These areas are internationally recognised as transition towns and they are slowly springing up all over the world. In 2007, 28 UK towns had already declared themselves to be in ‘transition’ and over 400 communities worldwide have been discussing the possibility.

It is difficult to envisage a world in which our lifestyles are not dependent in some way upon crude oil, almost everything found in our homes, has at some point required oil in its production. It seems an impossible thing to eliminate this dependence. With issues such as climate change and declining production of fossil fuels, transition towns represent a huge step forward toward reducing our collective carbon footprints rather that just concentrating upon our individual actions.

The keynote of such communities is that they have decided to pro-actively design their own energy descent in the face of these challenges. Living in a town with little or no dependence on oil is a tantalising prospect. Can you imagine Leamington becoming a transition town? There are already a lot of people who think that this will become a reality in the not too distant future. Discussions are already under way for moving Leamington forward to meet the new environmental challenges of our time.

Apart from tackling the environmental problems we face, more broadly speaking transition towns develop a self-sufficient community which knows how to draw on its resources, facilities and strengths. This includes everything from education, to our health as well as where our food and energy comes from.

There are a lot more local environmental projects happening these days yet it still seems to be an unprecedented task in uniting all of these causes to change not just our individual habits but the very structure of our towns, cities and villages. In a practical sense transition towns are perfect for getting everybody involved in the process, particularly combining groups which have been working on low energy development for a while, with the wider community, who may want to do something but up until now weren't sure where to get involved.

This topic will be covered more in the next article, where I will be looking a bit more about the possibilities it will provide for our town. If you want to find out more and see what a transition town looks like then visit: www.transitiontowns.org or www.leamingtonspatowncouncil.gov.uk and click on ‘transition town’.