Transition Street Hillbrow / Highfield is the first Transition Street in Letchworth. It started in November 2015 and has been considered by those taking part, which includes myself, a great success.
After a mailshot along the street nine households were found to be interested in taking part. Regular monthly meetings have been held.
The initial 7 meetings, held in members own homes, were facilitated by members of Transition Town Letchworth. These meetings concerned;
Energy: it was extremely useful to compare energy bills.
Water: it turned out that the one family not on a meter was paying disproportionately more than the rest.
Food: interesting discussions on which foods can be sourced locally and which foods have the largest carbon footprint.
Waste: how to manage it and recycle it – we now circulate information on recyclables.
Transport: ideas were shared on how to reduce our carbon footprint, especially of your annual holiday.
Since these more formal meetings are over we still meet regularly and discuss topics such as parking in the road (a perennial problem in Highfield), rats, strange noises coming from Hitchin in the middle of the night(!) and all sorts of interesting topics.
However the main benefit of these meetings, apart from meeting the aims of the Transition movement of coping with peak oil and climate change, is that it has formed a community to the mutual benefit of all.
If you would like to form your street into a Transition Street all you need to do is get 6 to 8 households in your street to meet once a month in someone’s house for the 7 prescribed meetings which will be facilitated by volunteers from Transition Town Letchworth.