LETS Connect Issue 1 Page 6

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LETS Camp 1995

The Third National LETS camp was staged this month in Gloucestershire.
Once again organised by Peter Lang, it offered six days of LETS related banter in the open air. With a now very together crew providing all the support you need after exhausting debates into the night on such issues as are LETS units a currency (is "money" a bad word) whose turn is it to buy the drinks (nice bar Jim) and what is the meaning of LETS anyway. (oh sorry, a slip of the tongue, the meaning of life!)
All good stuff, with Val Oaldaker once again, in charge of the kitchen and providing that much needed sustenance for the body by way of her wonderful food. A full report will be in the next issue.

Autonomous LIFESTYLES
or
Life without bills in the 21st Century

I would like to tell you a little something about the place where I live.
Lightmoor Village is the first "autonomous village" to be built in the UK By Autonomous I mean that we pay no bills for services such as electricity, or environmental charges for sewage treatment. We pay nothing for water as our water requirements are met by our water collection, cleaning and recycling system which is very efficient. The development costs of our village are about 30% more than its "conventional" equivalent. This is largely due to facilitating the wind farm and photo voltaic panels. and the water system. This quickly becomes cost effective because once installed there are no bills except for maintenance which are minimal, and everybodys energy needs are met.

"WATERLESS TOILETS & SEVEN YEAR MORTGAGES!"

Everyone has waterless toilets which create compost and remove the problem of sewage with all its associate nastiness.
Some of us have mortgages to service but they are not of the conventional type of payment over 25 years.
Development funds have been raised in many ways but in most cases with ethical intent and little or no usury (interest) with ethical investors, the ethical bank, and the COAR, Community Owned And Run, bank. This is our own bank where we invest cash to be put back into local business where it can generate local wealth just as our local LETS currency does.

"LETS build & pay"

Most folks who are buying their property which has incidentally been built by them or for them, are paying it off over much shorter periods of time using the community model of a system that allows you to pay in "commitment" i.e local money as well as cash and usually means you can pay back the community, in about seven years on your own terms, after agreeing a rate for your time, this rate can change as time goes by to match current trends.
All property is owned by the community property co-op which is made up of groups and individuals.

"THE LAND WILL NEVER BE SOLD AGAIN"

The land however is owned by no-one and can never be bought or sold again, this is by common agreement and is one of the fundamentals that everyone must agree to.

How do we do it ?
Well only 20% of the villagers go out of the village to work for cash I mean, 80% of the work force generates wealth from home or at least from around the village. We have about 250 acres of land altogether and 100 of those acres are turned over to bio-dynamic food production, and dairy sheep. About 50 acres have been developed on, houses and community buildings, then a further 25 acres have workshops. leaving approx. 25 acres for tree planting, mixed and much fruit & nuts.

"CAR POOL SO NOT EVERYONE NEEDS TO OWN A CAR"

We have two large vehicle parks as cars which are owned by the community transport pool, are not brought into the village, except for disabled vehicles, and even these are few because we have reinstated the old canal that now runs once more through our village and provides a very convenient and pleasant mode of transport for people and goods, by way of horse drawn barge.

Permaculture has a large part to play in forming the best possible partnership between people/environment. We have a growers co-op which involves ten families, its important to mention here that everyone is in one co-op or another there is usually the family business co-op such as the butcher ( although most are vegetarian not all are ) the baker, and literally the candle stick maker! plus all skills and services that you can imagine you will find in a vibrant village including the piano maker !
There are several retail co-ops to meet the needs of all this local production.
The family that makes computers are able to get on with what they like doing and allow someone who likes selling to do it for them.

"WE DONT WANT JOBS WE WANT LIFESTYLES"

All of these people do what they do because first and foremost they love it!
This is a fundamental difference. "Here in this village No one feels that they have to "work" for anyone else. simply to earn money." Indeed that would be against the basic ethic of our community.
Why so many co-ops? well it is a way of supporting each other while at the same time allowing and encouraging independent individual growth.
We say: "we try to allow for the diversity of souls", oh by the way, there is no common religion or political inclination in fact it feels like most of us are not interested in either subjects.

A little about the structure that allows us the freedom to get on with it, and with each other. We have as I have already mentioned lots of co-ops these are all called primary co-ops, and they serve directly the people in them, for example the growers co-op provides a co-operative framework in which to do daily good community business for everyone involved in food production. everyone working in that business has an equal share in it and everyone receives the same rate of pay in local and cash, they decide what these rates are. In this case as its food, which is largely purchased by other villagers most, but not all of it, will be paid for in local money.

"Our Lets economy here is so strong that everyone can spend local money freely there is not any commodity in the village that is not available for part local money"

Having said that, a % of food produced here does go out to the wider community especially prepared foods which provides income to the village ( cash and Local money again). "You can see that we are in the enviable situation of being fully empowered people and in control of our own lives, largely due to the fact that we have control of our own local economy."

When we began building this place it had to be done in phases. Individual dwellings were the last to be built. The school and health centre and beautiful community building were first, along with workshops. Most people were involved with some part of the building or "putting up" as some of the many different buildings are of timber frame and rammed earth design and are "put up" very quickly rather than built. "This enabled a real sense of belonging to be felt by everyone involved, indeed the opportunity to physically work together to create different parts of our own village was one of the foundations of the community spirit we now enjoy."

Shops and the rented accommodation was next, this accommodation is very important as it is available to people in changing circumstances for example if you are young and are not getting on with your folks you may like to have somewhere to go, also if you are older, or if you and your partner decide to part, "why should anyone be forced away from their community because of a change in circumstances?"

This accommodation can also be for people who don't live in the village permanently and for travelling people coming and going to and from other villages.

We provide all of our food needs ! what we cant provide here you don't really need, but obviously some folks will still want some of them, tea is a good example and though we cant grow it we do have an ethical shop that is again another co-op and links directly with other co-ops around the planet .

It has been just over three years now since the building stopped and now everyone has settled to their own way of making a lifestyle, and of course it's an "AUTONOMOUS LIFESTYLE"

We don't know yet what the future generations will be like here in our village but the signs now are that we are showing the way towards the return of self respect and dignity for each other, which could be the start of something great, in a new millennium, "a time of peace & happiness".

AND NOW BACK TO REALITY!

Would you like a lifestyle like this in the Lightmoor autonomous village? Many people around the world have similar ideas but don't have land ........ 250 acres with 7.1 planning approval actually exist at Lightmoor, there is a plan to develop this land in a conventional manner which would mean a lost opportunity to do something wonderful. Give life to this idea. Many people have come to see the land and have brought great spirit, now we need funding and a development team.
Are you convinced?
Contact:
Aziz Ullah at LETS Connect
12 Leasowe Green,
Lightmoor
Telford
TF4 3QX