Paula Mossman has decided to withdraw from the Core Group on which she has served for 4 and a half years. She also plans to handover the monthly newsletter which she edits once we have found a replacement editor. 

She will remain active on the Waste Group and will be involved in 3 forthcoming workshops, so we are not losing her completely. 

Paula has contributed an enormous amount to SC and has been involved in many of our key activities. Hard working , an excellent organiser and highly committed to our vision, she has played a key role in our growth as a Transition Town and I am sure you would join me in expressing thanks and appreciation for the role she has played and all she has achieved.

Gerald Conyngham

Chair of SC

Sustainable Crediton now has over 500 supporters which is really encouraging. However we know very little about your skills, experience and interests. Having more information would enable us to utilise people's skills to better effect and involve our supporters more effectively in existing and new activities. So our plan is to set up a simple database and we will be sending out a questionnaire in September. We hope you will feel enthused to respond and let us know a little more about yourself. 

All skills, experience and interests whatever they may be are equally valuable and appreciated. Here is a very short list of some that would be very useful by way of an example. It is by no means exhaustive! 

• people with legal knowledge to help draft agreements with companies such as our PV partner Solarsense
• people with planning knowledge if/when we decide to set up a community energy project
• someone with a video camera who could film our events and put the films on UTube
• people who enjoy writing/communicating and would like to help with the newsletter/publicity
• people who would like to help give talks on climate change and peak oil
• people with links to local schools who could help us build on our relationship with them

Gerald Conyngham

Mid Devon have recently carried out a consultation about how they would manage new developments in the District. Since this is so relevant to our work in Sustainable Crediton, we put in a joint submission with Bradninch Climate Action. In the final part we stressed the need for emphasis to be placed on resilience (the ability of local systems to withstand outside shocks), self-reliance (providing for our own needs) and re-localisation (ensuring that goods and services are provided at the most local level possible). 

If you would like to see the full submission (not very long!), contact Gerald

Local elections will be taking place in May for Crediton Town Council, the parish councils and Mid Devon District Council.

John Downes (Lib Dem) a member of the Core Group and Laura Conyngham (Green Party) who co-ordinates the Transport Group are two active Sustainable Crediton supporters who will be standing this time around. Laura will be standing for Crediton Town Council and John for the Town Council and MDDC. 

Turn out at mid term local elections is usually low. It is however our opportunity to have some influence on how we want our local communities to be run. 

Let's exercise our democratic rights this time around.