Belsize Eco Week was a great success

I'm absolutely delighted that so many local residents connected with last month's Belsize Eco Week in some way. Hundreds of people took advantage of the beautiful weather on Sat 27 Sep to visit the first ever Belsize Green Fair on Haverstock Hill. Hundreds more took part in the Give&Take in the Old Town Hall that day and diverted around five tonnes of “junk” from landfill. And nearly 50 people went foraging on Hampstead Heath that morning with expert forager Miles Irving and came back with a variety of edible plants.

Nearly 40 retailers signed up to Pennies for Plastic and are now selling the Belsize Bag (left) as part of a campaign to drive down plastic bag use in Belsize. in case you were wondering the image on the bag is cow parsley that I foraged from Hampstead Heath and served at a dinner party cooked with butter and garlic!

More than 100 people went to the various eco films and debates that were on in Belsize Library all week. Some 60 people visited the Camden Eco House, the Council-owned Victorian property that has been refurbished to cut carbon emissions by 80%. And 60 people showed up for the inaugural Transition Belsize meeting in the Old Town Hall to discuss how our community will need to adapt to the end of cheap oil and climate change.

On the basis of these numbers I hope Belsize Eco Week will now become an annual event. I’m especially pleased that we now have a Transition Belsize group up and running, the first Transition Town group in North London. Anyone that wants to join us to plan for life after cheap oil and with climate change, please do join us at the next meeting which is Thu 23 Oct in Belsize Library at 7pm. You can read more about the Transition Towns movement here: www.transitiontowns.org.