Filed under: Uncategorized
This was a busy summer weekend for squeezing in a clothes swap, but most people seemed to take some nice clothes away with them, so if you didn’t make this one, hope you make the next!
Filed under: Community, Update | Tags: Abundance, Draught-proofing, Permaculture
Hi again. As nominated chronicler for Transition Burngreave, I confess to getting a little distracted by other things.
For example, over the last year I’ve been doing my bit to reduce my personal energy use. We got in Nick Parsons from South Yorkshire Energy Centre to give us a home energy audit, and are now working our way throught the recommendations. Just draught-proofing the house has made quite a difference to how the house feels, and it’s worth doing even if you’re renting. Plus, I’ve begun to cycle to work, and made a cold frame to help our seedlings get off to a good start. But I guess you want to know about Burngreave, not about me. So:
The street party went ahead. Although a combination of factors meant that event relocated to an community hall, it proved to be grand success, bringing together young and old for an afternoon of fun and conversation. Well done Abbeyfield Road!
Burngreave Apple Day. The Friends of Burngreave Cemetery chapel organised a variety of events one fresh day in October 2009. The Burngreave ‘Abundance’ group provided a heap of locally harvested apples. Apple expert Julian Brandan provided tasty samples of different apples varieties, and helped to identify those brought in. Three fruit trees were planted in the adventure playground nearby. The youngsters enjoyed pumpkin carving and a treasure hunt. The adults took away apples to cook, and the remaining fruit was distributed to local groups such as SureStart. So that was a full and lovely day.
Community growing project. The project to create edible landscapes in and around 2 local primaryschools has continued. The linked permaculture course attracted participants from as far afield as Huddersfield and Scunthorpe. The related bid to the Lottery’s Local Food initiative has made it through the first round to the second round, but is dependent on the council agreeing a 5-year lease for the land. For more information, contact Saleema Iman on 0114 2755770
Climate Change Funding from the North East Community Assembly has been allocated £41,883 towards 9 projects in the North East Sheffield area. The 9 projects receiving funds for insulation, low-energy lighting, solar panels, tree planting and fruit and veg growing, (See Report on Climate Change Fund (Word, 140kb).
So that’s all for now, after a bit of winter hibernation, I’m looking forwards to springing into life again, so if you’ve any news do add a comment below or send any info about forthcoming events straight to the email list.
Filed under: Update | Tags: Abundance, Arty, Inspiration, Permaculture, Summer
Permaculture courses
The weekend course had to be cancelled due to a combination of low numbers and high costs (having a crèche meant that an extra room was needed). However a longer course is still planned for term-time this autumn. [Saleema has the details – call 07950 299073.]
Inspirational visits
A group of people are visiting one of Ecotricity’s flagship sites near Peterborough on 18th August. The building is constructed to capture solar energy to heat the building ‘passively’ whilst electricity is generated from wind power on the site. Depending on numbers they’ll lift share or take a minibus. If you have further ideas for visits, please send ‘em in.
Getting arty and media savvy
Sam Galbraith is a local artist (with an exhibition coming up at the Quaker Meeting House). She offered her skills for anything related to transition so we suggested she contact Ronin who is making a Transition Sheffield banner which can be loaned out to different groups. Also John will send her a flyer which might provide ideas for further artwork.
Andy has been on Sheffield Live Radio along with Steve, who’s also active in Transition Sheffield. So if we have events to publicise on Radio, he might be the man to do it. [Andy are you listening? Is that OK?!]
Community workshops
Participants had identified climate change as an overall theme, and the workshops provided time for participants to express concerns and discuss ideas, and these included community transport, costs of improving housing and insulation, and jobs. A writeup went into Burnreave Messengers, and some kind of follow-up is planned.
Street parties
One Burngreave street party is on track to happen: A small core group of enthusiasts notified the neighbours and gave everyone a chance to object. They fixed on a date after Ramadan, and the decision is now with the council’s highway department. Although they were turned down for funding from the community assembly fund, they are trying again through the council’s small grants fund. It would be a great opportunity to bring together different communities on the street so we wish them all the best.
Other funding
Not much to report – still waiting to hear back from the Lottery’s Local Food fund.
(These were notes from the Transition Burngreave meeting, Monday 10 August, by Susannah, on behalf of Saleema, Dan, John, Sam and Andy)
PS. Abundance harvesting
Autumn is coming up and with berries, apples and plums ripening fast, it’s time to gather names for the Abundance project. If you know of unharvested fruit or would like to help harvest, then please contact Kate on 07816 141540.
There are fantastic signs of new activity all over the place in Burngreave! See flyer for further info and contact details: Transition Burngreave Flyer.
We have been focusing on how we can respond to the issues of climate change and energy depletion in a way that can help local people to thrive in what would otherwise be difficult times. Burngreave Community Action Forum welcomed the emergence of Transition Burngreave as a focus for various activities around sustainability and the environment, and opportunities are appearing that can help us to shift towards a more sustainable and positive future.
Saleema identified a triangle of land which is available for food growing. She’ll be running a permaculture course in the autumn as an intro to designing the layout of the land. She’s also approached local schools to see if they’d like to be involved.
With funding from the Federation of Community Development Learning, Alison ran a couple of afternoon workshops in which participants chose to deepen their understanding of the choices we have in relation to climate change . There was representation from a range of different communities at the workshop, and there is potential to strengthen some of the links that have been made.
We’ve also been out and about at local festivals with a ‘One Planet Burngreave’ stall. At the Environment day and Abbeyfield Park festival, many people completed ‘save the planet’ quizzes and were surprised at some of the things they found out. We’d like to thank Isaac and May for making and giving away fab cakes as prizes. Others contributed to Ruth’s travel mapping exercise and some commented that a change away from taking the car wouldn’t just be good for the environment; it would also be good for them.
Moving onto plans for late summer, at least one green street party is in the offing, with backing from local residents. As well as an enjoyable day to look forwards to, they can be a good way for people on the street to get to know neighbours and build links for future projects. Other plans on the way include harvesting local fruit and running another film festival. See the flyer and get in touch if you’d like to help in any way, or you’ve other ideas for us.
Finally… our next meeting is planned for Mon 10th August at BCAF premises at 82 Spital Hill, Burngreave. Bring something nice to share!
Filed under: Community
Welcome to Transition Burngreave!
In combination with other areas of Sheffield we had a great series of films in Burngreave and attracted a core of committed people to plan for more events. The aim is to get the whole of Burngreave involved in sharing ideas for a sustainable future for Burngreave, so there’ll certainly need to be more events, and we’ll use this space to publicise events.
We’ve had all sorts of ideas, from street parties, community workshops, getting to know relevant initiatives like the LEAF allotments, but perhaps you’ve more ideas to contribute?Add a comment, or get involved!
We’ll be at the Burngreave Community Action Forum on 7th March. After that, our next meeting will be at on 14th April - we’ll meet at the BCAF premises on Spital Hill at 6:30pm. Please drop by and introduce yourself.
