Transition Ashtead

Transition Ashtead is One Year Old! Please join us for a Fund Raising Curry Night to celebrate!

It’s at The Moghul Dynasty, Craddocks Parade, Ashtead
On Tuesday 20th April, 7.30 pm
£15 per ticket

Contact Derek Smith  on 01372 378914 to reserve your ticket.

The ticket price includes a starter,  main course, shared side dish
(1 between 2),  shared naan (1 between 2),  shared rice (1 between 2),  Coffee

Selections can be made from the normal menu-excluding any dishes with King Prawn.  Drinks & deserts are not included in the ticket price

Funds are being raised to support the following activities – all of which are aimed at making Ashtead a more sustainable place;
Food Group,   Energy Group,  Ashtead National Bike Week Event

We hope you can make it!

You are invited to:

Find out how to save energy & money in your own home

A presentation by Russell Smith of Parity Projects

8pm Wednesday 7th April,

Ralli Room, Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall

No entry fee. Tea/coffee and cakes available

With 27% of all energy in the UK consumed in domestic housing and 85% of our existing housing stock set to still be with us in 2050, we all need to act now to reduce our carbon footprint, and reduce our energy bills.

Russell’s company Parity Projects offers the full range of services required to reduce the energy use and the environmental impact of existing buildings. He won the DIY category in the Observer Ethical Awards 2008. He also won Building Magazine’s 2007 Award for Sustainable Refurbishment.

The Observer Award judges said: “Russell and his company Parity Projects stood out from all the other nominations for their new way of engaging with the public, giving them the tools to reduce their house’s carbon footprint in an innovative and inspiring way.”

In addition to the presentation there will be:

A display and demo of domestic power monitors

A display and demo of thermal draught detector

Displays of energy saving products

Advice on government grants and the new feed-in tariffs

Information about domestic combined heat and power units (soon to be introduced in UK)

Hope you can make it!

Anorexic carrots…

Fantastic – a sunny Sunday and a great day to get down to some planting. I’d arranged to meet Kim from my singing group at the allotment – she is a fairly new gardener and was coming down for the inaugural planting of the season, always a nice thing to do.

I was concerned that the digging part wouldn’t seem much fun (it is, believe me, I love it, but it may be an acquired taste…), so I was keen to finish the last bit before she arrived.  I gave Kim the full allotment tour (compost heap, shed, freshly dug soil!) and then we got down to the business of seed sowing.

The target for the day was to get the beetroot and carrot seeds in. First things first, read the tips in the allotment books and then the instructions on the back of the packet.

Both seed types mentioned moist warm soil (tick!) not recently manured (tick – I had specially reserved an area for non-manuring last autumn, as I knew beetroot doesn’t like to be over-fed. Didn’t know carrots were also anorexic…) and finely raked (tick!)

We made a 1cm deep grooves and Kim sowed both lots of seed while I completed the last section of digging. What a team! A gentle rake over and a light tamping and seed sowing done! We retired to the shed for well-deserved sit down and cups of coffee and tea from our respective thermoses.

Ah, the luxury – who said gardening wasn’t glamourous…?

The meeting on 7 April I have just written about is intended to be the first activity in a plan of activities throughout the year that will promote the importance of reducing domestic energy consumption and carbon emissions to Ashtead residents.

We plan to have three public events – the first on 7 April to initiate interest, the second in June as a main event to have speakers and workshop/exhibitions on relevant locally available technology.  The third event is to have a speaker and equipment display on home renewable energy options.

On top of the public events we intend to do the following.

• Set up a library of locally available energy efficiency equipment – some to show and some to loan e.g. draught meters, LED and low energy light bulbs, power meters so people can see and try them out.
• Get a small number of people trained in (a) draught proofing methodologies so they can train others to create a pool of people who can do this and (b) advising people on the grants available for domestic carbon reduction work and if necessary helping people complete the grant application forms.   We plan to carry this out as part of the Ashtead churches Act10n initiative in 8-12 July, and so the main beneficiaries should be needy and vulnerable people.

• Research local suppliers of energy efficiency and renewable energy suppliers and identify those with real expertise and good reputations and create a preferred supplier list or get them added to the approved trade lists such as Checkatrade.

All this will need money and so we applied to Surrey County Council’s new Climate Change Fund for the money we think we’ll need.  I’m pleased to say that we’ve been successful and so we should now have the money to do all we want this year.

Derek Smith

The Transition Ashtead Home Energy group has been busy organizing its first public meeting.  It will be at the Peace Memorial Hall on Wednesday 7 April.  Below is an article we have sent to the Leatherhead Advertiser about it.  The main aim is to give people sensible practical advice on how to energy saving in the home, so we’re hoping it will have a wide appeal and get a good audience.  If one or two there ended up joining our energy group, that would be a bonus – no harm hoping.

Derek Smith

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HOW TO SAVE ENERGY & MONEY IN YOUR OWN HOME

 Are you worried about next winter’s heating bills?  Transition Ashtead is holding a meeting at the Peace Memorial Hall on Wednesday 7 April which will give you advice and ideas on how to save energy and reduce your bills.  Derek Smith from Transition Ashtead says “With 27% of all energy in the UK consumed in domestic housing and 85% of our existing housing stock set to still be with us in 2050, we all need to act now to reduce our carbon footprint, and reduce our energy bills.  Our meeting starts at 8 pm with a presentation by Russell Smith who will explain how this can be done.   His company Parity Projects offers the full range of services required to reduce the environmental impact of existing buildings and won the DIY category in the Observer Ethical Awards 2008.  He also won Building Magazine’s 2007 Award for Sustainable Refurbishment.  The Observer Award judges said: “Russell and his company Parity Projects stood out from all the other nominations for their new way of engaging with the public, giving them the tools to reduce their house’s carbon footprint in an innovative and inspiring way.”

So come and find out how to green your house from a recognised expert.

After a break for tea and cakes, people will have the opportunity to ask Russell questions or look at:

• Demonstration of domestic power monitors
• Demonstration of thermal draught detector
• Display of energy saving products available locally
• Advice on government grants and the new feed-in tariffs
• Information on domestic combined heat and power units.

 The meeting starts at 8 pm.  For more information, ring Derek on 01372-378914 or visit the Transition Ashtead website at http://transitionashtead.org.uk/.

The wraps are off!

The Black Death rolled back - spot the freshly dug and the lack of weeds in the un-dug soil!

The snow has melted, the sun is beginning to shine and Spring is slowly arriving! Hurrah!! Winter is not an exciting time in the garden but as soon as the days get longer and warmer, everything starts to grow again.

There was much evidence of activity on neighbouring allotments – lots of neatly dug beds sporting fleecy cloche tunnels and tents of netting over newly planted seeds.

I see I am a little tardy in getting down here for the Spring Action! My boots had spent the winter in the shed and were a bit cold when I put them on but at least no mice were nesting in them…

My allotment has been tucked up nice and cosily for the winter under black weedocidal plastic but the wraps have come off now and The Black Death has done it’s magic – there were hardly any weeds growing when I took it off and the ones that had struggled to grow were pale and, well, weedy!

It was a fairly quick job to fork over the ground and dig in the remaining manure that the worms hadn’t ‘wormed’. I took it slowly, to break the digging muscles in gently (Bend your knees, Mother!), with plenty of sitting down to admire the progress.

I also pruned the black current bushes – they are not looking too good, though. I inherited them from the previous allotmenteer and they look like quite old plants. A lot of the twigs seemed dead when I pruned them. But we’ll wait and see what happens – maybe some of them will start sprouting.

Next job, get planting and sowing!

Come and meet members of Transition Ashtead at The Brewery at 8pm on Monday 22nd March for informal drinks – a glass of wine, a few beers!

Find out about Transition Ashtead Garden Share or how to save money on home energy.

No presentations, no agenda, just a drink or two and a chat!

Hope to see you there.

We are now well underway and we have regular meetings every couple of weeks. We have our first Action Group – Grow Your Own (GYO) – its aim is to promote the growing of fruit and vegetables locally.

Garden Share Scheme

The idea is that anyone who has a garden with space to spare and who doesn’t have the time or energy to use it all but would like to see the land put to good growing use, can be ‘matched’ with someone who doesn’t have a garden or space to grow any vegetables.

We already have the offer a piece of land which will be suitable for at least a couple of gardeners! If you want to grow vegetables this year please register with us for the opportunity to get gardening. For novice vegetable growers, don’t worry there are plenty of enthusiastic gardeners in the Transition Group who would be delighted to help with advice. And don’t forget the garden owner may well have grown veggies in the past but can’t manage to now, and they could be full of great advice and tips for successful growing.

There is much more information in the Guidance Notes which should answer any questions you have about the scheme. If you want to register either fill in the Gardener Registration form or Garden Owner Registration form. We have included a Garden Share Conditions for the matched owners and gardeners to agree beforehand. We suggest that there is an initial meeting between the parties to discuss the conditions and to see whether you think it will work for both of you as don’t forget this is a commitment on both sides.

If you have any further questions or want to send in completed forms please email foodgroup@ transitionashtead.org.uk or give Derek Smith our Secretary a ring on 01372 378914.

Community Garden

Potential community garden!

We think that a community garden in Ashtead would be a great project. It would be an opportunity for people without gardens or not enough land get out, meet other like minded souls and ‘till the soil’ plus of the great benefit of fresh fruit and veggies.

The exact way that the community garden will work will be up to the group, but we think the plot could be divided into small plots, or everyone can garden the whole plot – either way produce can be divided or bartered between the group.

We are currently negotiating with a land-owner about the possibility of using some land for a small community garden or “multiple garden share” but if you know of a suitable site for a community garden, we’d love to hear from you. We are actively seeking vegetable experts who can give advice to our novice gardeners.

Other Aims

The Food Group wants to promote growing and buying local produce and also encouraging biodiversity by:

• Let the grass verges grow long which is beneficial to wildlife
• Planting more trees and hedges
• Finding sites for bee keeping

If you would like to get involved with The Food Group or the GYO group, please give Derek Smith our Secretary a ring on 01372 378914.

E-mail foodgroup@ transitionashtead.org.uk, or come along to one of the Transition Ashtead drinks evenings where there is normally one or two of us there talking vegetables!

Potential produce!

For anyone interested here is a useful event to keep spirits up

Nurturing hope in a time of ecological crisis

A talk with Jon Young and Paul Raphael

7-9pm Tue 16th March. Lord Palmerston Pub, London NW5.

£12 open to all.

Please stay afterwards to socialize – bring your musical instruments!

Jon Young and Paul Raphael will speak of their experience of supporting communities all over the world to develop nature connection as their foundation to face these uncertain times.

Jon Young’s life work is about how to help people become more alive in their senses, more uniquely who they are and more profoundly connected to their own land. Jon founded the Wilderness Awareness School and more recently Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness.

Paul Raphael is from the Odawa of the Raven Dodem of North America. He is a singer, storyteller and peacemaker. He has mentored many communities and has focused particularly on how to help people step meaningfully into their elderhood, as well as helping communities to face and tend their grief.

Paul and Jon have worked together for 10 years honing the art of how to mentor people and communities into earth connected, people connected, empowered living.

Jon Young will also be running a 6 day course this July called the Art of Mentoring. Both these events and the July course are brought to you by UK based volunteers.

Venue: Lord Palmerston, 33 Dartmouth Park Hill, Tufnell Park, London NW5 1HU.
Nearest tube: Tuffnel Park on the northern line (5 minutes walk)

The Transition Ashtead Food Group has been launched and has held its first meeting .  We decided that our initial aim is to promote food growing in Ashtead.  We will encourage organic methods, but not try to insist on this.  In due course we may extend our activities to promote selling of locally grown food.

We agreed to look at the following ideas:

• Establish a community garden
• Set up a garden sharing scheme (garden sharing involves linking people with gardens they cannot manage with people who want to garden but need more land)
• Find local experts who are willing to help get started with food growing, or advise when gardening problems arise
• Encourage wild life by measures like:
  • let grass grow long
  • plant trees
  • plant hedges
  • find sites for bee hives

If you’d like to get involved in the group or want to know more, we’d love to hear from you.  You can either email us using the ‘Contact Us’ link on the Transition Ashtead home page or give me a ring on 01372-378914.

Derek Smith