Readers might be interested in the survey report on the Plants for a Future site, the Field, in Cornwall.  It is a thorough study that reviews the successes and challenges in establishing and maintaining minimal input, perennial-based permaculture systems. 

Perhaps one of the most interesting conclusions is that because there was no planning permission for anyone to live on the site, the maintenance of it has proved a big challenge so problems such as overshading by more vigorous plants, and bird predation have reduced yields.   Nevertheless the Field is a really inspiring example as well as a significant resource for alternative food crops. If downloading the report please make a donation if you can. The report is very detailed but you can also view a non-technical summary.

The Irwell Group’s website is now live. It promotes ‘a radical approach to climate change in Manchester’. We aim to provide a constructive challenge to those taking action on climate change in Manchester.

We hope to offer fresh perspectives and ideas that will provoke new ways of looking at the problems and inspire different and better solutions. We do this through publications focusing on change in Manchester and the organisation of occasional events to promote discussion.

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This is a network for people who want to seriously explore the promotion of sustainability in the Mersey valley bioregion - see Green Deal Manchester  for an attempt at defining this. OK, the terminology is different - that's because the boundaries of the bioregion are fluid. I've also done a glossary of concepts for bioregional development at http://greendealmanchester.wordpress.com/concepts-for-bioregional-d...

My pamphlet A Green Deal for the Manchester-Mersey Bioregion was favourably received, but we need to go further - developing thinking and proposals and linking them to action in a variety of ways (and see also the second pamphlet - The Replacement Economy). How to do that we need to debate.

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The "Green New Deal for the Manchester-Mersey Bioregion" discussion paper has been updated and expanded.  It now includes some discussion of the bioregion in question and a more robust analysis of the causes of the triple crisis we are now facing (energy, climate, economy). 

It could perhaps be seen as the application of permaculture thinking on a bioregional basis - a kind of stacking of all the zones maybe.

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My father John H Burton wrote the attached article some time in the 1970s or possibly 1980s.  I think it was published in a newsletter about self reliance.

John was a teacher of rural and envirnomental studies - eventually lecturing at what was then Alsager teacher training college (now part of Manchester Metropolitan Univeristy).  He died in 1997.

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Here is an article that appeared in an early permaculture Magazine - slightly updated here.

Follow link to Word file below.

Mark