Transition Scotland Support Case Study Series: Number 04 March 2011
PEDAL - Portobello Transition Town http://pedal-porty.org.uk/ PORTOBELLO - how did PEDAL begin? In 2005 local residents in Portobello came together to fight off the threat of a large superstore that was being proposed for the area. From the strength of feeling about this issue and a deep need to find a more sustainable way of living, PEDAL, Portobello Transition Town, was born. PEDAL were inspired by Rob Hopkins and the Transition movement in Ireland and Devon and by the community buy outs of land and other assets in the North West of Scotland. Using the Transition model, PEDAL hopes to help the residents of Portobello to live, work and get the things they need more locally. Like all Transition communities, PEDAL are taking action now to support and make the changes that the end of cheap oil and climate change mean are inevitable. It’s an empowering process, where the community gets a say in what the future will look like and take control of how that happens. PEDAL was the first transition town in Scotland, and they are still going strong. Which is not to say that it’s all been easy! ‘Each challenge is a story in itself - from ensuring good
governance at Board level, to the hard graft involved in engaging the wider community, to building credibility by delivering, to short term funding cycles that prevent long term planinig and personal or organizational sustainability.’ Tom Black, Project Manager Looking at energy descent... PEDAL are developing their own Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP) but much of their activity recently has been on awareness raising and inspiring other communities to start their own initiatives. Developing an EDAP is a huge undertaking. It involves thinking about and planning the processes by which the whole community can reduce their demand on and need for energy. As such, it is not always the
ideal starting place for a community. Often taking what people are passionate about and developing projects from those passions is a more effective way of engaging a community, as well as finding out what their aspirations and motivations are.
PORTOBELLO FOCUS KIND OF PLACE: Seaside town, semi-urban. WHERE IS IT? On the edge of Edinburgh POPULATION: 10,000 INVOLVEMENT WITH TRANSITION: 1st Official Initiative in Scotland(registered with Transition Network)
TRANSPORT PROJETCS CAR FREE DAY
and to get more exposure.
Car Free Day has run for the last four years as a way of encouraging people to imagine what Portobello might be like with less cars on the roads.
The day itself has a festival air, with stalls and information on alternative transport for people to browse.
Car Free day happens globally in communities who are keen to let people experience their local area without cars. In Portobello, it involves a bike parade, with bikes that have been decorated in the weeks running up to the day. In 2010 children from the local primary school had the chance to get involved in a bike decorating session. This was both fun and encouraged them to get their bikes out, and show them off. Also in 2010 the first local road closure was made. PEDAL hope eventually to be able to close the main street for an hour or two to include more people in the festivities,
One of the features in 2010 and previous years, was the Cosy Bike - a five man bike that people could ride on together up and down the Prom. Although Car Free Day is a celebratory event, its purpose is to encourage people to think about what a place with more active travel would be like. It encourages people to get out, get active, and enjoy the fresh air. It also celebrates PEDAL’s goal to make the steets safer and frinedlier to walk or cycle in. This in turn could reduce the number of cars which are used for school runs and local trips.
COMMUNITY ASSETS THE Town Hall in Portobello is just one idea of a place that could be considered for community ownership of assets. PEDAL, and other community groups are looking at whether the community itself may be in a better position to run and manage it.
LOCAL LIFE PORTOBELLO is very close to Edinburgh but would like to encourage people to use the facilities that are in the local area instead of going away for leisure, work or shopping. Many of their projects have the knock on effect that people may need to travel less.
DONKEYFIELD ORCHARD DONKLEYFIELD orchard will be a working orchard and space for education and community celebrations. This is an open access site which currently has fruit trees plated; once mature the produce will be harvested and used locally. PEDAL hope that this will help to show how the food system can be re-imagined and re-localised.
SUSTAINING PEDAL PEDAL applied for further funding from the Climate Challenge Fund in 2011 but did not recieve a grant. However, this is being seen as an opportunity to become more sustainable and to grow a greater involvement in the town. Watch progress at: http://pedal-porty.org.uk/
Find a range of useful resources at www.transitionscotland.org
FRUITFUL PORTY FOCUS Another of PEDAL’s food initiatives is the ‘virtual orchard’. This involved the bulk buying of bare root fruit trees, which were then bought by households across Portobello to create a community wide orchard. This increases the chances of pollination across a wider area, attracts more beneficial insects, and allows people to grow and look after their trees as part of a fruit growing community. Just under 300 trees have been planted, and mapped by PEDAL. Participants will be offered to training and invited to share their excess produce through communal harvesting events.
DIG IN PORTY! FOCUS: PEDAL has been running a series of courses and demonstrations on food. These have involved showing people how to grow in the space available to them, but have also focussed on bread making, preserving and using up scraps.
FOOD PROJECTS: PORTOBELLO ORGANIC MARKET (POM) PEDAL’S local, organic market runs on the first Saturday of every month. It was started with a grant from the Climate Challenge Fund (CCF), but is now self sustaining, managed by a paid market manager and a small team of local volunteers. What were the challenges? ‘Setting up the market took much longer than anticipated, finding the right site and applying for permissions, took almost all of one half worker’s time. Top tips for Community Markets * Get your systems and paperwork in order and pre-empt anything the local authority might take issue with. * Give yourself plenty of time to find the right site and apply for all the required licenses and leases * Don’t under-estimate the amount of work involved you’ll need to galvanize lots
of volunteers - and treat them nicely. Cakes help! The market has gone from strength to strength, even proving the importance of local food during the heavy snows in December when no one could get to the supermarket, but POM was there with bread, fruit, veg, lamb joints and cakes! We were worried about the impact on local traders, and so were they. We were also worried about our relationship with them if things went too well for us! So we ran this as a pilot - sounds more tentative. The feedback was that the market had a neutral or positive impact on their trade, so fears evaporated. We even have one of the shops from the high street selling at the market.’ Polly Cooke, Local Food Links Worker
Dig In Porty has also had fruit tree pruning workshops. The idea is to make growing and using your own food as accessible and easy as possible. Workshops not only help people to learn skills, but enable them to meet with other local people interested in similar things.
Find a range of useful resources at www.transitionscotland.org
ENERGY EFFICIENCY WARM Tenement and ‘Hotspot’ Insulation Campaign PEDAL have had a dedicated Energy Worker who helps to provide advice and information on energy efficiency to Portobello’s residents. This work has taken two forms - Portobello Warm Tenements Scheme, which looks at addressing energy efficiency in the tenement flats that are found in Portobello, and the Hotspot Insulation campaign, which helps people access advice and low cost loft and cavity wall insulation.
COMMUNITY ENERGY GENERATION PEDAL’s efforts to establish a commercial scale wind turbine began in mid-2008. The renewable energy revolution was getting underway, communities in rural Scotland were pushing ahead with it, but there had not yet been a community owned wind turbine in a Scottish city. The initial consultants PEDAL worked with gave them poor advice on the suitability of the site, and in the end they decided that a turbine on the scale required would not be worth taking to planning application. PEDAL are now working with new consultants with a proven track record, and a neighbouring community
group, Greener Leith, to develop a larger wind turbine further up the coast on what is looking to be a very promising site. How can other communities avoid the pitfalls? ‘Frame your feasibility study carefully. Make sure you look at a broad enough area. Also, select your consultants carefully! Get references from other community groups they have worked with. If you have concerns about the quality of your consultant’s work, ask for a meeting with them - if these persist, stop the work. Ensure you/ the consultants identify potential show stoppers early on - e.g. visual impact, health and safety, noise, ecology, shadow flicker, communications, or buried services. If you are pursuing a commercial scale wind turbine or other major facility it will be more complex in urban areas. On the plus side, urban projects are close to where the energy is needed! Supportive contacts help – Community Energy Scotland are brilliant, they give great advice, are very flexible in how they run their grant scheme, and very supportive. It is important to recognise and publicise all those who seek to support such efforts.’ Tom Black, Project Manager
Find a range of useful resources at www.transitionscotland.org