Scotland-wide

Dunbar Community Kitchen Ltd is progressing plans to open a training kitchen and cafe in the new Bleachingfield Centre.

The steering group would really appreciate your input to this brief survey to assess the demand for different services: Dunbar Community Kitchen Survey

If you think you might use this cafe, book catering for an event, have an interest in training or employment opportunities, in supplying produce or whatever, please do complete the survey. Many thanks.

Sustaining Dunbar’s aim is to bring people together to build a future for our locality which is not reliant on fossil fuels. Our work is focussed on local projects which further this aim, from helping people to save money on their fuel bills, to creating opportunities for local employment and leisure activities which reduce the need to travel further afield.

Sustaining Dunbar is a Development Trust and a Charity:

• As a Development Trust Sustaining Dunbar works to support local projects to help them get up and running.
• As a charity, Sustaining Dunbar is regulated by Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).

Sustaining Dunbar has a membership open to anyone living in the Dunbar and East Linton Ward and it is free. However, households and local groups do not need to be members in order to get our practical support.

Sustaining Dunbar has various active projects on the go locally some of which have funding from the Scottish Government and some of which are not funded e.g. our trading subsidiaries.

Funded Projects: Based upon our previous work we have recently been awarded three years funding from the Scottish Government to pay for part-time members of staff to deliver one main project called - The Household Canny Challenge which gives practical support to households and schools throughout the Dunbar and East Linton Ward to reduce their use of fossil fuels. We have 4 practical support teams: Energy Advice Team, Connecting Dunbar Team (local sustainable transport), Incredibly Edible Dunbar and District Team (local food growing) and Worms Work (food waste composting) all working with households and schools to reduce carbon emissions, and to measure and record how we have done this, so that what we learn can be shared around the country.

We are grateful to the large number of volunteers (not least our hard-working board members) who help us keep the show on the road.

March Newsletter available online

 We are experimenting with a new type of Newsletter system - you can either sign up to have it emailed to you or you can read online here.  There's also a link from our Facebook page.

If you have stories or news that might be of interest to TBI members and supporters why not email us?  The next newsletter will be published in June.

This feed was drawn from the Transition Black Isle website

Dunbar Shore and Harbour Neighbourhood Group are working together with the owners of the land along the Church Street Vennel and the local community to clear up the rubbish, overgrown tress and plants and to make use of this space as a garden.

The owners have been very positive about the idea of turning this site over to a Community Garden and are currently looking at the cost of repairing the wall and replacing the missing gate.

We are now looking for people who may be interested in using and caring for the garden once it is cleared.

Please let us know if you, or anyone you know are interested by calling Sue on 01368 866 920 or by email sue@sustainingdunbar.org.

If you are interested in knowing more about the Dunbar Shore and Harbour Neighbourhood Group please have a look at the website: http://ourlocality.org/dunbarshoreandharbour

Thank you for your interest.

The next visit in the Eat, Meet and Talk series — is our own Orchard!
Meet outside Brunstane Railway Station at 10.30 am

Volunteers in Portobello have planted around 90 fruit­ing trees such as apples, pears, plums and cher­ries, par­tic­u­larly …

City of Edinburgh Council (and other local authorities across south east Scotland) have made free cavity wall and loft insulation available to households regardless of their income. This offer is open to all homeowners and tenants of private landlords. The …

The next meeting of the NHTT’s Energy Group will begin a public discussion about locally-owned renewable energy in our area.  NHTT recognises that it is better to begin the discussion now, rather than have developments happen on our doorstep, in which the community has no part.

Therefore NHTT is exploring the idea of an Energy Co-operative that is owned by members of the community.  The community invests, and community benefits from the revenue & profits generated.  Typically, individual members can invest between £250 and up to £20,000.

Energy 4 All are the organisation in Britain that has pioneered co-operative ownership of renewables, with examples all over the UK including 4 already up and running in Scotland; at Boyndie near Banff, near Fort Augustus in the Great Glen, on the Isle of Skye and at Kilbaur near Golspie.

The meeting will host Energy 4 ALL man Paul Phare. Paul will present the work of Energy 4 All in promoting and enabling community-based energy cooperative projects  and we will discuss how their approach might work in our area.

When & Where 

Monday 21st May 2012 at 7.45pm.   Letham Village Hall

Who’s welcome

All members of the community

More

http://www.energy4all.co.uk/ for more info

Acknowledgement

Paul’s visit is being financially supported by Co-operative Development Scotland

Spring is here and what better time to take a walk in the woods? Sustaining Dunbar and Dunbar Community Woodland Group have produced this free map of Lochend Woods to help you explore.

Available from John Muir Birthplace, Dunbar Town House, and Sustaining Dunbar offices. Or download and print your own.

Fancy some veg gardening with a group of other people – or need a small allotment of your own ?

We have a Community Garden in co-operation with Monimail Tower Project.  And we have space for other individuals or families that want to be involved.  Take an allotment or garden together.

The venue is the 19th century walled garden at Monimail Tower.  It has great soil, is well protected from wind and frosts!  We have two polytunnels as well!

Cost is £15/year payable to MTP.

Come + have a look to see if you are interested.

Open Day on Sunday 20th May from 11am to 3pm at Monimail Tower.

“For every 10 minute increase in your walk to work there is a 12% reduction in your likelihood of getting high blood pressure.”

Dr Mike Evans says his message — to complete a half-hour of exercise every day — is like a magic pill to cure aches and pains.

“I’ve got a pill that’s going to help with your arthritis, help with your depression, help with your anxiety, help with your obesity, help prevent cancer,” he said. Watch this video to find out more.

If you spend time in Edinburgh or another city, this great urban walking route planner: walkit.com can help you find the best ways to get about on foot. Usefully, it also tells you how long it will take you to walk there.

You probably don’t know that May is National Walking Month, but why not be part of it, and take some extra time this month to enjoy the spring-time outdoors? Living Streets has launched its Great British Walking Challenge, where you can record how many miles you’ve walked/muffins you’ve earned.

We are looking to find a Local Food Project Worker to support households, schools and groups in the Dunbar District. The deadline for submitting a letter of interest and CV regarding this contract is by 5pm Friday 11 May to the attention of Sustaining Dunbar Local Food Project, 16 West Port, Dunbar EH42 1BU.  For more information please call 01368 866 920 or email sue@sustainingdunbar.org

Sustaining Dunbar has secured funding to employ a consultant to deliver support to local food growing projects in conjunction with our ‘Household Canny Challenge’.

You will support participating households and schools to increase local food growing. You will also support Incredible Edible Dunbar in developing community gardens and orchards and other projects. You will work closely with our Compost Support Worker to encourage food waste reduction and increase nutrient recycling through worm composting.

 You will be specifically responsible for:

• Aligning your community engagement strategies with the Household Canny Challenge Project.
• Working with local primary schools to develop new growing projects.
• Supporting our team’s work with local primary schools to inspire and enable families to reduce food waste and grow more food.
• Working with participating households and groups to support new food growing in gardens and public spaces and to establish skills sharing and learning circles.
• Working with and supporting ‘Incredible Edible Dunbar’ to develop the Belhaven Hospital garden project, community orchards, ‘edible routes to schools’, local food labelling scheme and practical food skills courses.
• Working with the Project Coordinator to liaise with East Lothian Council and support their development of a Local Food Policy, in particular to:
• Develop local food procurement for school kitchens
• Reduce food waste in schools
• Enable use of public space for food growing
• Monitoring and evaluation of Household Canny Challenge Project and carbon savings.

You will also be expected to attend and participate in whole staff-team meetings/activities as required, to promote the wider aims of Sustaining Dunbar, to contribute to newsletters and project websites and to carry out other reasonable duties as required.

We are initially able to offer up to 46 days of consultant’s time to be spread over one year at £125 per day.

Consultants will be self-employed and able to start as soon as possible.

Person Specification:

Skills:

• Interpersonal skills – the ability to engage productively with groups and individual members of the public
• The ability to translate our targets into achievable community goals
• The ability to break our goals into smaller community action points
• Skill sharing – the ability to effectively share the practical skills and experiences you have gained
• Communication – the ability to communicate simple and effectively both verbally and in writing

Experience

• Experience of training and skill sharing in a paid or voluntary capacity for at least 2 years
• You will have worked in a food growing environment for at least 2 years
• Experience of project development from idea through to delivery
• Experience of working with schools

Qualifications

No particular qualifications are required but a horticultural qualification would be helpful

Please submit a letter of interest regarding this job along with your CV by 5pm Friday 11 May to Sustaining Dunbar 16 West Port, Dunbar EH421BU. For more information please call 01368 866 920 or email sue@sustainingdunbar.org

 

 

We are very disappointed that our plans for the first urban community wind turbine in Scotland have hit a stumbling block after the landowner, Scottish Water, changed their stance on the project at the start of this year.

Negotiations stalled …

We need help on the PEDAL stall for a couple of hours between 9.30 and 1.30 pm.  If you’re free, give Mandy a ring on 0131 669 1124 — many thanks!…

Local people may have noticed paths and bike parking being installed in the area.   This is being done as part of Phase 1 of the Paths to Transition project.  We still have some work to do such as the footbridge at Cunnoquhie and signage at all sites, but this will be complete soon.

We think it has been a great initiative, and people in the community are telling that they like it as well.  What’s more the project has been recognised at a national level.  The project was entered into the Scottish Transport Awards in two categories:  Contribution to Sustainable Transport, and Most Innovative Transport Project.   The great news is that it has been shortlisted in both categories.  We are in competition with 5 or 6 other projects that are also shortlisted.  The Awards will be announced on 14th June at a big posh dinner in Glasgow.  We’ll let you know how we did.

For pictures and details of the project see the Transport page.

Thanks to our funders:  Leader Fife, Fife Environment Trust, and the Climate Challenge Fund.

Free compost is now available to householders in the area.  NHTT has arranged for compost (soil conditioner) to be provided free of charge by Fife Council. Monimail Tower Project have kindly agreed to host the  stockpile at the edge of their car park.

Collect for free at Monimail Tower

The 1-2-3 of getting your compost:

1. Turn up at Monimail Tower Project car park (behind the wall opposite the green at Monimail )
2.  Help yourself, no need to ask. The stockpile is signposted.
3. Take home and garden !

Why is NHTT doing this ?

We have are providing this to the community for 2 main reasons:
- to promote gardening including for growing veg,
- to encourage peat-free composts. Draining peatlands to harvest peat is major issue for climate change.
More on peat-free gardening here.
More on why peatlands matter especially in Scotland here.

Where does the compost come from ?

It is a high quality product produced by Fife Council from the green material collected in the brown bins together with other horticultural materials.  It is tested comply with British Standard PAS 100 (contact us for a copy of the test certificate).  The heat of the compost process kills weed seeds and other bugs.  It gets up to 70 degrees C !

Fair Use

Max 250kg per household; for non-commercial home use in the Giffortown, Collessie and Monimail Community Council areas.

[ April 28, 2012; 10:00 am to 11:00 am. 10:00 am to 11:00 am. ] PEDAL and Greener Leith have hit a stumbling block in negotiations over the deal to enable the Portobello & Leith Community Wind Turbine to be built on Scottish Water’s land.   We really need local people to come along to …

[ May 5, 2012; 9:30 am to 1:30 pm. 9:30 am to 1:30 pm. 9:30 am to 1:30 pm. ]

Saturday 5th May is Portobello Market day!

This month: Following on from the fantastic success of the Easter market, we are once again offering entertainment: AnnieD will be appearing with her amazing face painting and a young student …

Just a reminder that our Energy Audit service is ongoing, offering free, practical advice on how to save energy around the home and reduce bills.

For more information pop into the BeGreen shop on the West Port or contact us on 01368 863 720.