Transition events and fuel prices

I realise that I've been rather quiet on this blog for a couple of months and in particular I've let the 'Fuel Price Records' slip a bit! But in the meantime I've been to a couple of larger of Transition initiative events.

At the end of July I went up to the Transition Scotland network day, tagged onto the start of 'The Big Tent; Festival of Stewardship' www.bigtentfestival.co.uk in Fife. This was at the invite of a relative who (after I had mentioned Transition to him) had connected into the Transition Initiative where he lives in Edinburgh, linking it to his own project; a website to help promote locally owned shops www.nearbuyme.com which he was speaking about at the network day. I had a really good time up there and spent a further week around Edinburgh.

This last Wednesday evening (1st October) I went in to "The Great Unleashing" of Transition Norwich at St Andrew's Hall in the centre of Norwich city, which was filled with "350 people" in what the speaker Ben Brangwyn (from the Transition Network) said was "the first UNLEASHING of a major city". It was a very good evening where after Ben and the local MP for Norwich North; Dr Ian Gibson (Lab.) had spoken, we broke into small discussions around tables of about 10 people, each with different themes.

I came away from the Transition Norwich Great Unleashing with a copy of "The Transition Handbook" by Rob Hopkins; the founder of the Transition movement at a discounted price of £10 (RRP £12.95) see www.transitionculture.org which I'm currently reading. It is already giving me fresh ideas about what could (and needs to) be done to transition Dereham and its surrounding areas. This will likely produce thoughts and musings to fill fresh posts in the coming days and weeks.

I also left a feedback slip at the end of the Transition Norwich Great Unleashing saying that I would like to meet up with anyone else from the Dereham area who may have been there, to develop stuff local to Dereham, and that I would be willing to co-ordinate a meeting of such a group. So if you were there (or not, but your interested in being involved) please do e-mail me a message at transitiondereham@googlemail.com to introduce yourself.

To finish this post I do have some fuel prices recorded from August and September. Since my last Fuel Price Record post in July, the retailers have been battling each other to cut fuel prices. But as a chart presented by Ben Brangwyn at the Transition Norwich Great Unleashing showed, this is due to falls in global oil prices resulting from reduced demand in the wake of recession caused by 'the credit crunch' and current financial turmoil!

On Tuesday 12th August the fuel prices I recorded were;

Morrison's supermarket, Station Road, Dereham
Unleaded; 111.9p (down 8p or 6.67%* & 0p #)
Diesel; 122.9p (down 10p or 7.52%* & 0p #)

BP station, Lynn Hill roundabout, Dereham
Unleaded; 111.9p (down 8p or 6.67%* & 2p or 1.76%#)
Diesel; 133.9p (down 10p or 7.47%* & 1p or 0.8%#)

Tesco supermarket, off Yaxham Road, Dereham
Unleaded; 111.9p (down 8p or 6.67%* & 2p or 1.76%#)
Diesel; 133.9p (down 11p or 8.22%* & 3p or 2.38%#)


* figures since Tues, 15th July (4 weeks/28 days previous)
# figures since Mon, 19th May (12 weeks/85 days previous)

On Thursday 11th September I noted the fuel prices at Morrison's supermarket, Station Road, Dereham, as;
Unleaded; 112.9p
Diesel; 123.9p

Tomorrow; Monday 6th October I'll try to record the next fuel price record.

Current fuel prices; Record 3

Its been another 4 weeks so its time for another record of the fuel prices at the petrol stations in Dereham. I have been round the town again on the afternoon of Tuesday 15th July (29 days after the last time) and here's what I found;

Morrisons supermarket, Station Road, Dereham
Unleaded; 119.9p
(up 2p or 1.7%* & 8p or 7.15%#)
Diesel; 132.9p
(up 2p or 1.53%* & 10p or 8.14%#)

BP station, Lynn Hill roundabout, Dereham
Unleaded; 119.9p
(up 2p or 1.7%* & 6p or 5.27%#)
Diesel; 133.9p
(up 3p or 2.29%* & 9p or 7.21%#)

Tesco supermarket, off Yaxham Road, Dereham
Unleaded; 119.9p
(up 1p or 0.84%* & 6p or 5.27%#)
Diesel; 133.9p
(up 2p or 1.52%* & 8p or 6.35%#)


* increase from Mon, 16th June (4 weeks/29 days ago)
# increase from Mon, 19th May (8 weeks/57 days ago)

Energy supplies

In last Thursday's Dereham Times (3rd July '08) I had another letter published about energy supplies, which was given the title "We need sustainable energy" by the Dereham Times. It was in response to a letter by Malcolm Heymer (of Wheatcroft Way, Dereham) printed in the Times the previous week (26th June) which appeared to quite misunderstand the comments of Cllr Rupert Read (printed the week before - 19th June) with regard to the decline of oil supplies. Mr Heymer also appeared to foolishly dismiss the facts of global warming!

The main focus of Mr Heymer's letter was "the looming crisis in electricity generation" which I quite agree with him about, although I disagree with his suggested solutions!

Once again with my letter the Dereham Times failed to include the details of this blog when they published it. HOW HOPELESS!!!

Below is my letter in FULL.


Mr Heymer (June 26) miss-understands the science if he believes that slightly cooler temperatures "since 2002" mean global warming had ceased! Temperatures fluctuate from year to year. But the longer-term trend clearly shows a rapid warming of our climate due to humans burning fossil fuels, releasing large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. It IS rapid relative to what we know of from the geological past.

Mr Heymer is right to say that there is a "looming crisis in electricity generation". But the solution is NOT to build new coal or nuclear power stations. Instead we need to significantly reduce our energy use, and to develop genuinely sustainable energy sources like wind (both off-shore and on-shore), micro-hydro, and wave/tidal power.

I think Mr Heymer misunderstands what Mr Read (letters, June 19) meant about oil supplies (a mistake repeatedly perpetuated by the media's representation of concerns about available oil supplies). Oil will certainly not just "run out". But the point comes, when about half the available oil has been extracted, that the rate of production reaches an all-time peak and then goes into terminal decline. This happens in every oil producing country or region. In the USA (lower 48 states) the peak happened in 1970 and even significant advances in extraction technologies did little to halt the subsequent decline!

The same thing will happen to oil supplies globally. The question is when! No one can say for sure until sometime after the event! Oil companies say it won't be until 2030. But many independent experts believe it will be before 2012! It may already have happened! And with ever growing global demand for oil, the growing gap between supply and demand will create a perception of shortages, and ever-rising prices.

It should also be said that the same process of peak and decline will apply at some time to all finite resources including coal, and uranium ore for nuclear power. So these cannot be sustainable energy solutions!

We must reduce our unsustainable use of energy. We have to rapidly engineer an end to our dependence on cheap oil for transport and agricultural production. And we have to reduce our electricity use to levels that can be provided by sustainable sources like wind and hydro. We must make a Transition in Dereham and surrounding areas towards a sustainable, low-carbon economy. Please come to discuss these issues further and help to develop solutions at the Transition Dereham blog; http://transitiondereham.blogspot.com.

Matt Walker

Current fuel prices; Record 2

4 weeks after my first fuel price record (Mon, 19th May) I have been round Dereham's petrol stations again on the afternoon of Monday 16th June and here's what I found;

Morrisons supermarket, Station Road, Dereham
Unleaded; 117.9p (up 6 pence or 5.36%*)
Diesel; 130.9p (up 8 pence or 6.51%*)


BP station, Lynn Hill roundabout, Dereham
Unleaded; 117.9p (up 4p or 3.51%*)
Diesel; 130.9p (up 6p or 4.8%*)


Tesco supermarket, off Yaxham Road, Dereham
Unleaded; 118.9p (up 5p or 4.39%*)
Diesel; 131.9p (up 6p or 4.76%*)

* increase from Mon, 19th May (4 weeks/28 days ago)

Letter printed in today's Dereham Times

My letter resopnding to last week's "Man of our Times" column by Ian Clarke is printed in today's paper on page 7 and is (almost) word for word as I wrote it. The Times editor has given my letter the heading "We can live without cars" which I'm not sure conveys what I wrote in quite the right way! But judge for yourselves.

Below (in italics) is the full text of my letter as I wrote it;

"In response to Ian Clarke's column commenting on rising fuel prices (Dereham Times, 15th May 2008), I wish to draw readers attention to the fact that many experts believe that the global production of oil is now at its all-time peak and is beginning a terminal decline! Anyone who has any idea of economics will understand that this dwindling supply, coupled with continuing growth in demand for oil, both in the "West", and in rapidly developing countries like China and India, will inevitably drive fuel prices ever higher. And we can already see the knock-on consequences, for instance in spurring the dash for bio-fuels which is diverting agricultural land away from food production, thus adding to the global shortage of grain and driving the price of all our food higher while raising the spectre of famine across much of the globe.

As for the profits of oil companies like BP and Shell - it must be recognised that these increased profits are coming from their oil production operations, due to the rising global demand for oil outstripping the available supply and driving up the value of a scarce resource. They make relatively little money from the filling stations themselves! The other big beneficiary of fuel prices in the UK is the Treasury who impose high tax rates;
a) to try to discourage us from using our cars so much (although this doesn't appear to work as many journeys by car are unnecessary and could be done by other means), and
b) (in theory) to invest the money raised into much better public transport, and into local facilities so that people don't have to travel so far for the arts, recreation, and entertainment, etc (if this investment isn't happening then we should all be asking the Government why not?).

Fuel prices will inevitably continue their rapid rise, leading to very serious economic and social consequences for us all, unless we take urgent action to wean ourselves off our addiction to oil! But there are ways we can tackle this. The "Transition Towns" initiative, which began in Totnes, Devon, in September 2006, and now includes many places around the UK (including Norwich) and globally, sees communities looking to develop and implement "Energy Descent Action Plans" to reduce their use of fossil fuels like oil, with a focus on re-localising their economies - increasing local consumption of local produce, etc, and so reducing the need for oil powered transport and the exposure to rising fuel prices that that entails.

Lets all stop whining about the inevitable rising price of a diminishing resource and start working together to find ways of living without the need for a substance that is so destructive to our world. For anyone who saw the exhibition of old photos in Dereham Library from "Before the car was king", lets all start to imagine positively what our towns and villages will be like when "the car is no longer king"!!! And lets stop our NIMBY cries of objection to schemes like wind turbines, which will help us in our urgent need to cut our dependence on all fossil fuels."

Matt Walker

One other letter (by Raymond Mann) printed in today's Dereham Times argues that "pedestrians are more important than cars" and that if they were given more priority, instead of cars, then Dereham "could be a lovely shopping town". I couldn't agree more.

Record of current fuel prices

Just as a side note I thought; why not on this blog, occasionally record current fuel prices at the three petrol stations in the town! So here's the first log, and I'll try to do it on a regular pattern - perhaps once a month or every 4 weeks!

As of Monday 19th May 2008, between 2:30 & 3pm, fuel prices at the 3 petrol stations in Dereham were as follows;

Morrisons supermarket, Station Road, Dereham
Unleaded; 111.9p
Diesel; 122.9p





BP station, Lynn Hill roundabout, Dereham
Unleaded; 113.9p
Diesel; 124.9p


Tesco supermarket, off Yaxham Road, Dereham
Unleaded; 113.9p
Diesel; 125.9p


P.S.
Perhaps other people could post comments to this blog entry, noting the prices at other petrol stations in the areas surrounding Dereham!

Transition Dereham blog intro

In the "Man of our Times" column of 15th May 2008 in the Dereham & Fakenham Times, chief reporter Ian Clarke (who I know personally to some extent) writes that "the tide must turn over rising fuel prices", complaining about the soaring cost of fuel in the UK over the last 16 months. But Ian fails to make any attempt to analyse why fuel prices are rising so far so fast, or to suggest any solutions we can take other than unfairly blaming big oil company profits and high taxes!

In response I have written a letter to the Dereham Times to highlight the issue of Peak Oil and the almost inevitability that fuel prices will continue to soar, creating serious economic and social consequences for us all unless we take urgent action to reduce our high dependence on oil (and all other fossil fuels). I would like to point people in the direction of the Transition Towns Initiative as a practical solution to the emerging crises that stem from the rising price of oil due to the peaking of global oil production.

I hope that the Dereham & Fakenham Times publishes my letter and that it sparks a local debate in our towns and villages leading to Transition Towns across mid-Norfolk. But after writing the letter I thought that whether or not the Times prints it, I would create a blog to publish it myself, and hopefully to ignite and to record the debate and the process towards creating Transition Dereham.

Whether the Times prints my letter, in whole, part, or not at all, I will post the letter here and as I wrote it, when the next issue of the Dereham & Fakenham Times comes out this Thursday; 22nd May 2008. I must stress that Dereham is not (yet) a Transition Town. But I hope that a debate will be started that will lead us towards being a Transition Town and that this blog will become a record as we engage in the Transition Towns process.

I will endeavour to make posts to this blog over the coming weeks and months as any debate develops and may open it up to other voices as and when a Transition Dereham group may develop. But whether this blog becomes a hive of news and debate or a quite and forgotten corner of cyberspace will all depend on the nature of the media debate and the degree of willingness of local people to engage in this serious issue.