.  Got free from electricity supplier.We had a discussion about switching off lights, computers, other electrical appliances. Some people felt that this can use up more energy than leaving them on, as every time you switch back on again there is an energy surge which can affect delicate electronic equipment. (Malcolm has seen the effect of this on his energy-saving monitor). ACTION (Everyone):  Check with our electricity supplier to see if we can get free or reduced energy-saving monitors. 

Turing off

Consensus was to leave computer on, but if out for several hours switch off then. Maggi mentioned turning off appliances at the socket at night.  Barbara said problem here because you’d have to reset the timings every morning. ACTION:  K and M to do this.

Cooking

Tommy would be interested to compare induction hob with ordinary cooker use. 

Thermostat

Setting thermostat at 18 degrees is very low (especially for those of us doing B&Bs). Could have individual thermostats in the bedrooms.Tommy felt having thermostats on each radiator was a good idea.ACTION:  Malcolm to ask his friend about programming radiators; ACTION:  Malcolm and Tommy to work out ideal settings re. Worcester Boiler. Airing cupboards: could redistribute the heat from airing cupboard to other room/s.

Draught Proofing

ACTION:  Keith, Tommy, Malcolm to look at draft proofing.ACTION RE. RADON :   Barbara to dig out details of Radon test availability for next time. We discussed chimney balloons.  Liz said you can make one by putting an old duvet in a black plastic bag and stuffing it up the chimney. Keith/Maggi and Liz/Mike have phone no. of local double glazing company if anyone else needs it.

Loft Insulation

ACTION:  Malcolm will have more info. on loft insulation next time. 

Cavity Wall

We discussed this option, but most of our houses (at this end of the street) already had some cavity wall insulation when the houses were built, but not enough … but no room in the walls for adding more (K and M had already checked this out a few years ago). Maggi suggested possibly adding something to the inside of our houses, i.e. some kind of wall covering, which we could then paint.

Electricity Providers

Nancy talked about the importance of having an eco-friendly provider.  They have Good Energy, who also redirect some of their money for research into other renewables.

Session 1: Getting started

At the first session we agreed the following qualities which we will work with in our group:

  • Confidentiality (note that all the group info here on the website has been approved by the group first!)
  • Punctuality
  • Respect
  • Support

We also shared our individual aims and objectives, and compiled this single list of what we want to get out of this (along with some initial actions):

  • Building community
  • Share tips, lifts, plant cuttings, slug stories!
  • Communication
  • Solutions to supermarket ‘issue’
  • Support & enthusiasm
  • Addressing/shifting family & household expectations
  • Options for change
  • Ideas for practical action (e.g. Club together and buy a copland meadows wind turbine!!!!)
  • How we as a group can influence decision-makers
  • Understand covenants of our houses & other streets & town issues
  • Action:  Tommy to look out covenant and see what’s in it.  Do we need to check that its contents are being acted upon?
  • Recycling issues - finding uses for used paint etc.
  • Grants for home installations (e.g. Maggi has details re. Cavity wall situation at her place; Malcolm has details of Tesco’s free offers re. Loft insulation etc.).
  • Find out more of what is available in area …
  • Share/swap ideas and ‘grow each other’s ideas’ to enrich our lives
  • Big picture awareness

The following issues help set the context for what we'll do:

  • climate change
  • peak oil
  • global equity
  • resilience

.... we want to figure out what WE can do!