On Tuesday August 19th, about 40 people attended a meeting titled "Happiness is ...?"
There were talks from Bob Knowles of Wirral Mind about positive mental health, from Shirley Kay (osteopath) about healthy lifestyles and from Rosie Bland (of TTWK) on transition and wellbeing.
On Sunday August 3rd Transition Town West Kirby put on a display in the Coach House at Royden Park. There were displays, games, and a chance to calculate your carbon footprint.
On July 30th, about 25 people attended our second screening of the film Power of Community - an uplifting account of how Cuba dealt with its oil crisis following the collapse of the USSR.
On July 12th, about 30 children with their parents participated in a Treasure Hunt in West Kirby. Starting at West Kirby Concourse, they followed clues and discover things about their town. They were rewarded with a certificate and the chance to plant their own seed.
On July 1st, about 50 people attended our "Cycling for All" event. There were talks on cycle maintainance, safe cycling, cycle training, and the Wirral Cycling Campaign.
On June 19th, about 25 people watched the Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth, and then participated in a discussion.
A Crude Awakening was shown on 23rd May - for more information on the film, see www.oilcrashmovie.com.
On Monday 5th May, we put on a stall and organised a Treasure Hunt at Ashton Park May Day Fair.
On Sat. 26th April, Transition Town West Kirby put on a display at Wirral Country Park Information Centre, Thurstaston. There were information displays, a slide show, seed planting, kids activities and carbon footprint calculation. You can download the slide show .pdf file from here.
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On April 1st, Patrick gave a talk on Transition Town West Kirby: A community response to climate change and peak oil to The University of the Third Age in Melrose Hall, Hoylake
On 12 March, a total of six petitions relating to the provision of allotments were presented to the Council meeting in Bebington Library - four of these had been organised by people active in Transition Wirral. As a result of residents' pressure, the Council spend for allotments has been doubled for the coming year.
On 5th March, three members of the steering group organised a workshop at Hilbre High School and got a very positive response from the staff and students.
On 25th February around 40 people attended a showing of the film Money as Debt followed by a talk about the Totnes Pound.
On 8th February, Patrick gave a talk on Transition Wirral to Wirral Wildlife in Heswall
On 23rd January 2008, over 100 people attended a very successful meeting dedicated to food 'FOOD FOR THOUGHT'. Speakers included: Ken Dowden on simple ways to grow your own food, Church Farm Organics Ltd, Claremont Farm, La Paz restaurant (voted Wirral Chef of the Year 2007), Patrick on why food prices are rising and Rosie on how Transition Towns are leading the way in promoting local food provision. This was accompanied by food to taste on the night.
2007
The initiating (steering) group met on 20th December for a debriefing after Rosie's and Sandria's training in London. Rosie, Gen, Sandria, Ian, Patrick, Sarah, Bill and Perle considered questions such as where the group's skills lie and how these can be strengthened.
Margaret was interviewed on Radio Merseyside on 18 December 2007 about the campaign for more allotments to be provided by Wirral Council, and the petitions recently submitted to the Council ...[more].
On 17 December, three different allotment petitions were presented in the Meeting of the Council.
Rosie and Sandria attended the Transition Town training course in London on 8th - 9th December. Their impressions were: fantastic - well worth it for the inspiration, energy & ideas - and pretty intense.
On 4th December, the steering group met. Patrick, Marco, Sarah, Rosie, Bill, Jim and Ian discussed way of increasing awareness of Transition Town West Kirby within West Kirby and adjacent areas of the Wirral, and future meetings. The date of the Great Unleasing / Launch has been provisionally set for 18 October 2008.
On 28th November, two films were screened: The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, and How Totnes in Devon is pioneering the Transition Town movement. They were followed by a discussion of energy efficiency initiatives, the allotments campaign, ways to publicize meetings and so on.
The second meeting of the steering group took place on 9 November 2007, attended by Patrick, Sandria, Gen, Rosie, Bill, Ian, Marilyn, and Perle.
We discussed attendence on training courses, how to raise awareness of the Transition Town process, future meetings, possible contacts, other local groups who will be interested, and design of a leaflet and a logo.
Patrick Cleary and Rob Hopkins were interviewed on Radio Merseyside on 8th November 2007 about the Transition Towns initiative and Transition Town West Kirby.
On 30 October 2007, West Kirby was accepted as a Transition Town
- see http://transitiontowns.org/West-Kirby/West-Kirby
The first meeting of the steering group took place on 25 October 2007, attended by Patrick, Marilyn, Gen, Sarah, Ian, Bill, Rosie, Sandria and Perle.
The consensus was that (a) the Wirral does not fit well any of the three standard Transition Town types, (b) the best option would be for the initiative to cover the whole of the Wirral, but with the initial focus being West Kirby, and other areas being encouraged to set up separate initiatives as enthusiasm spreads. An application to register the process will be made soon.
On 15 October 2007, the film The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream was shown at Westbourne Hall, West Kirby. This is a 2004 documentary film related to the challenges of coping with climate change and the end of cheap oil.
Following the screening, there was discussion of some of the issues, and possible local responses. There was discussion of
• increasing the provision of allotments on the Wirral
• the parish garden on church land in West Kirby
• an existing scheme of pupils growing food on school land and how this could be extended
• a scheme in Oxford where elderly people struggling to look after large gardens lent land to neighbours wanting to grow food - so allowing elderly people to stay longer in their own homes, and increasing the land available for cultivation.
The meeting was attended by around 30 people.
After the meeting some 10 people stayed behind to help organise a steering group that would seek to gain official status for the Transition Wirral project.
On 19 September 2007 a meeting took place in St Agnes's Church Hall, West Kirby, Wirral, hosted by the St Agnes Justice & Peace group. About fifty people discussed local responses to climate change and the end of cheap oil. The meeting was lead by Patrick Cleary and was attended by the Mayor of Wirral, Phil Gilchrist.
This was the fourth community meeting in the last few months organised by Patrick on the subjects of climate change, the end of cheap oil, and the possible joining of Wirral to the Transition Town movement.
There was a lot of enthusiasm for taking this process forward.
Read Mary Brennan's account
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