TWO years ago, a group of residents in Wivenhoe got together to talk about ways they could move away from an oil-dependent lifestyle.

The result was Transition Wivenhoe. They have made their mark in a variety of ways, with families and film buffs enjoying one of their innovative ideas – a cycle-powered cinema.

The group was launched in 2009, under the guidance of resident Jo Wheatley, 48, and now more than 350 Wivenhoe households – about ten per cent of the population – have expressed interest in the scheme.

It is one of hundreds of similar communities of different sizes across the UK and around world.

Jo said: “The ultimate goal of a transition project is to produce a local community plan describing measures to move away from our highly oil-dependent lifestyle.

“This would mean, for example, producing at least some of our power needs locally using renewable power, perhaps through community-scale solar, wind or biomass schemes.

“This would be alongside substantial energy-saving efforts, such as retrofitting buildings, home energy conservation, changing our behaviour and so on.”

The group would like to see more daily food produced locally.

“This might include planting fruit and nut orchards, or schemes like community supported agriculture, where local farmers get upfront payments from residents to grow and provide food direct,” said Jo.

So far, Wivenhoe has made some steps towards these goals. It has launched an Energy Assessors Scheme, where volunteers give free home energy checks to help families reduce energy use.

The group’s bike generator runs the cinema, which often appears at community events such as Monday’s May Fair.

“It’s fun and brings people together. We do outdoor shows on a huge screen and take it to schools and youth clubs,” added Jo.

Another project under way is the Station Community Garden at Wivenhoe railway station.

Residents can meet up on Sunday afternoon to learn about growing food. It was part of Wivenhoe’s recent open gardens event. Vegetables grown in the garden made free curry dinners.

A bike trailers scheme, loaning trailers for carrying small loads about town, is also in the pipeline.

Jo said: “We have been successful with getting funding for projects and for training. We bought a fruit press for local use to make the most of harvests instead of food getting wasted.”

The group meets up with other transition groups in Nayland, Ipswich, Stour Valley and the recently-formed Colchester branch.

Jo’s day job for Colchester Council is organising the Big Garden scheme at High Woods Country Park and working as a community health co-ordinator.

She remains realistic about the group’s successes and aims.

She said: “The project has gone really well, but perhaps more slowly than I imagined.

“Getting a critical mass of people excited enough about the whole idea and turning lots of great ideas and enthusiasm into a plan that can and will be delivered is ambitious.”

“The Transition Towns idea is all about solutions. That’s what drew me to it.

“For a long time, I was involved with campaigning organisations, focused on various issues, including rain forest destruction, and global warming.

“Here was a whole movement of people involved in action at the local level, actually doing something constructive, rather than working against something.”

For more details, e-mail hello@transitionwivenhoe.org.uk