A GROUP from Wellington had a day out in Totnes to find out how the town where the Transition movement started is working towards a brighter, greener future.

Have you ever wondered what life would be like in a fossil fuel-free future? Looking at the headlines, it is natural to feel depressed and fearful about what kind of world we will be leaving our kids. Environmental problems seem so vast, it sometimes feels like there is really nothing we can do about it.

The Transition movement has grown from one little town in Devon to more than 10,000 initiatives across the world, imagining a better, cleaner, greener future – and doing something about it, at a very local level.

Last week a group from Transition Towns Wellington (TTW) went to visit Totnes – the place where it all started – to find out more. Hal Gillmore from Transition Towns Totnes (TTT) led the team on a guided tour of the town to see, first-hand, what could be achieved by local people working together to build a more sustainable and eco-friendly future.

The first thing you will see when you get off the train at Totnes is an ‘edible platform’! You cannot actually eat the station but all the way along there are large wooden planters full of herbs which you can pick and take home. There is also a community food garden next to the Rugby Club – as there is in Wellington, where TTW has planted blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes and rhubarb for anyone to harvest.

One of the biggest projects for TTT has been the take-over and make-over of an old listed building next to the station. This was originally designed by Brunel as part of his ‘atmospheric railway’ scheme and then used for many years as a dairy. The community got together to save the building from destruction and is now forging ahead with plans to create apartments and space for local food producers to rent or share.

On the River Dart, the hydroelectric power station built on the existing weir now generates megawatts of clean, green electricity for the local school and industrial foundry.

From the ‘E-co cars’ car-share scheme, to the food shed, which acts as a local organic food hub, to green energy schemes like the one on the weir, over the past 11 years Transition Town Totnes has transformed the town in many positive ways. The Wellington team came back full of ideas about how they might adapt and implement some of these initiatives in our own local area.

If you would like to find out more about Transition Towns Wellington, check out the Facebook page or go to http://ttw.org.uk/

TTW food group will have a stall at the upcoming EAT Wellington food festival on September 2. Or come along to our regular meetings, downstairs at the Green Dragon pub in South Street at 7.30pm on the second Monday of the month.

ANITA ROY