Appendix V – Visions of 2030
collected at workshops and public events
Warm friendships with neighbours
Community / shared Christmas
Large sailing shops
UK will be under a more regulated political system ie. change will be more driven than today
A supportive (rather than debt based) money supply encourages economic co-operation in place of frantic competition
You will pay to Google
Source of carbohydrates – potatoes / rye
Imaginative reality
Community is very important to sustain ourselves on many levels
People are exploring new concepts European centre for creative arts, music and theatre
No Energy because stupid environmentalists used it all to make wind turbines / solar panels which are now broken!
People are stronger & hardier from being outdoors more
Water:
- reliance
- transport
Locally based economy
Peaceful (possibly dead!)
Not much oil
Many birds
Globe – smaller + more linked
Clearer smoother lives
Harmony.
Solar energy
Localized
More boats on the river
For Dartington:
- An improved village centre – community
- A controlled traffic flow
- Happy faces Quiet traffic (Electric or small)
Local trade – very important
Perhaps less interested in work but more in community
Its hot
People realize that money does not equal happiness, and they stop pursuing it above all other things
A simple diet
Last airplane flight
A warm yurt leading off to a glass house.
Rain dripping through the trees
Local practices doing more operations
ABOLISHMENT OF THE ENTIRE EDUCATION SYSTEM.
Paint more rainbows!
Libraries occupy several buildings in Totnes. Reading rooms very popular
Totnes Hospital doing more acute care
Sustainable Development Agency – influenced by transition – And other larger organizations & government
Higher intensity growing systems
Technology very important
Like 1930 but 100 years older
Free vegetable gardens on every roadside ditch
More communal meals – let’s eat the rich
Water mills, windmills, tank traps, mines,
More toil, less toiletries
Upside down and back to front
You’re beautifully seedy, much less greedy – not needy
2030, the outlook is bleak
But will it mean I’ll be more of a freak?
Will there still be seven days in the week?
Or are we on a winning streak?
You warmed to Totnes and didn’t peak too early
2030 – Jerri’s bird has had a son
Who’s left the trifle for an organic bun…
Like 2029, but just a little bit older
Older, wiser, with the wry smile of a Bodhisattva
Hopefully we’ll have invented teleportation…
More bluebells, less consols
No salad dressing? Oil live without.
But that’s another chapter
Re-open the old railway lines
The new solar-powered Tate Totnes opens to rave reviews
With Damien Hirst’s piece “Scrotum Pole” polarizing views
72 and 11/12, canning, jamming, baking, making wonder woman
Voluptuous vegetables
More morality in business and top management
World peace
Solar / electric cars
“Supermarkets” will still be big but sell local produce
Smells of breadmaking, slow cooking, herbs drying
Morrisons closes after flagging sales
Enough allotments & community growing spaces for whole of Totnes
Stronger communities, using alternative sources of energy
Most buildings are net energy producers
Regained sense of community
The home garden is a vegetable patch
MORE DEPENDENT ON EACH OTHER
Working from home
Improved public transport
Locally based economy
Strong community
Local yet global communication
Very grateful to be living on an island that can be defended
Less noise from traffic
Local power and heat generation
Technology having greater control of energy use
Warm family togetherness
Feeling of usefulness even though I’m 90
There will be a local energy supply company – both heat and power
Fewer vehicles Most electric
Houses are all super-insulated and require virtually no energy to maintain warmth
The next level of human culture
Increased sense of community
No traffic noise – all cars are electric
People working together
Transition garden
Stronger sense of a community
Awareness about our human actions
Working world
All my dreams of a sustainable sharing, caring society comes true.
Delight in all that’s living Appreciation. Caring and being cared for
A block of flats with a shared common room & kitchen, for people who have lost a partner, children grown up & left home
More bikes & people walking
No decline in availability of transport and mobility
RELAXED EASY
SIMPLE CALM
Shiney happy people
Wilderness respected
I am included, welcome and loved (I’ll be over 90)
Fly with electronic planes
2030 Look out from kitchen first thing on getting up from sleep, to see all the lush food producing plants in my somewhat permaculture garden and see lots of birds coming down into the garden to take water and waste scraps
Stronger relationships with neighbours
Greater ability to communicate & negotiate
Photovoltaic panels everywhere
Sound of chickens
Creating our own entertainment and nourishment as a community
Closer community
Natural history being introduced at primary level
More people on the streets (less people as a whole)
Less animals in the fields
More small scale farming
Very small vehicles
Food crops
Orchards
People walking to work
Locally grown foods
Inclusivity
Windmills
Horse drawn carts
Supermarkets in decline
A self-sufficient community with pollution free transport system to link to nearby communities
All power by:
- wind turbin
- water / waves
- solar power
Less concern over what we own and more concern over what we share
Less noise. No traffic sounds.
Productive gardens
Fresh local produce increasing
No waste collection service!
More none combustion engine means of transport & less cars
Birds and animals interacting with humans, with a total absence of fear. Nature and humans are one
Slower pace – better quality of everything as a result
Spacious + slow companionship more basic less waste
More independent – minded and sharing – hearted and ‘doing’ for the community
HEALTHIER LIFESTYLE FOR CHILDREN
Eating organic food from my garden
Fresh local produce increasing
Supermarkets in decline
Abundance of Local Food grown at home
Food share markets
People realize that money does not equal happiness, and they stop pursuing it above all other things
We all live on the moon or under the sea?
More technologies (gadgets)
Maximize local control Minimize bureaucracy (sociocracy) to be considered
HUGE EXHIBITION OF GOVERNMENT FUNDED ART PROJECTS
Art integrated with society / culture.
I ride my bike into town on the road that used to be full of traffic. The air smells sweet and fresh
Bruce Forsyth Still Alive!
“EDUCATION” A WORD OF THE PAST. REAL COMMUNITY INSTEAD
Young persons slot on Today Programme (Radio 4)
LOOKING FORWARD TO MY MEAL TONIGHT IN THE COMMUNAL KITCHEN
Totnes water supplies company
Connected
People traveling by donkey & bicycle.
No supermarkets
No chainstores
Morrisons closes after flagging sales
NO fuel } mostly
No food } Not imported
pollinators – bumble bees
Enough allotments & community growing spaces for whole of Totnes
Food produced in 50 mile radius
Care for the elderly will need more effort as they will be less mobile and many / most incapable of producing their own food.
Today harvesting some nettles to use for making cloth and string (cheaper than the hemp and flax string from Newton Abbot mill
More time to relax and enjoy life
Improvements in mental health – less inner child angst
Biodiversity on local farms
A parallel community is now flourishing with a separate money system. The Totnes pound has
become radical! Sterling is underminded.
Learning to adapt to unpredictable climate change effects with more limited global political communication – generally less focus on security provided by outside agencies – more reliant on self & local community
(4 hours) P/w national food service – rewarded with food – contingency
individual rain water collection & recycled grey water
local government support – inclusive / supports CSA
More regionalized treatment
Teleconferencing – meetings and operations
Reduced dependence on supermarkets
the filthiness raging through my senile mind
2030, I’ll be 74 then! We’ll walk everywhere. And maybe, we’ll smile more.
Age 60, you and me, 2030, flirty, fungus-munching, down’n’dirty
Smelling gloriously of woodsmoke
Sharing resources eg washing machines
Get off this land, it’s all mine
Totnes Castle, covered in grass,
For oil and gas we really won’t care
Wellbeing gardens
- providing medical herbs for town
- involvement with local surgery practice
- workers in garden knowledgeable about herbs
Our energy will come from what we share
Windmills, hydroelectric power and cycle lanes
The year is 2030, I’m 66, old and dirty, and the planet isn’t far behind,
2030, when all done and said, I might be peaceful, possibly dead
Six foot under, in a biodegradable box,
Pushing up daisies, generating organic compost!
It would smell much better because there would be less cars
Prisoners made to cycle to produce electricity
Making plant medicines
Have bikes and ride for half an hour then have half an hour TV
Inside the house will be quieter as well as out.
TV’s turned off when not watched
Well insulated buildings Much co-housing in existence
New local legislation
More people working from home / less=more. Time to garden, cook etc
Working harder, less artificial energy more muscle power
Live simply so that we can all simply live
Fields of vegetables
Schools will be different – even home educating using ICT – not so much travelling slower lifestyle
Sound of wood being chopped
Totally safe to walk (ie no cars etc)
No over development of housing in the Parish of Dartington
Solar panels on all roofs
My kids (that I’ve not had yet) haven’t gone very faraway for further education
Localised! (But hardwork)
Revisit the ideas of public service – what does this mean?
The local council is an energy supplier
Co-operative living and working is commonplace
Vegetables sold on market by vendors are grown by them locally
A stronger sense of community and local decision powers, where diversity (people, skills etc) meets shared values (respectful, mature, ethical)
Slow world
- slow work
- slow walk
- slow talk
Enriched by a feeling of inter-dependence
Friendlier, more understanding of others happy
Dartington small community
Less dependent
In 2030 I’ll be 90! I hope my friends are growing organic food – to share – and hope they take me out in their solar powered cars.
Ability to make peace in most immediate relationships & those we encounter in everyday life – so all learning from each other to create peace more widely
More veg. growing in and around town
Live simply so that we can all simply live
More love of & sense of connection with each other & nature
People working from home or very locally
We have local not global celebrities – famed for carrot growing skills or slug avoidance breakthroughs
More time devoted to food production and local crafts
Less need for recycling because we’ve focused reduction (and re-use) instead
Far more people actively engaged in setting local issues
CLEAN INSIDE & OUT ie personal> body mind emotions + environment / socially (POST DETOX all of reality/everything
IN + OUT HARMONY mind & emotions…<> environment world – WHOLE BRAIN LOVE CONSCIOUSNESS UNPRECEDENTED HAPPINESS stage1 heaven on earth achieved
The world is visibly greener, gardens and vegetable patches, wood burning fires / stoves. Walking / cycling more. Children outside playing rather than inside watching TV and playing on computers. People working as a community, pooling resources, sharing what they produce.
Or
We destroy ourselves and our planet, pumping all the life out of it, and pumping harmful pollutants into the atmosphere. DEATH
Competition with migrants will continue to demand peace-making skills
Time to BEE
Larder stocked with local / own garden produce. Dried or fresh depending on season
Community – oriented Performance & visual arts are a curriculum priority at all levels of education
MORE EQUALITY Will be cycling out to the Democratic Forum to discuss some new courses which the pupils have put forward
Overcome the barriers of money & land ownership to create a community rather than a return to serfdom
Climate change stopped
Young people choosing whether to go to school / work from home or in community
Arts: lubricant for change glue of community. Food for the soul. Great way of celebrating!
Manure and humus. Also human manure is very valuable
I won’t be able to get drinking water straight out of the tap any time of day. Toilets could be communal compost toilets at the end of the street
Insects very specialized and least able to adapt – good mosaic of habitat
Small scale sewage treatment / compost toilets
Age recognized as beneficial for people are living longer and their thinking has blossomed
Sunshine, trees, children’s laughter, community food preparation
Lots of community based family events – like the apple pressing, the harvest, the haymaking.
We will once again hear the swish of scythes!
Cooking over a wood burning stove
Living in a community
Using herbs and preserving foods
Food waste – very different attitudes & practices
- more game eaten
- more fish and more types of fish eaten
More ‘we’, less ‘wii’ !!
Traditional woodlands and management to produce food, fuel and biodiversity
Filtration of water
Education essential – garden share etc
Ascequial (?) Spanish shared water systems – Dartmoor (? Deregulation)
National deregulation & DIY initiatives
Smaller communities
- more of them
- more cohesive
- possible strife
re-opening of local aquifers
Community gardens – shared allotments
Your-round salads, rather than grass
Pavilions potatoes, Civic Hall spuds
Bridgetown bananas, not Follaton Floods
2030 – Happy and dirty, gardening madly, hairdrying badly,
Shivering or baking, digging and co-operating,
Alive and connected or ill and dejected.
Housing migrants – disused commercial centres
More resilient
- Education for public involvement
- Responsibility to vote
- Education for social responsibility
- Team playing
A greener less frenetic world more people and child friendly / activities generated for a creative, healthy population
Gentler but busier environment, more people walking / biking, children playing, chatting etc.
Still living as family units with some shared aspects eg vehicle use washing machines – cooking swaps sharing resources.
Eating, working, playing, growing, sharing together.
We do not know what will happen we just need more bio-cultural options to be resilient
Work:
- flexible
- Mixed
- Productive
- Healthy
- Local
- Econ
- Self-sufficiency
More time is spent sustaining life – ie growing / preparing food and wood fuel than time spent working a ‘normal’ job to buy services as we do now
Earth friendly lifestyle & attitude
- Each street has a purpose built communal place
- Local Council gives council tax rebate to all members of the Greenest Street
- No difference between white & black people
- Local meat
- Horse & cart
- Less oil Smells better because of less cars
People look happy, they have time to spend listening and caring for each other, themselves and therefore the planet.
Self-sufficient
Population Control: 6 trees for every child Gondola Trips on the Plains
Eating, working, playing, growing, sharing together. Less concern over what we own and more concern over what we share
Living closer to the land
- retain all green areas
- no more housing in green areas
- electric vehicles
I’m gonna have chickens and a small vegetable garden; with the neighbours, we share the car & take care of each other. There are more sharing communal activities.
Close knit loving communities supporting the growth and development of their children, selves and elders together – learning from one another Cosy homes full of drying herbs for tea + wood burners with home made soups bubbling away Lush green healthy thriving vegetable fruit and herb gardens full of birds, butterflies and healthy happy children
SLOW Community 20-30
I buckwheat
M nettles
P Wear more jumpers!
L EUGENICS
E Eat less
Gardens without boundaries just communal veg, trees and flowers Its quiet and peaceful in the morning without the sound of traffic and cars Private space but perfect community
Sparkling water flowing (town fountain). Nature in the towns. Plants / green / wildlife apparent in the town
Friends, family, community, laughter, smiling small producers.
less division between rural and town
Ecodesign systems
Small scale production & organic food
Keep protected biodiversity areas / very important
More productive agricultural systems
Urban / rural strategy
Involvement
- in food production
- in planning
- in entertainment
- in self-build
- in flood defences
- in woodland management
- in health
A rejuvenated idea of service not for aristocracy, not for commerce, but for our fellow man & our community
Each Street – household
Co-operating with
- food /veg growing (garden parties, barbecues)
- Solar panels (from free gov. grants) on every roof
- households take turns to provide communal meals
2030 A healthy local economy in the Dart Valley based on a eco job creation based on renewables and an economy based on the crop economy rather than the cash economy
The Energy Challenge – Geoffrey Haggis’ book
(its all in there)
Wind turbines on the horizon
Good neighbours
More communal buildings & growing areas
More allotments
Sharing home / extended families
Chopping wood /try to find some fuel
Vegetables
We’ll be better at milking cows, knitting
Shared communal duties
Digging clay
Weeding the allotment
Patching & mending
Sailing boats on the river
Hard work but satisfying
Being totally responsible
Cabins
Lots of timber
Lots of outbuildings
1950’s homes
drawers full of string
local rope making business
Less TVs & computers
Last gym closes
Lot less fat people
Rickshaws
Horses abound
Lots of children
Housing called housing – to remove stigma of social housing
More arts needs eg French suburbs
Wider pavements and very little traffic
Electric delivery vans
Lot more sitting places / series of meet and greet spots
Air of relaxed attitude
How much money do people each need?
What is the benchmark of earnings to meet needs?What is necessity / what is the right to earn / need ? eg Green party Social wage
Every area having a large food store
Buildings closer together
Better and more insulation
more elegant
Entrance (concierge) as well as house people
Much better feeling of community
Never be able to not know your neighbours
Need a lot more manure
Heart & Soul Group 2030 Visions
General Ambience
Happy, Vital, Warm-hearted, Creative, Unhurried, Friendly, Interdependent. Almost all visions made indicate an assumption that by 2030, in Totnes at least, there will have been a transformation in human relationships ( some described it as a spiritual awakening) towards greater co-operation in all aspects of life; sharing of space, facilities and food ; open-heartedness, respect for and appreciation of all life; wisdom appreciated and aspired to. People were more fulfilled and satisfied with their lives. Few regrets for the passing of consumerism. Ownership and acquisition had become obsolete as a concept of a successful/fulfilling lifestyle. All welcomed more time for communal activities including rituals, celebrations and rites of passage; conversations, appreciation of nature and environment, developing and applying re-learned skills of creative survival and self-sufficiency such as gardening, animal husbandry, sewing, knitting, baking and cooking, repair and renovation. Bartering and exchange of skills and goods of all kinds had replaced much of the old monetary based economy. Children much in evidence, well integrated into community life and activity. Domesticated animals, for work and as pets, also in abundance, with great care and respect for their existence. People more trusting and less afraid of each other and life in general; their resilience has been tried and tested and they have come through!!
Government/ Authority/ Economy
References to Central Government usually in terms of it having become largely redundant.
Local government much more open and participatory . Devolution of power from central government envisaged and local control over many aspects of life including economy . Radical changes to the current democratic process.
Generally implied that melt-down in current economic practices and structures had been inevitable and capitalism, as we currently know it, was obsolete.
Mixed feelings about wider issues and how they will be dealt with. Some envisioned types of structures for social organisation/decision making as the norm in 2030, the seeds of which are already embedded in models and ideas which are being experimented /trialled in workshops/communities by many different groups/organisations today ….common features being inclusivity, localisation, equality/parity/equal opportunity, active participation by all social groupings, ( young people, elderly, disabled etc.) …all engendering a greater sense of ‘belonging’. Some saw this as being facilitated by a series of interlinked circles with two-way lines of communication operating between them.
Some envisage world news to be as bad as ever …. with natural disasters, wars and general mayhem still the norm. Others are more hopeful and feel that by 2030 we will have ‘come through’. There is some reference to the need to be aware of and continue to support other countries/ economies through fair trade at the same time as acknowledging the need for our staples to be more locally produced.
Transport
Few motorised vehicles as we know them today …possibly used only for emergencies. Trains run on renewable energy. Travel abroad mostly by sail and overland transport. Much more use made of the river and horses/ponies used for both private and public transport. People walk far more. Much use made of communal /shared transport. Only a few people envisaged possibility of use of advanced technology to develop new forms of transport.
Work
In most of the visions the edges between life-style and work are blurred and imply a move away from concept of ‘work in order to live’ towards a philosophy of ‘ live in order to work’ In other words, work is life-enhancing and contributory to the greater good. Much more manual and hands-on work especially in agriculture and market gardening.
Housing
Almost no private housing …mostly shared and designed for community life which embraced young and the elderly. All buildings designed to make most of use of natural resources for heat and power. Water conservation an important feature. Greenhouses in abundance an every house with space for cultivation of foodstuff ….including , where no attached garden, window boxes. Expansion of town envisaged, with outlying former fields given over to housing projects, mostly of the communal kind, with space to allow for reasonable self-sufficiency in food, power, heating, water supplies etc.
Total use of building materials from sustainable and preferably local sources, and most new-build made of cob. Huge retro-fitting of old style buildings to make them sustainable in changing climatic and economic conditions.
Physical Changes to Totnes
Much emphasis on the market-place ; people see this as moving from the top of town , down to The Plains for easier access by horse-drawn vehicles and boats.Market style stalls and retail outlets seem to pre-dominate over shops’ as we know them. Most businesses owned locally. Expansion of town and use of buildings outlined previously …but greater emphasis on places to meet communally. Cafes are frequently mentioned.
A great deal of green as every possible space cultivated. Fruit and nut trees in abundance.
Motorised traffic/ parking no longer a problem ….streets cleaner and safer as a result.
Community owned reservoir for Totnes water supply.
Health
Great emphasis on self-responsibility for health. People mostly envisaged as being much healthier and robust due to changes in diet created by dependence on food grown and produced locally; more exercise because less transport, less pollution; greater emphasis on caring for self and each other. Elderly , frail and chronically ill taken care of by community …and understanding that what you gave when you could, would be returned in kind when you were in need . A huge contributor to this ‘care in the community’ is the changes in design to the way housing and facilities are spacially organised and embrace the full spectrum of age-range. Also, because people work more locally and less hours, more time is available for the caring/communal/inclusive aspects of life to be honoured and developed. Generally a much heightened ‘feel-good’ factor is envisaged resulting in better health all round, individually and communally.
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