Paula Mossman and Gerald Conyngham of Sustainable Crediton Core Group and Simon Tytherleigh of Bradninch Climate Action gave a 2 1/2 hour workshop to councillors and senior executives of Mid Devon District Council. The title was 'Towards a Sustainable Mid Devon'. The workshop fell into 2 parts.

We began with a multimedia presentation ably narrated by Paul Birch of Transition Taunton who joined us for this purpose from across the border in Somerset!. Paul and his partner Chrissie had created the presentation and workshop at the invitation of Taunton Deane Borough Council in summer 2009. It was rolled out to 375 Taunton Deane employees over 11 workshops last year.

After Paul's presentation, which was very powerful and convincing about the effects climate change and peak oil are likely to have on our lifestyles worldwide, we faciltated a workshop session involving all present. We imagined we had been transported to the year 2030 and that Mid Devon was now a vibrant, sustainable, and resilient community despite the effects of peak oil and climate change. The object was to see what actions we would need to take as individuals, as a community and what actions MDDC was uniquely placed to take, to bring about the changes necessary to create such a community. 

There was a real buzz in the room towards the end and some really positive ideas emerged. 

The results of the workshop will now be presented to the MDDC executive and we are hopeful that they will see the value in rolling it out to all MDDC staff in 2011 in a similar way to that at Taunton Deane. 

If YOU are involved with a community group who would like to have a talk on climate change and peak oil, or indeed participate in a a similar workshop, please contact Paula in the first instance. We would be keen to work with you as we want to spread this work as widely as possible.