“...one of the newest and liveliest community groupings is Transition Town Totnes which has raised the profile of Totnes, in fact made us famous all over the world, for pioneering approaches to climate change and peak oil”.

Tony Whitty, the Mayor of Totnes at his inauguration speech in 2010

Totnes Town Council  - The Totnes Town Mayor fully supported the launch of Transition Town Totnes four years ago and that support has endured and grown. The current Mayor is engaged on behalf of the Council as a partner in the Transition Streets project which has seen the installation of 74 solar panels on the Civic Hall roof supported by a ‘Low Carbon Communities Challenge’ grant managed by TTT.  The Mayor and Council attended the Energy Fair which launched this aspect of the Transition Streets project and TTT presented to the annual town meeting in teh Civic Hall, by the invitation of the Town Council.  

TTT has been publicly acknowledged for its work at full council meetings and particularly over the last year has been recognised as a key community grouping within the town.  

South Hams District Council (SHDC) -  has been a close partner on the Transition Streets project and on the Healthy Futures project.  In a recent interview, one of Totnes’s District Councillors said:

“...it’s (TTT) clearly had a major impact on what you’d call the collective community.  If you are talking about a statement of vision and policy for the community, particularly the DPD, of the town, they’ve clearly had an impact on that.  The EDAP has filtered into everyone’s plans for everything, so that’s had a major impact.”  

Dr Sarah Wollaston MP - fully supports the work of Transition Town Totnes, mentioned our work in her maiden speech to parliament and is exploring with TTT ways she can help support the growth of green business and technology in the South West.  

 “If you want to catch a glimpse of the kinds of places outside the political mainstream where the new politics might be incubated, take a look at the Transition movement ... it isn’t so hard to see why politicians are so interested.  The Transition movement is engaging people in a way that conventional politics is failing to do.  It generates emotions that have not been seen in political life for a long time: enthusiasm, idealism and passionate commitment”.          

 Madeline Bunting in The Observer. 31 May 2009.

Here Rob Hopkins explains the Transition idea to a local council meeting in Norfolk.