tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2531980910081910368.post5989523510256129795..comments2009-05-16T13:40:11.355+01:00imajazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10027027994762862076noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2531980910081910368.post-32638290198821324962009-05-16T13:22:00.000+01:002009-05-16T13:22:00.000+01:00I was curious to know what the status of the project now is? We're planning to move to a property near Westhall in the next few months, and are very interesting in creating a sustainable environment there, with strawbale structures on the cards. I have long been a follower of the Common Ground Co-operative, and I really hope that this project has been given the go ahead.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2531980910081910368.post-78687917882613669872008-02-19T16:09:00.000Z2008-02-19T16:09:00.000ZI am really excited by your project...it sounds like a really interesting idea and you seem to have put a huge amount of work and though in to it. I am moving to Norwich in 2 weeks time for an 8 month enviromental education post. I'm really keen to build on my experience with sustainable buildng, especially strawbaling....any volunteers needed. if so feel free to get in touch. hannahmcvey@yahoo.co.uk. Cheers and good luck!hannahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2531980910081910368.post-55281282183528565062008-01-22T01:07:00.000Z2008-01-22T01:07:00.000ZThank you for your enthusiasm Mr Jackson!<BR/>I can allay your fears regarding the financial situation of Common Ground's members. Of the twelve adults, those of us not doing full-time parenting are almost all in part-time employment in order to devote time to setting up and running this project, and/or to participate in their children's upbringing. If we were successful, we would be spending much of our time developing the gardens, woods, orchards, meadows and buildings on the site in order to meet our basic needs with a small amount of part-time work, increasingly in the locality, to allow us to buy goods and services in from local economy. For example; I am a heating engineer installing solar panels. After helping to meet the energy, waste and water needs on the site in an ecological (and economic) way, I hope to help others in the locality to reduce their ecological impact (and their bills). <BR/>We also have a nurse, a tree surgeon, two conservation workers, a carpenter, a youth worker (doing school grounds projects), a historian, a cleaner, and a musician. Many people intend to grow a surplus, which could be sold through Alex's veg shop in Bungay, or at the Farmers Market. <BR/><BR/>None of the above can be described as having a better than average financial situation - except maybe myself as a plumber, but then I have eschewed carbon-burning oil and gas for solar thermal - hardly a huge market!<BR/><BR/>Part of the overall sustainability of our project is the way in which we can reduce our living costs substantially by:<BR/>growing much of our own food if we live at the site; <BR/>sharing facilities such as laundry; <BR/>reducing our motor vehicle use, both by numbers of journeys, and by sharing a couple of vehicles as some of us have done successfully for a number of years. Folding bicycles and the bus are cheaper to run than cars and are more village-friendly.<BR/>Another way is in producing very low cost houses that require little heating, so that our rents will remain very low (around half the standard 'affordable rent' for the area. <BR/>In other words, we will be able to live in the way that we would like (which does not make much money) because it does not require much money to live in that way. It does not follow that because we will have low living costs, we will be free to go and make lots of money!<BR/><BR/>As we are members of a co-operatively- structured organisation, in law as well as by intention, we cannot own our own properties (the co-operative does) and neither can any of us make any financial gain from the properties or the co-operative. The only gain we get from this way of working together is security of tenure in houses we build ourselves. Incidentally, the co-op can also not make money from the project - it can only provide housing,etc., for its members. It can only sell the asset on to another organisation with the same co-operative, non-profit aims. As a safeguard, we are also asking for a condition of the planning application to be that the planning permission would lapse if the land changed ownership. In short, it will be impossible for any of us to make money from this project through wheeler dealing. And this is very much how we want it. <BR/><BR/>The rules of the co-operative allow for the likelihood that membership can and will change. We have a comprehensive joining procedure that is open to all. In the coming years, more local people will be able to join the co-op and live in the properties. I say 'more' local people, as our membership includes two adults who live in St.Andrew (and their two children), three adults and three children whose family are based in Bungay and who cannot afford accommodation in the area.. One retired applicant only held back because she thought the time scale of the project was too long to enable her to move back to the village where she was born. Such opportunities would be available to others in the future. All members are bound by the rules of the co-operative - we have them partly to ensure that people who want to make money at the expense of the project, or the village, cannot do so.<BR/><BR/>Please feel free to raise any other concerns you, or anyone else, may have with us - we have spent 4 years together working towards this, so really don't want to fail because we didn't explain ourselves to the satisfaction of rightly sceptical observers. For some of us, this is the stage we have got to after 15 years working towards an answer to 'what is sustainable living?'. On the way we have successfully set up a fully mutual, par value housing co-operative in Norwich which has been running for 7 years and will continue to provide low cost, self-managed, secure housing for others for the foreseeable future long after we have (hopefully) moved on to make Common Ground, Orchard Farm Fields, Ilketsall St Andrew a successful, self-reliant, locally contributing part of the Waveney Valley community. <BR/><BR/>And finally; we'll be paying council tax, so there's no chance of affluence!richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10455200518522215921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2531980910081910368.post-42079749998079380022008-01-20T19:33:00.000Z2008-01-20T19:33:00.000ZThe idea sounds fantastic but My doubts are that the families occupying these houses will be those with a way better than average financial situation and as such the village will attract its own local name.<BR/>J.W.L.albert-jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01306046207546198623noreply@blogger.com