A Better form of Business 2013

Reporting on the health of  rural Community Owned Shops in the UK  from data for 2012 gathered by Plunkett.   

http://s.coop/1p8u8

Plunkett Foundation…

Hello fellow Fiery Spirits,

Im delighted our CoP has found a new home with Plunkett and hope we can continue to progress and help each other cultivate communities that can prosper in these challenging times.  

Im currently the chair of Ireland's largest CSA projects, the Cloughjordan Community Farm. We currently provide fresh vegetables, milk and meat to over sixty member households on 40 acres of land in Cloughjordan, Tipperary Ireland. 12 acres of the farm is located…

As you may be aware, Plunkett Foundation recently merged activities with Community Retailing Network in Scotland. We're now looking to recruit a development officer who will help us reach more rural communities in Scotland and deliver this work - please feel free to share this opportunity with anyone you think may be interested! http://www.plunkett.co.uk/aboutus/opportunities.cfm

Plunkett Foundation has announced today it will be extending its services by merging with the Scotland based Community Retailing Network (CRN) to give Scotland’s rural communities greater access to Plunkett’s support.



The CRN worked across Scotland supporting community-owned shops in some of the remotest rural locations to thrive. Plunkett Foundation has worked with the CRN to support the…

What a cracking read this is! No wizards, brromsticks etc......

But a dark, brooding, gritty account of contemporary rural life (in a small SW England market town).

Featuring drug addiction, rape, malicious gossip, class warfare, black v white, paedophilia.......to name but a few.

Rural idyll it…

Coprodnet and Governance International are co-hosting a co-production workshop during the Policy@MBS week at the University of Manchester, 30th October 2012, 4.00-6.00 PM

The workshop will showcase three inspiring case studies of involving users and communities in public services from the North-West. These examples…

A few of you may remember a few years ago that I posted about a film I was making about young farmers. (Has it been that long in the making?!) We finally finished it and have shown it at the Borderlines Film Festival, The Ludlow Assembly Rooms and at the Abergavenny Food Festival Fringe and other events. It is a feature length documentary, starring, among others, another Fiery Spirit, Christine Hope. Tune for the Blood provides an insight into the passion end enthusiasm of young people…

CoPProspectus2013.pdf is a two page poster (A3 format - but readable A4) that summarises the FierySpirits…

Over the last couple of weeks, Dead Good Guides have been camped out in a wood near where I live, inviting passers-by to help transform trees felled by a mighty storm on January 3rd into carvings of the animals whose habitat changed dramatically overnight…

A new book investigating the cultural background to the ongoing maritime conflict in the Sound of Barra in the Western Isles is being published this week. The book, called ‘Dùthchas na Mara’ (‘Belonging to the Sea’), highlights the role that traditional knowledge of the sea plays in maintaining Gaelic speaking island fishing communities in Scotland and Ireland. It also suggests that traditional knowledge may be an important cultural source for the current campaign on Barra against Scottish…

Hello Fiery Spirits,

in late 2010 I blogged on FS that I was trying to attract funding for a project which would examine the common cultural traditions of Gaelic speaking fishing communities in Scotland and Ireland. I'm pleased to be able to say that, working along with Ruth Brennan of SAMS (The Scottish Association for Marine Science) and the Glasgow based visual artist Stephen Hurrel and with the support of the Colmcill partnership, we have researched and written up our…

New approaches to manufacturing are set to take hold in Scotland over the coming decade, approaches that challenge the basic assumptions of production through the application of new affordable manufacturing technologies & ways of working.

- Centralised factories replaced by distributed workshops

- Global centralisation replaced by highly adaptive local cottage industries

Technologies like CNC Routing, Cutting & Drilling have been around for decades. What is…

Mike Kenny

Manager

Asda Lancaster Superstore

Ovangle Road,

Lancaster,

LA1 5JR

Friday, 20 July 2012

Dear Mike

The recent reduction in milk prices have sent shockwaves through dairy farming communities and there is a real fear that it will have a devastating effect on both Cumbria and Lancashire’s landscapes and rural economy.

As a group of concerned consumers, we recognise that a great way of…

In the most recent edition of 'NewsBurst' we invited members to submit links to your websites, blogs, twitter pages and more with the promise that we'd try to point others your way.

A trial version of ‘member news direct’ service is now live - and we need your help to improve it:

1) a ‘members news’ box now sits on the front of fieryspirits.com, and in addition

2) members can sign up for a daily email newsletter with news updates. 

At present, we are taking…

A new coop in Herefordshire combines sustainable woodland management with an energy ESCO based on renewable heat

wood fuel in a changing world

In February of this year, the BSc Sustainable Development degree was approved for delivery across the world.  This wholly online degree has been run successfully across the UK for more than 12 years, but is now the first of Scotland’s newest University’s undergraduate degrees to be able to recruit from anywhere in the world.    We have identified five key specialisations within the subject area of Sustainable Development- these are Sustainable Development (Mountain Areas), Sustainable…

Last year West Lothian Council began a new citizen-led inspection initiative. This new form of engagement enabled local people to inspect and offer insights into how services could be improved. The citizen inspection teams are made up of 4 people, who receive a 2 day training course to provide them with the prerequisite skills to carry out inspections and report effectively on the services. The initiative has started in two service areas – Winter Maintenance and Pupil Placement Services –…

THere's a formatted version here:

http://eepurl.com/mzSo5

... or if you're in a hurry:…