Urban Permaculture

Last year I was fortunate to complete a one year course organised and led by permaculture teacher Sarah Pugh.

The course, based in Bristol, was called "Practical Sustainability".  It was taught by over 40 guest tutors as well as Sarah, all of them well-known practitioners in areas such as green building, energy systems, and group dynamics.

Sarah is passionate about applying the principles of permaculture, a method of growing food in co-operation with nature, and in using these techniques to create resilient and sustainable communities in a post-carbon world., particularly in urban settings.

Sarah was one of the founders of Transition Bristol, and has been a key player in the green and sustainability movement.

Last year she spent a few months in the America, looking at the best examples of urban permaculture, and she is about to return with a photographer to continue her research.

The result will be a book, giving examples of best practice from here and around the world, and offering techniques for growing food efficiently and ecologically - the permaculture way.  It will also include, for the first time in any major structured reference, practical solutions to the problems Sarah has been addressing on her Practical Sustainability Course - protecting and rebuilding urban soils, reconnecting marginalised and fractured communities, revitalising local economies and sharing resources, making creative use of waste streams, revaluing local skills and feeding communities with healthy, nutritious food that doesn’t have a detrimental carbon footprint.

With her broad experience of teaching, sustainability, and her contacts with many of the UK, and now America's leading experts, the book promises to be a goldmine of experience, inspiration and practical encouragement for anyone interested in growing food, or understanding more about how to make their lives more sustainable.

The foreword is to be written by Rob Hopkins, founder of the transition towns movement.

She needs abut £5000 to fund the initial production costs of the book, so she has started a Kickstarter campaign.  For £30, you can buy a copy of the book, which is excellent value - for this, you also get an acknowledgement in the book credits.

She still needs a few more backers.  To sign up go to her Kickstarter page.

Update on the Listed Building Issue with the Council

The Council withdrew the Listed Bulding Application it had submitted to itself to regularise the design of the stall, and to which many of you submitted very encouraging support comments.  No reason was ever given for this.

Following the withdrawal I spoke several times to the Council's cabinet (the senior elected representatives) at their bi-monthly meetings, asking them to intervene to ensure that published Council policy was being correctly followed.  These meetings are attended also by the Chief Executive of the Council and the Council solicitor.  The Tory prospective parliamentary candidate for Bath also wrote directly to the Chief Executive.

Month after month they declined to intervene.  I finally asked that they either "put up or shut up" either take enforcement action against the stall in line with council policy, or formally withdraw their objection to the stall.

This was a course of action that had been requested by Bath's sitting MP and the local ward councillor three years ago, and one which the Planning Officers had  continually refused to consider.

In November they finally did follow their own procedures and took a report to DC committee seeking authority to take enforcement action against the stall.  After a brief discussion, DC committee voted by 8 votes to 2 against authorising enforcement action.

We are very grateful to members of the committee for seeing sense in this matter.