We are currently working to update this website, so please bear with us if you find that some of the content is out-of-date.
Transition Guildford is a group made up of local people which aims to contribute to creating strong, sustainable and resilient communities in Guildford Borough that are better able to deal with the threats and consequences of climate change, peak oil and natural resource limits, in particular, through building a local low carbon economy in line with the Transition Movement.
Please get in touch with us if you would like to know more about our activities, and be part of shaping the vision for a more sustainable and resilient Guildford. Email: transitionguildford@googlemail.com
Following the success of last year’s apple pressing event at the Surrey Hills Wood Fair where lots of apple juice was produced, we have lots more events lined up this year – so more chances for you to join in the fun. Bring along your apples and a bottle, and take home some juice. This is also a good chance to come and meet some of the members of Transition Guildford and the Guildford Environmental Forum who are jointly organising the apple pressing. We’re also looking for people to volunteer at these events – if you would like to help out with the pressing, please get in touch with John on johnw.bannister@virgin.net
Sunday 4 September
“Live Local Love Winkworth” free community day at National Trust Winkworth.
Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 October
“Route to the Future”, Loseley Park. Bring your apples and a bottle and take home your juice.
Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 October
Surrey Hills Wood Fair 2011. Birtley House on A281 just beyond Bramley. Bring your apples and a bottle and take home your juice.
Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 October
RHS Wisley “Taste of Autumn Festival” where we will be apple pressing at the invitation of RHS Wisley. Bring your apples, a bottle and take home your juice. Get your apples identified.
Dr Alex Penn’s talk and workshop on Permaculture Design was greatly enjoyed by members from Transition Guildford, the Royal Society of Arts, Guildford Environmental Forum and the public on 31st March. Alex, a TG member, gave us a tantalising insight into the design principles, both theory and practice, before setting us to work to design a small urban garden with chickens.
On 26th/27th March the first Surrey Green Homes Open Days event took place. Transition Guildford members helped in the planning of this event and also assisted homeowners with the influx of interested people. Over 10 homes across Guildford borough opened to show off a variety of renewable energy and energy saving systems. Guildford provided almost half the Surrey total of open Green Homes. It is hoped the event will be run again next year.
In March, TG Food Group and Guildford Environmental Forum were delighted to have Bob Spackman, Chair of Grace and Flavour come and speak about their hugely successful community kitchen garden and allotments project. Grace & Flavour is run as a not for profit co-operative enterprise for, and with the involvement of East and West Horsley residents. Its purpose is to grow food for people who live and/or work in the surrounding areas.
Bob gave an inspiring talk about the co-operative, taking the audience through the challenges involved in starting up such an initiative through to their first successful harvest last year and future plans. Grace and Flavour is a wonderful case study for any group aspiring to get similar projects off the ground.
TG plans to visit the site in the near future. If any members would like to come along, contact Kate of the Food Group on
kjmillington@yahoo.co.uk.
To my excitement this morning I woke to find Guildford covered in a beautiful blanket of white snow! However, this means that we’ve had to cancel our December meeting of Transition Guildford. We will be meeting in January, as usual (see the calendar). So, I hope you all enjoy the snow, and I’ll wish you a happy Christmas!
On Saturday 9th October Transition Guildford will be at the Surrey Hills Wood Fair in Bramley with the Guildford Environmental Forum, pressing apples for all those who bring some along (no charge)! This is a great opportunity to use up some of this year’s apple glut – and we know that after last year’s cold winter, the apple trees are completely covered with fruit! Please bring along a bottle for your juice.
The wood fair is a free family event which is designed to show people the value of the wood resources we have in Surrey, and aside from our apple pressing, there will be demonstrations, coppice crafts, wood stoves and boilers, and local produce.
Click for a map of the location. We hope to see you there!
Download (PDF, 481.54KB)
Calling all environmentalists, altruists, and those with common sense…. I recently received an email from Kathy Smith of Guildford and Waverley Friends of the Earth who is asking for urgent support on behalf of a local woman who is trying to install photovoltaic solar panels to generate the energy needs of her home. Guildford Borough Council has forced her to make a retrospective planning application, which it is believed will be refused. We have ONE DAY ONLY to register our support for her planning application via an easy to fill out online form. Please read Kathy’s full email below for more details:
Guildford Borough Council (GBC), seems to be on the verge of taking a stand against solar panels in this area. Every other local authority in the country is treating large arrays of solar panels as falling within permitted development rights (i.e. not needing a specific planning permission). Guildford has put its own, unique, interpretation on recent legislation and is demanding that householders in the borough make planning applications for solar panels which would be permitted in any other local authority in the country. Guildford is wrong and we will challenge them but in the meantime this is having big repercussions locally. One person has now been forced into making a planning application and Guildford officers look set to refuse that application. Other householders are now postponing or even abandoning their own plans to install panels.
Let’s demonstrate to GBC planners that residents of this area care about climate change and expect the planners to HELP NOT HINDER our individual efforts to combat climate change.
PLEASE ACT NOW and REGISTER YOUR SUPPORT FOR DR ANN HARVEY’S APPLICATION FOR PLANNING PERMISSION FOR 15 PHOTOVOLTAIC SOLAR PANELS AT 8 FRIARS GATE, ONSLOW VILLAGE, GUILDFORD (as shown in the attached photograph).
The following should take you to the page where you can send your comments to the council. You will need the application number which is 10/P/01043
Officially consultation on this application closes on 6 July (Tuesday) so if you can take action asap that would be a great help.
Background
Dr Harvey has already installed these panels on her house in Onslow Village in good faith based on advice received from a GBC officer in 2008 who told her that the panels fell within ‘permitted development rights’ and she didn’t need to apply for planning permission. Dr Harvey is not in a conservation area or any other form of protection. However, following a complaint from just one neighbour in 2009 she has been threatened with enforcement action and told the original officer was ‘wrong’. To avoid expensive enforcement action and a battle with Guildford she has had to make a retrospective planning application. Guildford and Waverley Friends of the Earth are confident that Dr Harvey has permitted development rights and doesn’t need planning permission at all, but now she has made the application she needs our support and our impression is that the officers have already more or less decided they will refuse her application under ‘delegated powers’ (if they do we expect this to go to the full planning committee).
GBC’s attitude is already having a serious effect across the borough and we and Guildford Environmental Forum have been contacted by many householders who were on the verge of installing large arrays of photovoltaic panels but who are now having second thoughts because they are being told by GBC they need planning permission. The Friends of the Earth network of local carbon local campaigners and staff has so far found NO OTHER LOCAL AUTHORITY TAKING THIS APPROACH including Woking and big towns like Manchester and Birmingham – Birmingham is even borrowing millions of pounds to lend to its residents so they can afford to install their own panels!
SO LET’S MAKE GUILDFORD THINK AGAIN………………………………………
To date 28 people have shown support for Dr Harvey, including most of her neighbours. Only one is against and that is the original complainant. Don’t worry if you don’t live in Guildford, your support for Dr Harvey will still help.
Thank you.
Hilary Griffiths (co-ordinator) and Kathy Smyth (planning campaigner)
Guildford and Waverley Friends of the Earth
Last year I rented out the film “grow your own” as a bit of light entertainment, not expecting too much more than an enjoyable couple of hours with a few cliches about how gardening helps to bring people together. But I really loved this film – it has a bit of everything… love, comedy, and drama. It also captured the joy and commitment to gardening that I myself deeply recognised, and was a wonderful portrayal of the strength of Britain’s multiculturalism. So when I saw that the film is again available on BBC iPlayer, I had to tell you about it! You can view it (for free) by following this link: and it is available until Friday 18th June. I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Emma, Transition Guildford.
Transition Guildford would like to say a big thank you to BBC Surrey for donating 400 packets of seeds (funded by BBC Local Radio and the National Trust) of salad leaves and wildflowers to our food group! The seeds will be a great help in teaching people in Guildford the skills to grow their own, and show just how rewarding it can be! Fingers crossed we will have lettuce and Cornflowers springing up all over the town in the coming months!
