Learning about a positive future in Liverpool

I've just been on a fascinating visit to Liverpool. The main thrust of the trip was a conference entitled "Positive Futures". It was a brave stab at picking up some of the positive vision of the Transition movement and applying it to local government. In a nutshell - we councils have a moral duty to do as much as we can to prevent climate change and we have a duty of care to prepare for the economic and social dislocation of peak oil or life after cheap oil. However we're not very good at presenting a positive vision of the future in the way the Transition Town movement does.

Transition says climate change is the result of our addiction to cheap oil, and that cheap oil is going away soon. But the upside is that life after cheap oil could and should be better - more local, less stressed, more friendly, less chemical, more natural, less angry, more fun, less materialistic and more healthy.

What was doubly interesting was the number of officers (council employees) who appeared to be sceptical about Transition. "It's a fad - it'll never last. Remember LA21." "It's not new - I read "Limits to Growth" in the 1970s." "It's no diffferent from our response to climate change.""It's chaotic." "It's unstructured."

Woah, people - stop worrying! Transition is all of those things and it's not THE answer. But as one of the speakers said "we have to learn from new ideas, be ready to embrace change, consider the ideas of outsiders and adjust our organisations accordingly."

As part of the conference delegates were taken on a tour of "Sustainable Liverpool", which turned out to be a trip to a mega shopping centre - Liverpool One (see image above). A council officer, who readily admitted that he was a planner and therefore not an expert in sustainability, explained why Liverpool One was deemed a huge success because residents from all over the North West drive there to park in a massive multi-story car park, spend all their money on cheap crap from China, eat loads of junk food, and then drive home. Oh dear, oh dear. That's about as far from my definition of sustainable as it's possible to get.

It was however extremely revealing because it illustrated a problem that I hear from councils all over the UK - planning departments are filled with people who have no idea how to deal with climate change and peak oil, or why action is so urgent. I could weep when I hear some of the stories sustainability officers or elected members tell me about their planners. Everyone should know this stuff. ESPECIALLY PLANNERS.