Marlborough could join a growing band of communities adopting Transition Town status in a bid to tackle problems like peak oil and food miles.
Residents are being invited to a public meeting at which issues will be thrashed out and solutions discussed.
The push is being made by members of Marlborough Climate Pledge, and several town councillors are backing the drive.
The Transition Town movement is described as ‘a social experiment on a massive scale’ and ‘the first viable viral movement in decades’.
In transition towns, like-minded individuals find community solutions to their reliance on oil, and how their communities will respond as oil becomes more and more expensive, and eventually diminishes.
They believe in stronger communities with locally produced food, a strong local economy, good public transport links, green energy and a good local health service.
In many cases, local groups have supported the formation of community agriculture groups, car clubs, neighbourhood carbon reduction clubs, urban orchards and even their own town currencies like the Stoud Pound, which can only be redeemed with local businesses, encouraging people to shop locally and keeping wealth in communities.
And in some cases, communities have started local energy companies, clubbing together to finance and run small-scale wind or solar farms, or hydro plants.
Transition Town Lewes’s own energy company, for example, is building Britain’s first community-owned solar power station after launching a share issue to raise £306,000 from investors to pay for 544 solar panels on the warehouse roof of the town’s brewery.
Since Totnes in 2006 – the first Transition Town in the UK – 190 have been set up nationally, including Gloucester, Stroud, Cheltenham, Minchinhampton, Cirencester and the Forest of Dean.
Over 370 exist worldwide, with over 800 ‘mullers’ considering transition status, including Ambridge – the fictional town on Radio 4’s The Archers.
The meeting will be held at Marlborough Town Hall on Monday, September 12 from 7.30pm to 9.30pm.
