Energy Descent Action Plan for Worthing

 This is a plan for how Worthing can respond to the unique challenges of the 21st century, namely resource depletion such as peak oil, climate change, and economic meltdown.

Check out Energy Descent for Beginners (a blog about Worthing's journey towards creating an EDAP): http://energydescentforbeginners.wordpress.com/

A short video of the first Worthing EDAP event: Wednesday 16th March 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78OcDz7U11I

The first recognition of the Transition Movement is that: 'Life with less energy is inevitable and it is better to plan for it than be taken by surprise'

The EDAP is a vision of a positive future for Worthing developed through TTW events and workshops. from late 2009 to the present, TTW has asked the local community to add their ideas, thoughts and wishes to a timeline up to 2030 and beyond.

TTW will be publishing the EDAP in 2012.

Our schedule: 2010 to 2012

1. 2010/2011 Events: Visioning & timeline
2. Jan/Feb: Oral histories
3. 16^th March: launch of EDAP project
4. 29^th March: Crash Course
5. April/May: Baseline data
6. May: TTW Groups to develop timelines
7. May: Worthing Food Mapping
8. 12^th June: Launch of Transition Tales creative writing competition
9. 12^th June: Can You Imagine Worthing in 2030?
10. June/July: Develop EDAP video material
11. June/July: Explore funding &/or publishing options
12. 16^th July: Worthing Energy Fair
13. July/August: Oral Histories Project and Film
14. Autumn 2011 onwards: workshops to develop EDAP (e.g. World Cafe)
15. Winter: First draft; produce Worthing EDAP video
16. Early 2012: ongoing public events to raise awareness and profile of EDAP
17. Spring 2012: Second draft
18. Summer 2012: set up Worthing EDAP website
19. Late 2012: Publish EDAP and celebrate!

Several recent publications will be feeding into Worthing's Energy Descent Action Plan:

Zero Carbon Britain 2030 (2010) by Centre for Alternative Technology

Great Transition (2002) by Raskin, J. et al.  

Nine Meals from Anarchy(2008) by New Economics Foundation

The Art of Rapid Transition (2009) by New Economics Foundation

Resilient Nation (2009) by Edwards, C.

The Great Transition (2009) by New Economics Foundation

The Transition Handbook (2008) by Hopkins, R.

Worthing Transition Timeline (16th March 2011 Update) 

This is what has been added to at virtually every TTW event for the past year. We welcome your contributions to this, so please add ideas and comments below. The timeline forms an essential part of Worthing's EDAP. Warning: these comments are the raw version, and have not been organised in any way!

2011 – 2015

• Get Allotments Association on board (2011)
• Local shops keep doors closed in Winter (2011)
• Car club starts up in Worthing (2011)
• Garden Share is re-launched with backing from the council (2011)
• Cycle rickshaws start along the seafront (2011)
• All supermarkets promote local wines and local beers (2011)
• Worthing in Edible Bloom has been a great success (2011)
• Worthing Co-Housing Group starts (2011)
• Transition Tales Project begins to create stories about Worthing in 2030 and beyond (2011)
• Worthing Pound plan (2011)
• Transition West Sussex (2011)
• Plan for working more closely with local council (2011)
• Work with youth groups and FE/HE establishments to develop gardening activities in the homes of the elderly and in residential homes (2011)
• Love it (2011)
• No more café/pubs (2011)
• Car share scheme (2011)
• Bike hire system (2011)
• Remove all cycle lanes and educate drivers to treat cyclists as road users of equal status (2011)
• Mandatory switching off of car engines at railway crossings (2011)
• New Tescos installs a sedum roof; Waitrose plants trees in car park (2011)
• Make more local (2011)
• Create gardens in town centre in large builders bags filled with earth for crops to be grown in (2011)
• TTW workshops in schools to excite and inform the next generation (2011)
• Transition youth clubs (2011)
• Worthing Community Store opens (2011)
• Raw food restaurant opens (2011)
• TTW membership reaches 1000 (2011)
• Worthing Energy Descent Action Plan published (2012)
• No new development on agricultural land (2012)
• More allotments made available (2012)
• Local cook-in where you can buy food grown and cooked locally (2012)
• Seafront rickshaws (2012)
• More independent shops (2012)
• School travel plans insist that children do not arrive in private cars (2012)
• Non-recyclable plastics banned (2012)
• Worthing Green Pages for service industries, repairs, etc. (2012)
• Co-housing start planning application (2012)
• Closure of all Sunday trading to save energy (and rebuild community) (2012)
• A24 Cycleway opens up to Washington roundabout (2012)
• TTW meetings held in Town Hall and theatres (2012)
• Training help and programme on growing in urban environment (2012)
• Extend cycle lanes (2012)
• Worthing Birdman uses alternative technology to assist travel from the pier to France (2012)
• Every ward/urban village has a TTW representative (2012)
• Local landowner starts community allotments on new site (2012)
• Local churches encourage congregations to grow and trade local produce (2012)
• Wind power and solar power for as many houses as possible (2012)
• Vocational courses in FE colleges to introduce modules in their courses, e.g. plumbers, builders, electricians (2012)
• Worthing residents growing more of their own food (2013)
• People encouraged to use public transport because of rising oil prices (2012)
• Planting on East Worthing woodland has started (2013)
• New East Worthing cycle path opens (2013)
• More local shops (2013)
• More people cycling to work (2013)
• Cycle trailer hire begins in Worthing (2013)
• All new homes built to Passivhaus standards (2013)
• More allotments (2013)
• Local food store opens in Durrington (2013)
• No increased fares at weekends (2013)
• Community forums with real power (2013)
• Worthing Borough Council disbanded  (2013)
• Worthing Pound introduced (2013)
• Bartering for home-grown produce has become widespread (2013)
• Community orchard established (2013)
• Full access to high speed broadband for all businesses and households (2013)
• Co-housing project occupied (2013)
• Rampion Wind Farm given planning permission (2014)
• Integrated public sector workspaces = reduced travel (2014)
• Major tree-planting project across Worthing (2014)
• Green Arteries: cycle and walking routes link ‘village’ districts to town centre and seafront (2014)
• More people have solar panels installed by getting grants (2014)
• All of the off-road parking in urban streets are converted back to gardens (2014)
• Petrol price now £3 per litre (2014)
• Central Worthing as cycle-only zone (2014)
• Community Council starts (2014)
• Worthing congestion charge introduced (2014)
• Farmers’ market every day (2014)
• Workers commuting by cycle or public transport (2015)
• PV solar on majority of public buildings (2015)
• TTW wins eco awards for forward thinking (2015)
• BP goes bust (2015)
• Worthing trams start (2015)
• More community centres in Worthing fulfilling more functions: swap shops, skills training, eco living advice (2015)
• Move towards more localised employment and less commuting (2015)
• Very successful Park & Ride for Worthing (2015)
• Heat pumps or thermal ground pumps installed at a site in Worthing (2015)
• Horse and cart for taking things to Farmers’ market , using manure for smallholdings and gardens (2015)
• Cycle lanes connected to every road in the Borough (2015)
• Sharing. Cultural shift as community spirit builds and trust is enhanced (2015)
• All schools growing fruit and vegetables. Growing skills part of the curriculum (2015)
• Cheaper and more efficient public transport (2015)
• Electric vehicle charging points installed along A24 and A27 (2015)
• Tourist infrastructure grows to cope with greater numbers holidaying in the UK rather than going abroad (2015)
• More children walk or cycle to school than are driven (2015)
• Woodland training centre in Titnore Woods (2015)

2016 – 2020

• Major retrofit programme to all existing homes. Space heating costs halved (2016)
• Worthing resident wins new local award: Composter of the Year (2016)
• Off-shore wind farm in operation, owned by the community (2016)
• Passive solar heating built as standard for all new homes in Worthing (2016)
• Tax on lawns introduced (2016)
• Incentive for composting loos to be installed in back gardens (2016)
• Sweet chestnut trees planted on Offington roundabout and many other public spaces (2016)
• Worthing has best air quality in England: meaning that many fewer cars are on the roads (2016)
• Worthing Borough Council make Transition Training compulsory for all employees (2016)
• Northbrook College begins teaching Permaculture courses (2017)
• Hovercraft service from Brighton to Portsmouth carrying freight and passengers (2017)
• SUVs banned (2017)
• Worthing produces 50% of its own food (2017)
• All children can safely walk or cycle to school (2017)
• Home education backed by Government to save heating and travelling fuel use (2017)
• 1 million bottles of Sussex sparkling wine sold (2017)
• People come together to help each other build their adobe homes (2017)
• New development only allowed where employment and services are within walking distance (2017)
• Plan for trams introduced to save fuel (2017)
• More secure places for parking bikes (2018)
• Petrol station on Findon Road switches to electric recharging (2018)
• Every street has a community allotment/garden (2018)
• Wind turbine on the South Downs above Worthing (2018)
• Amount of allotments in Worthing doubles from 2010 number (2018)
• Dual ‘cabbageway’ (2018)
• Non-essential oil cut-off point (2018)
• Worthing wind farm opens (2018)
• Community Supported Agriculture supplying 5% of Worthing’s fruit and veg (2018)
• Water quality so improved that shellfish harvested and consumed locally (2019)
• All Worthing schools have electricity generated from wind or/and solar (2019)
• Most people now work from home (2019)
• Award for Eco-schools in Worthing (2019)
• Regular community meetings looking at improving neighbourhoods (2019)
• Worthing population working locally (2020)
• Development of a system of trams which uses a card instead of coins (2020)
• Methane gas (from biowaste) to start taking over as fuel (2020)
• Solar power and wind power for most houses and buildings (2020)
• All old Worthing homes retro-fitted with an alternative energy source (2020)
• Rickshaws to replace cabs (2020)
• Marine Parade closed to traffic; becomes ‘Greenway’ with public space and growing space (2020)
• Community CHP plants are in extensive use across Worthing (2020)
• Electric cars and supporting charging system (2020)
• Livestock production stopped (2020)
• A significant lack of cars on the streets (2020)

2021 – 2025

• Worthing Garden Share now has 500 members (2021)
• 50% of residents work from home (2021)
• Cycles outnumber cars on the roads (2021)
• Oil prices treble those of 2010: $300 per barrel (2021)
• Community vehicles, electric minibuses available for hire (2021)
• No more homeless hostels due to a more caring society (2021)
• Worthing starts producing its own electricity by harnessing tidal power (2022)
• Worthing declared a ‘waste free zone’ (2022)
• Tesco car park turned into allotments (2023)
• Tesco at Durrington closes (2023)
• Rampion 2 Wind Farm on line (2024)
• Water pumping stations run on bio-gas from sewage works (2024)
• Southern Water feed bio-gas into gas network (2024)
• Tesco HQ closes (2024)
• Electric tram links Findon to Worthing (2024)
• Prom dug up; new eco boardwalk laid (2024)
• Barracuda caught off Worthing pier (2024)
• Virtually no more petrol cars; most are now electric (2025)
• Efficient train, cycling, public transport infrastructure everywhere (2025)
• Zero waste for Worthing households (2025)
• Local businesses thriving and supermarkets going broke (2025)
• Worthing gets its first Green MP (2025)

2026 – 2030

• Seaweed from Worthing beach used as fertilizer by local farmers (2026)
• A27 is turned into a single carriageway (2026)
• High tides wipe out Worthing Hospital (2026)
• Co-operative farms producing organic vegetables and fruit (2027)
• Small local businesses thriving with the local Worthing currency (2027)
• Worthing Pound untied from Sterling (2027)
• Solar panels on every house in Worthing (2028)
• Wind turbines for whole estates (2028)
• More apprenticeships (2028)
• Pineapples grown in Worthing allotment (2028)
• Young people being educated in sustainable technologies (2029)
• Full employment (2029)
• Pool of electric buggies for use of the community (2029)
• Huge demand for sledgehammers and pickaxes to break up concrete to form new growing areas (2029)
• It’s Life Jim, but not as we know it (2030)