Goring Gap under threat – again!

Persimmon own most of the land that forms our green lungs between Goring and Ferring and they would dearly love to build on all that land. They have appealed against our Council’s decision to leave the Chatsmore Farm area as open space and the Inquiry starts on 6th Feb: https://www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/news/pr23-153.html if anyone wishes to attend.

We have just heard that a local developer who has bought a parcel of land adjacent to the Persimmon land in Goring Gap (south of the land that is already under threat and right next to the coast) has applied for a licence to sell alcohol on that land, building a new bar there (which he has not yet applied for permission to construct), as a pre-cursor to building houses on it. Is this a Trojan horse situation to set a precedent for developing that land?

If you wish to comment on the licence application you can do so here (by 28th Feb)

Any objections have to be quite specific, i.e. that to grant a licence would undermine:
– Crime & Disorder
– Public Safety
– Prevention of Public Nuisance
– Protection of Children from Harm

There is a lot of background information on this issue but it appears that this is the first step towards covering our green lungs in concrete and building on a flood plain, if no-one objects to this. We will keep you updated as things progress. If you want to help, you might like to attend the community protest that has been organised for this Saturday 3rd Feb on the Chatsmore Farm site at the junction of The Strand/Goring Street. Please gather at 11:50am, for a photo at 12 noon. Google Maps – https://w3w.co/best.deed.humid

TTW Receives a Magic Little Grant!

We are extremely grateful to players of The People’s Postcode Lottery as we received notification this month that we’ve been awarded a Magic Little Grant through the partnership between Localgiving and Postcode Society Trust!

Postcode Society Trust is a grant-giving charity funded by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery. Localgiving is the UK’s leading membership and support network for local charities and community groups.

Our greenspaces projects received £500 towards the ongoing running costs of our community gardens.

Mapping Project

TTW will be helping One Planet run fortnightly online Masterclasses from early July, for anyone who wants to learn how to set up their own resource map or eco-system, or create a climate strategy for their organisation or business.

One of the community partners is using it to create a resource map for the homeless; it’s very inspiring to see the myriad ways in which people are using this technology in order to help others and the planet.

One Planet have redesigned their website and it’s now much more user friendly and easy to navigate:
https://our.oneplanet.com/. Do have a look around. TTW’s plan is featured (under Case Studies) and a video about how TTW got involved in this (under Community Partners).

If you would like to know more, do email Pauline at [email protected].

Our Sustainable Worthing Map Is Now Live!

After many months of gathering and inputting information, our map is finally live here:
https://oneplanet.com/published/resource-map/plans/transition-town-worthing

If you scroll down and go to “download PDF” you will see, under the 10 principles, what we have included so far to help you take action.

If you go to the resource map:
https://app.oneplanet.com/published/transition-town-worthing/plans/transition-town-worthing/mindmap and wait a minute for it to load, then you can click on any of the icons on the map and it will take you directly to information about that resource as well as contact details, website etc. so that you can find out more and maybe support that initiative in whatever way you can.

It’s been created (thanks to funding from www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk and the expertise of https://oneplanet.com) to signpost what’s already going on locally and we hope that this will enable people to support our community in countless ways and there’s no better time than now to find out how you can do just that.

Please explore it and maybe base your New Year’s Resolutions on what you find. It’s a call to action, to support local businesses and organisations that are doing what they can to reduce their own carbon footprint or lessen their impact on the environment. It’s designed to let people know what initiatives already exist, so a lot of the leg work has been done, and we know that any help or support you can give will be most appreciated.

We’re a tiny team so can’t cope with being bombarded but if you spot any glaring mistakes or things that don’t work, please let us know about any glitches and we’ll do our best to sort them out. It’s a work in progress and we still need to tidy things up a bit and, with anything like this, things will change and need updating but it’s a start…. We hope you have fun playing with it!

TTW as Community Cause With Zen Internet

TTW has been fortunate to have been chosen as one of three local organisations to receive support by Zen in their Community Force for Good campaign.

Please go to https://www.zen.co.uk/worthingdonation if you are thinking of changing your Broadband provider, as they give us a £50 donation for every new customer, if we are chosen as your “cause.”

Breathing Spaces In Transition

The directors and staff of TTW are absolutely delighted to welcome Breathing Spaces into the TTW “family”.

Those involved in the excellent and inspirational Breathing Spaces, have recently come to the decision to cease to be a Community Interest Company in their own right and will instead become a project under the umbrella of Transition Town Worthing CIC.

In 2022 Breathing Spaces, a TTW project,  will continue to offer volunteer sessions at the Maybridge Keystone Centre flower farm and woodland garden in Worthing, and also at Dankton Lane Barnyard, Sompting. They will still produce beautiful sustainably-grown cut-flowers and they will continue to develop the barnyard for wildlife including wild bees. The project will continue to welcome people with learning difficulties, mental health challenges, refugees, and women in recovery from trauma.

We all believe we will be stronger working together at a time of climate and ecological crisis when people will increasingly need to support their wellbeing through connection to nature at the same time as working to restore nature.

Claire and Lisa have been a key part of our organisation since the very beginning, so this feels like a very appropriate next step for us all. Breathing Spaces will continue to operate autonomously but, like Plastic Free Worthing and Cortis Ave Wildlife Garden, will also sit under the TTW umbrella – very soon.

More details to follow in the near future as this announcement is hot off the press – watch this space…