Originally published at: https://hornseacommunitynews.uk/featured/latest-issue/
Welcome to Issue 43
The town was looking splendid for the visit of the Tour de Yorkshire thanks to a true community effort, spearheaded as always by a few heroic individuals. It is comforting to see what can be achieved by pulling together when the situation demands it.
I believe that situation already exists but at the moment we are stuck with our heads in the sand on the assumption that ‘business as usual’ will continue indefinitely. We are rapidly reaching the limits to growth and sooner rather than later we will be forced to recognise the reality which our ancestors were well aware of before the discovery of oil – that the natural world is the key to our survival, which depends on us helping nature to flourish rather than destroying it.
The warning signs that our relentless pursuit of growth has gone way too far are there for all to see - traffic congestion and pollution, obesity and other diseases of over-consumption, Health and Social Services that can no longer cope with the demands placed upon them, contamination of our soils and waters, climate change... The ‘system’ is bursting at the seams but if we could only heed those warning signs we could begin to prepare for a brighter future before the bubble bursts. We could put our energies and resources into producing our own food, energy and other commodities upon which we depend, reclaiming and treasuring every remaining natural space and , rather than filling it with concrete, - planting trees and other useful plants. Instead of spending £10 million on a building that is likely to be regularly flooded in twenty years time we could be investing in community owned renewable energy to help secure our energy future. Instead of becoming more dependent on cars by driving to out of town superstores, banks and hospitals we could be supporting local shops, setting up our own community bank and looking at ways of caring for our sick and elderly here at home. It seems that there is so much to do and yet we persist in heading in the wrong direction.
Eight years ago a small group of us formed the charity Home Grown Hornsea. Inspired by the examples of towns such as Totnes and Todmorden, we dreamed of triggering the transition of our own community towards a sustainable future. We have done many things – established a community orchard, a shop selling local and organic foods, run re-skilling workshops, given out seeds and planters... yet we have failed in the most fundamental task of convincing the community to share our sense of urgency and our vision. For meaningful change to occur we need the whole community to pull together as we did for the Tour de Yorkshire or, better still, in the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign that some readers will remember from the war.
If anyone has any ideas about how to achieve this please contact me!
Congratulations
to Kevin Nicholson on his election victory as well as to the other two candidates Tim Bunch and Keith Whittle for generating a closely fought contest and a relatively good turnout at the Polling Stations. Hopefully they will all be motivated to stand again in the full election next year.
Congratulations
also to everyone involved with the Community First Aid Centre in getting it up and running so soon after we lost our Minor Injuries Unit. Let’s hope that enough willing volunteers can be found to make it a full-time fixture.
Congratulations and thank you
to all the other protagonists of the good news stories that you will find in this issue.
Ed