Welcome to Transition Town Wivenhoe!                           Join us on Facebook

July 2010 WE ARE CURRENTLY UPDATING OUR ONLINE PRESENCE... PLEASE GO TO OUR BLOG for the most up to date info re activities and upcoming events.

How you can get involved! (updated July 2010)

Join the Food Group, contact Petra McQueen for more info: petramcqueen[at]gmail.com 01206 823789

Join the Energy Group, contact Bob Mehew bobmehew[at]yahoo.co.uk 01206 822881

Transition & green chat, social and drinks  - is on hold over summer 2010.

Join the Initiating Group who meet monthly,  usually in the evenings, contact us for more info.

Come along to films/events/speakers, see the blog calendar

Blog - log in to comment or email us about becoming an author so you can post items of interest.

Please email us if you would like a copy of our current leaflet.


We are part of the UK  Transition Towns network. The project is grassroots-led and aims to engage our community in creating a positive vision of a low carbon and more resilient future, and working with others to make it happen,  in response to the challenges and opportunities presented by climate change and global peak oil.

Wivenhoe is a town of around 10,000 people located on the River Colne in Essex, in the east of England a few miles outside Colchester and is home to the University of Essex. 

If you are reading this and live in Colchester, a new transition group has started there, for more info call Robert 07847 167705 or email info@transitioncolchester.org.uk

See the 'About Transition Towns' page for more information about what Transition is all about and the official Transition Network website.

NB Transition Towns are not politically affiliated

Background to the Wivenhoe project
A group of residents came together  following the launch of the Wivenhoe Town Plan in late 2008 when people interested in the Transition Towns idea agreed to meet up to discuss whether we wanted to start a Transition project in Wivenhoe.

Since then we have formed an Initiating Group who meet regularly, and attended and run various local events to talk with people and build up a contact list, currently numbering 400+ residents who we regularly email out information to.

We are finding a high level of interest in the Transition idea; becoming more resilient, self sufficient and much less wasteful in all aspects of how we live, seems to appeal to a wide range of people of all ages. See below for more info on what we've been up to.

People are also attracted to the idea of re-learning and using lost or dying skills that will support and enable this transition to a lower energy way of life - skills around food growing, preserving and cooking, and having the skills and local resources to make and repair things that are essential to life, instead of constantly buying new and throwing away, and so on.  Almost everyone we talk to has responded positively to the ideas of:

• Increasing local food production

• Improving the energy efficiency of our buildings

• Developing local, small scale renewable energy

• Increasing cycling and walking and reducing car dependency
  

• Building a stronger local economy
  

We welcome partnerships with other groups and agencies and are already linking up with Wivenhoe Town Council,  Colchester Borough Council  Wivenhoe Town Football Club Wivenhoe Business Association, local schools, the University of Essex and others.

Transition groups around the country are setting up up land-share schemes, community orchards and Community Supported Agriculture to increase local food production; energy efficiency schemes and local renewable energy production and green building projects; local currencies and other initiatives to strengthen and support the local economy, suppliers and producers; car share clubs and cycle hire  services.


What we've done/are doing so far...
...formed an initiating group; written a constitution; 2 of us attended two day Transition Training run by the Transition Network; given talks to other groups; created this website; have been accepted as an official Transition Initiative; linked up with other Transition groups to share learning; design and distribution of a leaflet;  building a contact list via events we've attended (nearly 200 people so far); organised the current 3 month films programme; ran a community event with The Otesha Project UK; one of us attended the 2009 Transition Conference with 400 other people; we've written articles for local publications; partnered with Wivenhoe Library to start a resources shelf;  created a blog; attended the Eco Schools Summit in Colchester with a display to run bike powered screenings of The Story of Stuff for pupils and teachers with discussions afterwards; supported a group to get started in Colchester; started Transition/Green Drinks,
Jane 2010 update: Our application to the government funded research programme, the Low Carbon Communities Challenge, was not successful - 230 applied for just 10 places! This was done in partnership with Wivenhoe Town Council and Colchester Borough Council. We had wide ranging support from local public, private and community groups, as well as the Energy Savings Trust, and we will continue efforts to look at ways of delivering low carbon initiatives.
Feb 2010 Six of us attended Transition Talk Training delivered by the Transition Network and hosted by Colchester Borough Council, along with people from 9 other transition groups across East Anglia.
Feb 2010 Food Group started Seed Swaps @ the Farmers' Market.
March 2010 bike cinema @ VI Form College Green Week, showed Story of Stuff
March 2010 Joined over 40 people, including other transition groups from a 30 mile radius of Colchester for an interesting event about setting up Community Supported Agriculture schemes and Food Groups, organised by University of Essex with presenters from the Soil Association and Sustain.
March 2010 bike cinema @ Millfields School, Wivenhoe, for their energy week, showed 2 short films and powered music in the playground, accompanied by dancing and Mexican Waves!
March 2010 Gave a presentation to the Essex Rural Partnership meeting with Transition Stour Valley and Walden in Transition.
March 2010 Presentation for the Wivenhoe Society AGM.