Busy week...

We have had a busy but very productive time. Last Saturday 2 trainers from Seeds for Change (www.seedsforchange.org.uk) came for a day of consensus decision making training. Games were mentioned early on to which several of us internally went ‘oh no!’ but even the games were great. The day, while long, was a day of activity and training in a very safe environment. We also had a great laugh as ever! Its really important to do this sort of thing to remind yourself of first principles which can get lost when you are in the thick of a huge project.

Thank you also to the Royal Festival Hall. We have met there since the beginning and what a fantastic resource for London. The only rule was don’t stick anything on the wall. So we used tables and chairs and it was fine.

Then Wednesday, Dee, Alison and I went on a day visiting neighbourhood communities with Glasshouse (www.theglasshouse.org.uk). So inspiring to see what people have done. We first went to Vine Street Co-operative , another successful community project to have come out of squatting. They have been going since the 80s and have transformed the area. The second set of projects were in Dalston and were much newer but no less exciting. We talked about many issues of running projects, volunteers vs paid staff, public /private projects, reaching ‘the community’ and what does that mean and most importantly, what lift not to buy!

August for LCHC

It’s been a quiet month in some ways but also it also feels like the calm before the storm. We were supposed to be on a straw bale build mid month but that has been postponed until the end of September. That actually was good timing as I got terrible toothache that week and had to spend days at the dentist!

Three of us did spend a day in south London visiting Walter’s Way (www.segalselfbuild.co.uk/projects/waltersway,lewis.html) , a road of 13 Walter Segal single dwelling houses and Sanford Housing Co-op (www.sanford.coop).

Mark, who works for the co-op, arranged for us to meet some members. They were all 3 incredibly giving and open with their time and experience. Our project already owes so much to all the groups, architects and co-ops that we have met , who have gone before us, whether they be Radical Routes, Robin Hillier or Sanford. Everyone has been so generous and shared their hard won experience with us in this growing but still novice area of eco community development. Sanford were no exception. We thank them very much.

Sanford have a big annual event called Folkus Picnic, part of the Folkus Festival, 3 September, 12-6pm. LCHC will be there (see under 'news' on our website for more details). Come and say hello! It should be a great day.

We also have a meeting with Chris on the morning of the 3 Sept to firm up our new legal structure and our business plan. Then we start looking for investment … and the project will move to another level.

Does a Co-op = I person 1 vote?

We are having a discussion about how the votes are allocated in our housing units.
Some have said 1 person 1 vote is a defining feature of a co-op and its democratic structure.
Others say it should be 1 tenancy 1 vote because 1 person 1 vote could mean that a smaller number of housing units have more power as they have more votes. They could out vote the single people who live in a larger number of units. If it is 1 tenancy 1 vote and votes are cast through consensus then the idea is there would be discussion within each tenancy about how they should vote. This also a way under 18s can have a say in how the vote of that unit is cast. For these reasons it is argued that it 1 tenancy 1 vote is more democratic .

Any thoughts?

Hedgehog and Diggers- Thursdays trip to Brighton

On Thursday, Five had a trip to Brighton, sadly no lashings of ginger beer. Glorious weather and good company were two of the compensations. We met Robin Hillier at the station, Robin was the architect on the Hedgehog and Diggers selfbuild projects (you can check out the Hedgehog episode on the first series of Grand Designs on Youtube), both projects are Walter Segal timber frame houses and were built by Housing Co-ops in partnership with Housing Associations.
First Hedgehog, a row of 10 houses clad with fir and larch with lovely verandas and big south facing windows to make the most of the solar gain- and the magnificent views. Painted all different colours they sit comfortably in their communal garden space(it felt very welcoming and friendly with no fences), mostly at the front(which is actually the back) and the ends of the row. The planting has grown up around the perimeter so that the residents aren't looking out of their windows into the windows of their neighbours down the hill(as planned- although there was apparently a local woman who said she was going to burn them all down!!) A level path at the front, with wooden platforms leading off to the front doors provides wheelchair access and runs directly from two covered parking spaces. We were allowed to look around one of the houses, which was wonderful,lovely high sloping ceilings- also the interior walls can be placed where you want them as the frame and posts are load bearing. Very versatile, you can weight and shape your space to suit your needs.
It was also very interesting to hear from Robin about what he learned from the project- where not to put untreated, fast growing softwood for example-oops.There were also problems with the roof liners, leading to some leakage, the contractors didn't know how to fit them properly! -oops. That said it seemed that as the residents had built the houses and the houses were built simply that it was quite easy for them to maintain and repair them themselves.
We heard about the problems they had with the Housing Association, which included pulling £60,000 of funding at the last minute- they had to reinstate it later, due to the project going over budget by .....£60,000!
Then it was off to Diggers, 9 houses this time again with a communal garden, this time the houses were around the edge of the plot and the garden was in the centre, the houses are faced with glassene(probably not how it's spelled) cement board and look, as Vic(a resident/selfbuilder) said, a bit mock tudor. The lovely Vic gave us coffee, chatted and answered questions and then let us have a lookaround his one bedroom house. According to Vic the soundproofing of the houses is very good, he also said that some of their houses had had small areas of rot in the wood, some of which he attributed to elements of the design, some of it to do with the fact that it was a lot more sheltered, in Hedgehog, for example, the wind dries the wood out after rain as it's at the top of a hill. Like at Hedgehog, Vic seemed to repair and maintain the house himself- with skills he had already or had learned on the build. It was also interesting to hear that during the build, the selfbuiders were doing the wiring with skill and care, though at a slower pace than was acceptable to the housing association, so contractors were brought in and did a slapdash job - no problems with the bit that Vic and co did, problems with the work the contractors did, apparently this happened with other jobs on the build(he did say- I've forgotten). After this it was back in to the centre of Brighton to drop off Robin(lovely of him to give all that time and attention to us, I was completely fascinated and picked up a lot of useful information- thanks Robin.) and go for something to eat at the Cowley club(social centre co-op and member of Radical Routes), another long and thought provoking discussion about legal stuctures for our co-ops and then a leisurely, meandering stroll back to the train station. The icing on the cake; Kathy taught us to whistle- finger style, always wanted to be able to do that! The skilling up continues. x

Which Legal Structure?

We have been discussing the several possible legal structures open to us, their advantages and disadvantages.
It’s really important to set the structure up as reflective as possible of the project at the beginning so we can start to build all the needs of a neighbourhood. It will also mean the project, in the form we envisage, is more sustainable.
The possibilities are a secondary co-op with 3 co-op members, a consortium of co-ops which can accept other members, a Limited liability Partnership (LLP) and a multistakeholder co-op.
We are speaking with people who have set up these structures or created the primary rules for a structure and asking them why they made the decisions they did. But no project is really like ours. So we will have to make the decision ourselves. One of the exciting parts of setting up a new project!

Writing the LCHC Business Plan

We have been spending our Saturdays working on the LCHC Business Plan. I thought this was a necessary but boring chore with the outcome meant for funders and supporters. I thought it would be tedious, difficult and mind numbing.

Instead I found, that while it has not been easy, this 'chore’ has been filled with laughter, energising, focusing and showing that we are working toward the same vision. At each new section we would go quiet and look blankly at each other thinking 'I know what this project is but how to put it into words!'

Now that we have broken through this barrier, we are on our way to seeing our internal visions leap on to paper and are one huge step closer...

I am really proud of what we have done. This process will be useful for funders and supporters but has also been incredible useful for us as a group to see our project's vision, as well as the real time framework, fleshed out. We are on our way

Oh no, I've just seen how late it is! Just spent the last don't know how long trying to access/copy the Radical Routes application form so that I could start filling it in- with, ahem, lean success. Note to self, large hole in computer skills!!
Sent Robin Hillier, from Architype, our dates for a trip to visit Hedgehog and Diggers in Brighton. Night-night x