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News stories forFebruary to March 2001 |
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Launch of new publication – ‘The Sustainable Community -A Practical Guide’ |
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BBC presenter
considers slipping on her bikini in conservatory |
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Launch of new publication – ‘The Sustainable Community -A Practical Guide’
Based on the
experience of the Hockerton Housing Project (HHP), this 52-page guide aims to
help others plan and set up their own sustainable projects. Well illustrated
with easy to use layout. Foreword by The Co-operative Bank. The main sections are: ·
Key
Issues - The guide
identifies 28 key issues that are likely to need consideration, including
community, legal, financial, planning, and design subjects. For each issue an
explanation is provided of the main considerations, tips provided and details
of how HHP managed the issue. It should help decide which issues are
important to a particular project and whether to investigate them further. ·
Directory
of contacts of organisations linked
to key issues ·
Directory
of useful sources of information
linked to key issues ·
General
information about sustainable
communities, details on what attracts people to community living, and what
are the key blockages to developing a sustainable community ·
Fun
questionnaire to test your readiness
for living in a sustainable community. To order a copy,
send a cheque for £8.50 (includes £1
for postage and packing) made payable to ‘HHP
Trading Ltd.’ To: ‘The Watershed’, Gables Drive, Hockerton, Southwell, Notts NG25 OQU Or use order form . The order form includes special offers including this guide and other HHP publications. If you
completed a questionnaire last spring as part of the Sustainable Community
project, you will be receiving a complimentary copy in the next few days.
Energy saving begins
at home
Hockerton Housing Project is featured in the latest version of the educational website from the Guardian, www.learn.co.uk. There is a full article about the project, ‘Energy savings begins at home’, including images and some interesting graphics. The site is aimed primarily for teachers, students and parents, where you will find curriculum materials for the core subjects at KS4/GCSE. Learn.co.uk has a simple mission: to support, stimulate and succeed. We support teachers and promote success. On the website you will find lessons to support the national curriculum, resources for learners which build on the 200-year-old archive of the Guardian and the Observer and a unique range of online events. To see the Hockerton article, CLICK HERE However the article will be on line for a limited time only
Know How Workshops Interested in
sustainable living? Thinking of
setting up a sustainable community? Understand how
on our one day workshop. The workshop will enable you to. ü Discover how you can have low impact housing with out loss of amenity. ü Understand current leading edge thinking on planning and what local authorities are doing to promote sustainable developments – How to get planning permission! ü Learn the pitfalls from a group that’s actually done it. ü Dissolve some of the fears and apprehensions about communities. ü Discuss ideas and plans that you have with experts in low energy housing, renewable energy systems and social structures. ü Write a realistic action plan to further your ideas. The workshop will be held on the Hockerton Housing Project’s site, including interactive sessions, a tour of one of the zero heating autonomous houses and site and a slide show showing the construction methods. Coffee and biscuits will be provided but please bring your own packed lunch. Next Dates: Saturday 2nd June 10 am to 4.30 pm Saturday 21st July 10 am to 4.30 pm Cost £30
per person
Why not book a place NOW to secure a place on this popular
course by email hhp@hockerton.demon.co.uk or call 01636 816902 Match-Making Service
Are you looking to join a sustainable
community but can’t find one? Are you struggling to find others to start
a new sustainable community? Are you part of a sustainable community
looking for new members? Are you a
developer looking for buyers for your eco-homes? If yes, this service is aimed towards youWe are looking to develop a service over the next year putting people in contact with each other, thereby helping projects and people to develop their plans much faster. The service will provide: 4 Regular
contact lists of people and projects 4 Early
notification of new projects 4 Assistance in
finding contacts to develop your plans, including; ·
Green architects ·
Green builders ·
Manufacturers/suppliers of
green materials ·
Organisations/businesses
providing specialist advice If you are interested please send us an email requesting a registration form
Changing Places - Home – but not aloneHHP is the subject of a Radio 4 programme ‘Changing Places’. In it’s fifth series, Howard Stableford (ex Tomorrows World presenter) once again tells the extraordinary stories of ordinary people who are changing the place where they live, so creating new lives for themselves and those around them. Below is the BBC summary of the programme: Programme 4: Changing
Places 4: Home – but not alone. Thursday 29th March 2001 1600
-1630 Repeat: Sunday 1st
April 2001 2030-2100 Both
in rural Nottinghamshire and just two miles from the centre of Bristol,
ordinary people are building themselves the homes of their dreams whilst at
the same time creating a community with minimal impact on the environment. The Ashley Vale Self Builders have just
exchanged contracts on a two-acre site in Bristol, won by the local community
from under the noses of commercial builders, where they hope to build twenty
houses, together with office space and craft workshops, so providing jobs as
well as homes. Their plans also include housing association property for
senior citizens, and recreational areas. All this will added to a locality
already boasting strong community spirit, fostered in the existing City Farm,
organic food market, café, pub, nature reserve and allotments. Howard Stableford takes two members of the Ashley vale
community to visit the pioneering Hockerton
Housing Project in Nottinghamshire. Here five families have built
earth-sheltered housing, the first of its type in Europe where they live
together in a remarkable energy saving community. They generate their own
clean energy, harvest their own supply of water and recycle waste materials
causing no pollution or carbon dioxide emissions. But life here is far from
primitive – all the homes have TVs and computers – and rather than bring dark
and damp, the triple glazed conservatories give them an almost Mediterranean
feel! After two years of this lifestyle, they have discovered that
environmental sustainability has been relatively easy to achieve. It’s been much
harder to make the community economically or socially sustainable although
already they are cutting down food and transport costs and sharing child
care, and the eleven children certainly enjoy the unique playground of the
lake in front of their house which provides excellent swimming and boating
opportunities! The
whole discussion will challenge assumptions made by 99% of the population
that our present lifestyle if the only one possible. A dedicated web site will be available at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 giving the story of each of the projects and containing a very full contacts list of environmental and community groups, government organisations and other useful websites. For those without Internet access, printed pages from the site are available free of charge on request by ringing the BBC Radio 4 Action Line number 0800 044 044. There is also an invitation to listeners to contribute their stories as to how they have been changing places, with the possibility that they might be included in the next series, to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2001. They can do this by ringing BBC Radio 4 Action Line number on 0800 044 044, sending an e-mail to changing.places@bbc.co.uk or writing to ‘Changing Places’ BBC Natural History Unit, Broadcasting House Bristol BS8 2LR.
The Project was filmed and broadcast in the same week in March by BBC ‘Countryfile’. The programme covered the project set up and how the houses are designed to minimise energy use. However they also focused on two other aspects: (1) The design principles of the homes at Hockerton Housing Project (HHP) as a potential solution to building more homes to a higher energy efficiency standard. A link was made to a local speculative development, Millenium Green, that HHP helped inspire to integrate much higher levels of energy efficiency. A spokesman from the Government’s Energy Efficiency Best Practice programme was also interviewed and invited to comment on the need for higher standards. (HHP was monitored as part of the Governments’ Energy Efficient Best Practice Programme – A case study report was published last year - click here to find out more) (2) Link to the Government announcement in same week to increased funding of £100m towards renewable energy. The programme has produced one of the quickest and biggest responses that HHP has received after a media broadcast.
ZEN - Zero Emission Network (Update) The main activity in February was the research and collection of contact details of organisations, professions and businesses that are likely to be interested in the Zero Emission Network. These will represent the main source for the study phase and are likely to form the foundation of the Network and the Directory. During March we have
started the study phase, through development of questionnaires. One of these
will be mailed out to a wide range of organisations, business and professions
interested in low energy housing to guide development of Directory and
Network in the most effective and appropriate way. You may well have already been identified for ZEN. However, we would be glad to hear from you to confirm your interest or would like to be sent a questionnaire.
Carping on about a great success
Less than two years ago we
stocked the aquaculture lake with about 175 carp. The plan was to manage the
fish farming at a low intensity level so that it did not have a significant
impact on other wildlife associated with the lake, allow the fish to remain
healthy and provide some food & a small income. Apart from some early
losses to a local heron the fish seemed to prosper, frequently seen leaping
out of the lake and chasing about in shoals of 20 plus. In early February we
had half the lake netted to harvest some of the fish and check the health of
the stock. In all 66 fish were caught. The company that netted the fish has
been involved with carp for several decades and was surprised at how healthy
the fish were. In all the fish weighed in at a stomping 330lb, an average of
5lb/fish. Most of these were taken off for restocking fishing lakes. One was
enjoyed a week later at a group house party to much praise and surprise at
the quality of the taste.
We have used some of the proceeds from sale of fish to pay for restocking with Carp and Rudd. BBC presenter
considers slipping on her bikini in conservatory On Tuesday, the day of the Tony Blair’s announcement about increased funding towards renewable energy, the project was included as case study on Radio 5 live. With a satellite link up, Simon Tilley, resident in one of the homes was interviewed about the project in connection with the proposed extra Government spending of £100m on supporting solar, wind and wave power. It was all the more relevant since despite ice still on the lake outside, Simon and the Radio 5 presenter were bathed in the 25 degrees of solar warmth – all without costing a penny or a single puff of CO2 to produce. Indeed the presenter was so impressed by the warmth of the home that she felt wearing her bikini would not be so inappropriate. BBC Newsround
The Hockerton Housing Project featured in an episode of Newsround Extra on 16th February covering the subject of climate change. This is what the presenter Matt wrote on the BBC website for the programme. In
Nottinghamshire there are already attempts to do something to slow down the
changes. While politicians argue about how to stop the pollution, at a place
called Hockerton, children and adults have changed the way they live. They
recycle everything, grow their own food, they have no heating in their houses
and are kept warm by the good insulation on floors and ceilings. Each family
is allowed to own only one petrol driven car. The Hockerton project is
inspirational. It made me realize that although global warming is happening,
we can all do something to try to slow down Interested in a housing co-op? I and two friends (a family with three children) would like to get group of people together to buy somewhere in the country (SW favoured) and set up a housing co-op. The house would be renovated/run in a sustainable fashion i.e. low-energy, low, -water use, etc and hopefully there would be some land attached for organic growing. My friends are experienced organic growers and currently have their own allotments. The project is at the embryo stage so there is plenty of scope for someone to come in and help to shape it. Interested? Please e-mail Andrea Smith at hartesmith@yahoo.co.uk News from Plants for a Future (PFAF) (Taken from a recent email to us) Dear
Friends
I am writing to you because PFAF are planning to launch the opening
of Blagdon Cross plant research and Demonstration Gardens with a week long
PFAF convergence primarily an educational event we hope this will also act as
a celebration and benefit event. Plans include tours of the site, slide
shows, information stalls, craft and book sales, workshops, story telling,
live music, camping, vegan caterers and much more. We are hosting the event on an invitation basis only, it will be run
on a donations basis and stall/workshop space available or perhaps you just
want to come along. Please accept this letter as your invitation to become
involved. It is hoped to take place
in May probably towards the end of the month possibly Wednesday 23rd to
Wednesday 30th ‘ish’. This
is only an idea at this stage which we hope will develop as we receive
feedback to this letter. We have a few dates planned for May including hosting the south west
Permaculture Convergence and a couple of other courses, many other workshops
and courses are in the planning stages. The summer of 2001 is rapidly becoming booked up, what with tours and presentations too, PFAF will also be exhibiting at Gardeners World Live again and would love to hear from potential partners and sponsors. For more details of events and general news: Blagdon Cross,
Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon. EX21 5DF. Website: www.pfaf.org Tel: 0845 458 4719 Email: veganic@gardener.com A.C.T is an Ecovillage Trust and they want to hear from people interested in living in a healthy Ecovillage, built in and around Hafodunos Hall, a Grade One listed building in North Wales. The Trust also wants to hear from people who are interested in creating communities that work together to live in a more sustainable way and have an ethical/spiritual focus. At present the Trust is applying for detailed planning permission for a pilot project to use existing buildings on the site as an environmentally friendly Ecovillage, with workshops offices an other amenities. Contact : John Piddington, Tel: 01745 338373 Email act@north-wales.net Scottish Eco-Community NewsTaken from SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES NETWORK SCOTLAND
(SCNS), a Scottish Charity founded in 1998 to promote the development of
sustainable community projects in Scotland.
For further information about SCNS contact details are: 1. Tweed Valley Ecovillage Group Identify a Site
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