Newsletter No. 37 – January 2018 www.transitiontownbridport.co.uk

Transition Town Bridport - a project working to bring together the people of

Bridport to plan a life beyond dependence on oil, to reduce the carbon footprint of the

town and to make it resilient to change.

In this edition:

• From the Editor

• Green Fortnight 2018

• Community Fair 2018

• Update from the Edible Garden

• Beach cleaning

• Refill project

• What are we Waiting For?

• News from Landbase

• Report from AGM

• Dorset Climate Change

Conference

• Community Cooking Kit

• Green Drinks

• Getting Involved

From the Editor: When I lived in India in the eighties, we had a very neat plastic recycling system: it was a

man on a bike with a pair of scales and a box of sweet potatoes. When we heard his bell

in the village, we took out our broken plastic buckets, water pots and bowls (there was

very little plastic packaging in those days) and he gave us the same weight in sweet

potatoes. He sold the plastic to a small factory which melted it down and made useful

containers. Win-win!

What a timely theme the Green Fortnight team have chosen: reducing our use of

plastics. China is beginning to refuse to take our plastic waste, forcing us to confront

the amount we throw away (because there is no ‘away’); David Attenborough has

drawn our attention to the damage plastics in the ocean can do to marine ecosystems;

and yet, in the face of mounting evidence of the harm plastics do, giant corporations

are investing in plastics production as a reaction to the growth in non-fossil-fuel cars.

If they can’t sell it for transport, they have to use it somehow! A consumer boycott is

needed urgently, and here is where we can help with our Green Fortnight initiative: we

can identify where a good biodegradable alternative to plastic is available and promote

that alternative.

Continued…

.

Bridport’s Green Fortnight 2018 announced Bridport Green Fortnight will be taking place again this year between 14-28 April.

Sarah West from TTB said “We're keen to build on last year’s success and in 2018 our main

theme will be reducing plastic in the environment. We’ve been planning to focus on plastic

for some months and recently it has rocketed up the national agenda, so it’s very timely to

look at this to see what we can do locally.

World-wide 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year, half of it for disposable

items and eight million tonnes end up in the sea. In the UK, 38 million plastic bottles are

used every day and half of these end up in landfill, so the challenge of reducing plastic waste

needs an urgent response” (see reference)

The fortnight of activities aims to show why plastic generates multiple environmental

problems, and how each of us can play our part in reducing these. Sarah added “the idea

that we can’t manage without all these products is false. Since a five pence charge was

introduced on plastic bags, consumption has fallen by 85%.

For example, single-use cheap plastic straws can easily be replaced by paper or by

biodegradable straws (or no straw!) with no detriment to the consumer. Cotton buds

made of wood and cotton wool are available and will break down harmlessly in the

environment. And we all know reusable bags are better than single use carriers. The

Refill project (see article below) is a great idea that could reduce dramatically our

purchase of water bottles. (But who told us we must always be carrying water around

anyway? Was it perhaps companies like Evian, and Perrier, who paid ‘experts’ to

encourage us? Somebody said: “The only global water problem is that so much of it is

sitting around in plastic bottles”.) There are obviously occasions where plastic is useful

and difficult to replace with an alternative, but where it is possible to do without, or

substitute, we can promote that. And we can see that our initiative is part of a great

wave of consumer awareness and action that can make a real difference. Go Green

Fortnight! - CW

Like last year we are working in partnership with other groups and organisations to develop

plans for the fortnight. Our aim is to encourage everyone to look critically at the plastics we

buy, particularly single-use items and

consider the alternatives. By making simple

changes such as refilling water bottles and

using reusable coffee cups, this can have a

big impact. We will be producing a directory

showing people where they can buy non-

plastic alternatives as well as putting pressure

on larger retailers who are responsible for

much of the excess plastic packaging.”

Transition Town Bridport are planning a

number of events including a film “Plastic

Ocean” on the problems plastic causes, talks

and an event in Buckydoo Square. They will

also be holding a Green Quiz, which was very

popular last year.

Sarah West said “We'll be saying a lot more

about these events and especially what

Bridport can do to help reduce the plastic

waste problem over the coming months.”

Follow this link for the list of events during

Green Fortnight

Community Fair February 3rd , Bridport Town Hall

Look out for the TTB stand where we will have more news about Green Fortnight and our

other projects.

Update on the Edible Garden from Sarah

After the Autumn half term, the Edible Garden team decided to change the gardening

sessions to the lunch hour, as the dusk comes too early for after school activities. It has

been a resounding success and we now must have three adults leading with so many pupils

turning up to help.

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Wreath-making

Tia organised two special workshop gatherings too, which were given to 15 pupils in each

session. There was a Frost Fairy and Elf making group and a Wreath Making group; the

latter given to pupils who had been consistently working hard all term. Robert Golden took

some of the pictures and worked magic on our ‘golden ‘ apple tree.

Photos:

Robert

Golden

We are planning ahead to join a ‘Peas Please’ project when the growing season starts. If

you have time to help on a Wednesday afternoon and part plan this, please contact Sarah.

Info on the project can be found on https://foodfoundation.org.uk/peasplease/

Stop Press: Lottery fund success!

We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in our

Awards for All application to support the Edible Garden project.

More news next time.

Beach-cleaning

With the support of Charlie Wild, of Dorset Litter Free Coast and Sea, I've agreed to co-

ordinate volunteers for beach-cleans in the West Bay area. There will be three or four beach

cleans a year and I'm taking over a system which functioned well before but has temporarily

stopped working because someone moved away. Beach cleaning can be fun and sociable

as well as, obviously, good for the environment!

The first beach clean will be at 2pm on Thursday February 15th at Cogden Beach,

East of Burton Bradstock. There is a National Trust car-park where you can park (50p per

hour) and then walk down to the beach. The beach clean should last not much more than an

hour. Just turn up - litter pickers and bags will be provided. If you'd like to be on the register

for further information about West Bay beach cleans - there will be another one in April -

please get in touch with me either by phone (01308 456161) or email

to joe@thehacketts.uk

Plastics we pick up at Cogden Beach will go towards the big scrap sculpture we'll be making

as part of Bridport Green Fortnight.

If you want to know more about Litter Free Coast and Sea you can contact Charlie Wild, who

is also responsible for Refill in our area, at litterfreecoastsea@dorset.gov.uk or

at www.refill.org/dorset. - Joe Hackett

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Beautiful Cogden beach

Plastic waste washed up on Chesil beach after a storm

Refill

Refill is a national scheme whereby outlets such as

restaurants, cafes and pubs agree to refill with tap water the

reusable water bottles brought in by customers. It is therefore

a way of counteracting the use of throwaway plastic water

bottles - a major part of marine pollution as anyone who has

walked a beach can see for themselves.

Here in Bridport the outlets signed up to Refill are

• Number 10 Cafe Bar in East Street,

• Aroma Cafe also in East Street,

• Green Yard Cafe in Barrack Street

• BearKat Cafe at the Lyric Theatre also in Barrack Street,

• Red Brick Cafe in St Michael’s Trading Estate

• Cafe Bean in South Street

• Blue Moon Cafe in Victoria Grove

• SoulShine in South Street

• Tourist Information Centre

If you use these venues, how about congratulating them for joining the scheme? There are a

couple more outlets thinking of joining the scheme. I also intend to approach half a dozen

others in various locations in the town. Owners don’t need much persuading and by joining

get a sticker which they can put up in a window and also go onto a phone app so that

someone looking for a place to refill their water bottle can find the nearest outlet. In this way

it is possible that outlets will get an extra bunch of people passing through their doors who

might not otherwise visit.

Now, this is where it gets exciting. The Town Council is researching the production of The

Bridport Bottle - look out for it. Purchasers will get a list of outlets where they can refill the

bottles. Wouldn't it be great if the two defunct fountains - outside the Town Hall and outside

the Cornish Bakery in West Bay - could be revived, providing a ready source of water for

refilling bottles?

Refill is part of the wider anti-plastic campaigns being waged by organisations such as

Surfers Against Sewage, who have been campaigning for some time for a deposit levy on all

plastic water bottles - a campaign the government seems about to make a reality, like the

levy on plastic bags which has reduced their use by more than 80% over the past couple of

years. As we come towards Bridport Green Fortnight, with its anti-plastic theme, let’s add

more Refill points in the town! (Joe Hackett)

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What are we Waiting For? (Qu’est-ce

qu’on attend?)

In November we showed a film about the town of

Ungersheim in Alsace. A former potassium mining area,

Ungersheim has redefined itself along transition lines,

largely due to the exceptional leadership pf the town

mayor, Jean-Claude Mensch and a strong community

support.

Over the last couple of years they have:

• Introduced more participative democracy in

schools and become a Fair Trade town

• Launched a local currency, ‘Le Radis’ (the radish)

• Mapped the biodiversity of the area in an ‘Atlas of

Biodiversity’

• Returned a former waste heap created by mining to nature

• Installed solar thermal panels and a wood biomass boiler for a community heating

scheme, and a 5.3MW solar PV in a new industrial estate.

• Changed all the public lighting in the village to low energy bulbs, and turned most

street lights off after midnight

• Made land available to a PassivHaus co-housing project.

• Completely banned all pesticides and herbicides in public areas

• Bought a working horse to help with local food production, and also to act as a ‘bus’

to take local school kids to school

• Ensured that the local primary school now serves 100% organic meals, every day,

including snacks

• Transformed 8 hectares of land owned by the Commune into an organic market

garden run on a community basis

• Started a food preservation business, canning locally produced food so as to extend

its availability

Could we do the same thing here? Bridport’s Town council shares many of the aims of

Ungersheim’s mayor, and our mayor Anne Rickard is also founder member and the

administrator of TTB. Our council works hard to improve the town's environmental practices

as far as it is able, and amongst other achievements, on 31st January are launching Bridport

as the first town in the UK to be Rights Respecting.

However in France town mayors and councils have considerable funds, ability to borrow

money for projects, and powers to requisition land. It is good to imagine what our town might

be like if finance and money was devolved to a more local level.

Apologies to those who attended the film for the poor sound quality, and thanks for your

patience while I went home to get the right film! - Sam

News from Landbase

There are new courses up on the Landbase website. Two for March: “Management of the

Small Farm/Holding” and “Getting to know our soils”.

Well worth checking out.

Report from our AGM

We held our Annual General Meeting on 23rd November.

The Chair reported on a successful year for TTB, the Treasurer gave his report, and Sam

reported on Eco Homes, Sarah West on Green Fortnight 2016, and Sarah Wilberforce on

the St Mary’s School Edible Garden.

Sam Wilberforce and Dave Rickard stood down as Directors and were duly re-elected. Office

bearers remain Caroline Walker, Chair; Sam Wilberforce, Treasurer; Anne Rickard,

Administrator; and Sue Bird, Minutes Secretary.

After the business part of the meeting, the group took part in the “Essential Ingredients of

Transition” activity, which involved everyone talking to everyone else about aspects of the

transition process. The meeting then adjourned to the Tiger Inn.

Community Cooking Kit

This new initiative was launched late last year. The Bridport Community Cooking Kit consists

of essential cooking equipment and will be available for community groups to borrow for free

to give demonstrations and hands-on cookery sessions at Food festival workshops and

throughout the year in schools or for community groups. You can see a report of the launch

here.

Report from the Climate Change Conference

Caroline Walker, Sam Wilberforce, Joe Burlington and Sue Bird attended the Climate

Change Conference in Weymouth on 21st October. Organised by John Tomblin of Transition

Weymouth and Portland in association with Sustainable Dorset this was a very well attended

event and a number of very interesting workshops were presented including two by our own

TTB members Joe and Sam.

Green Drinks! Green drinks is on the third Thursday of each month in the back room of the

Tiger Inn, Barrack Street, Bridport – starting about 8pm. All welcome to come

along and share views, ideas and news of what’s happening to make our

community more resilient.

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Getting Involved

Contact mailto:admin@transitiontownbridport.co.uk and you will be added to our

mailing list and/or put in touch with the group or activity you would like to join. If you are

receiving this you are already on the mailing list, but if you’d rather not be, just tell us.

Come along to any event /workshop. Check out our What’s On section here, and/or on our

website.

If your local group wishes to collaborate with TTB on any project, or has ideas and energy

for a new project, just let us know.

We are very keen to expand the pool of active people for the above projects and to get other

strands going. Please get in touch if you would like to help.

If you have any events of a local and eco-friendly nature that you would like us to advertise

on our website or in the newsletter, please contact us and we’ll see what we can include.

NB We do not use our mailing list other than for our own regular mailings.