Energy4All launches wind farm development fund

Energy4All, the co-operative behind the creation of seven successful wind power co-operatives in England and Scotland, has announced the creation of a new community wind farm development fund – Energy Prospects.

Energy Prospects will provide capital to community projects to take them through the costly stages leading to obtaining planning permission for a wind farm. Upon receiving planning permission, the projects will raise share capital through their own share offers.

The intention is that this will overcome a major barrier to the further expansion of community energy co-operatives in the UK –the lack of access to funds and resources to take a potential project through the planning process.

Through this initiative, funds will now be available to finance environmental surveys, archaeological assessments, wind energy assessments, and all the other component stages that go into what is typically a very full and detailed planning application.

Energy Prospects will itself be co-operatively owned and run, and a share issue is now underway offering investors the opportunity to invest between £500 and £20,000 in the co-operative. Importantly, approval has been given by HMRC to this investment qualifying for Enterprise Investment Scheme tax relief.

Rod Blunden, Chairman of Energy Prospects, says that “We have the best wind resource in Europe, but progress in community ownership of this resource is slow. The major obstacle in the UK is the substantial cost of seeking planning permission, and the unpredictability of the outcome, with the risk of rejection.

“Energy Prospects will take a pooled approach – where the intention is that successful projects pay a fee that both covers the costs of projects that are not successful, and deliver a profit to investors.”

The share offer will close on 26th May 2010 – earlier if the maximum capital sum of £1 million is reached, or later if extended at the board’s discretion.

Prospective investors may obtain a detailed Offer Document from Energy4All by visiting http://www.energy4all.co.uk/

Handmade Bakery to run inspiring courses

One of the most interesting aspects of the local food movement is that many of the people running co-operative and community owned food enterprises are at the forefront of new ideas. This is very much the case for those pioneering 'real bread' in the UK - bread made using high quality products, and left to ferment naturally.

The Handmade Bakery is one of the UK's first community supported bakeries. Focusing on making and selling real bread, the business has a subscription model through which members of the community become members and subscribe on a monthly basis, meaning that the co-operative can be confident of a market.

In just a couple of years, the business has gone from virtually zero capital. It is now a sustainable bakery which engages and enlists the local community, giving them a say in where their bread comes from and a relationship with the bakers. Starting out by using the kitchens of a local Italian restaurant, the co-operative has its own premises in Slaithwaite, Yorkshire.

There's a growing interest in setting up these kinds of enterprise, so the Handmade Bakery is to start tunning courses to guide people in setting up their own community supported bakery.

Their one day course will explore the practical, technical and community aspects of community supported baking - as well as baking some bread. The introductory course will cover everything from designing the project through to finance, equipment, scaling up, metketing and logistics.

The growing interest in real bread is being picked up by Radio 4's Food Programme too, which also features The Handmade Bakery.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pdz1q

http://www.thehandmadebakery.coop/

Tower Hamlets CDA celebrates 25th

Tower Hamlets Co-operative Development Agency (CDA) – which helped found Social Enterprise London, the Social Enterprise Coalition and Co-operatives London – last week celebrated a quarter of a century at the forefront of co-operative and social enterprise.

The CDA, which helped put the ‘social enterprise agenda’ on the map, has been providing business support to co-operatives, community owned businesses and social enterprises in East London for 25 years since 1984.

Gregory Cohn, Chief Executive of Tower Hamlets CDA, said that when the agency started the Co-operative food stores were well known but worker co-operatives, housing co-operatives and the social enterprise sector were almost hidden away.

“Whereas today,” he said, “25 years on, we have a dynamic co-operative and social enterprise sector in East London and London wide, there are nearly 600 established housing and worker co-operatives.”

The CDA’s commitment to support and expand the London co-operative sector remains strong.

“Over the last couple of years, we have been working with Co-operativesUK and the many London co-operatives to launch Co-operatives London. It’s an umbrella body to shout about the successes of the 600 London co-operatives,” he said.

Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operativesUK, said: “Tower Hamlets CDA been a leading light and the CDA is testament to the importance of providing a specialist and locally based agency to promote the co-operative sector. Amongst the many businesses it has helped to establish are some of London’s most successful co-operatives.”

As well as successful, established co-operatives such as Account 3, Paperback and Calverts, the CDA has been working more recently on food co-operatives.

Noting the high level of poor diet related ill health in East London, the CDA launched a food co-operative programme in 2000 and this led to the establishment of 18 successful community based Food Co-operatives, primarily by Bangladeshi women (pictured). More recently the CDA has supported the launch of co-operative-based fruit tuck shops in 25 local primary schools.

Speaking from a UK-wide perspective, Ed Mayo said: “The CDA’s huge positive impact in East London demonstrates the difference that a local community led agency can make to enterprises, the local area and to the wider co-operative and social enterprise sectors."

www.co-operation.coop

Fair Traders Co-operative launches share issue

A new co-operative – the Fair Traders Co-operative – is launching a share issue to raise finance for its pioneering work.

The co-operative has been set up to help develop Fairtrade. It will be working closely with and buying Fairtrade goods from small producers in places like India, Tanzania, Malawi and Kenya. These will then be traded through a website and its shop in Holmfirth, Yorkshire.

Its aim, however, is to get its customers, other co-operatives and NGOs involved in the business by becoming part owners of The Fair Traders Co-operative. People can invest anywhere from £20 to £20,000, which will finance the development of the business.

Investors are not simply wanted for their financial contribution. The co-operative’s unique selling point is that every product sold will have undergone a thorough sustainability assessment in terms of the environmental, social, and economic impacts. Members will be able to get involved in this assessment process, using the website to feed in comments and their assessments of the products.

The Fair Traders Co-operative, which will begin trading in early 2010, has a big vision of how its co-operative structure – in which customers and interested organisations are active members – can make it a pioneer of sustainable, intelligent consumerism.

http://www.thefairtraderscooperative.co.uk/

For more information on the growing use of community share issues in the UK visit http://www.communityshares.org.uk/

Welsh Assembly's new drive to set up more co-operatives and credit unions

Wales needs more co-operatives and mutual societies to help people through the recession, the chairman of a new cross-party group said last night.

The group - intended to promote the benefits of credit unions, agricultural co-operatives and mutual investment funds - will be chaired by Conservative AM David Melding. Several Labour Assembly Members have also signed up, together with two Plaid Cymru AMs and former Welsh Lib Dem leader Mike German.

The group will try to encourage greater use of credit unions as a credit-crunch alternative to traditional banks.

Mr Melding denied the co-operative movement – formed by Welshman Robert Owen in the 19th century – was unfamiliar ground for a Conservative.

He said: “It seeks to enhance the forces of captialism... it’s a very fruitful option for those who produce goods and gives an awful lot of power to those directly involved.

“We want to encourage the take-up of co-operative models. One of the first things we will be looking at will be credit unions; in fairness the Assembly Government have often encouraged the use of credit unions, but we need to be much more radical given the financial meltdown we’ve seen, to get people to ownership of these sorts of models.

“Certainly for those financially marginalised, the notion of a credit union is absolutely empowering.”

Plaid Cymru AM Chris Franks, who has also joined the new cross-party group, said: “In this era of credit confusion, the credit union is at an advantage, with secure deposits and loans at competitive rates.

“It is time to think differently about the way we use our money. Plaid sees alternative ways of using local financial services to help businesses as well as individuals.

Ed Mayo, secretary general of umbrella group Co-operativesUK, said: “There could not be a better time to harness the potential of co-operatives.

“Across the world, there is a resurgence of financial co-operatives, businesses that instead of failing are being bought out by staff and community-level co-operatives providing lifeline services, from rural villages to inner cities.

“Wales has long been a pioneer in the field of community and co-operative action, and the launch of the All Party Group for the Welsh Assembly is both timely and welcome.”

Article from Wales Online

Go! on track to be first train operating co-operative

Go! Co-operative is gathering momentum in its aim to become the UK’s first co-operatively-owned train operating company. It has appointed three new board members to take the organisation forward to operational stage.

Chief Executive, Keith Vingoe, Director of Operations, Chris Phillimore and Director of Safety, Chris Thompson – will work together to help ensure the smooth transition from initial start-up to fully functional social enterprise.

Go! plans to provide a service initially in Southern England, as the first open access train provider running as a multi-stakeholder co-operative - linking main lines to smaller market towns and villages. It is currently seeking funding of upwards of £250,000.

With Board members who together have over 50 years experience in the rail industry, and expertise in successfully managing similar start-up rail projects - the organisation has the impetus to take it to the next level.

Tim Pearce, Chair of Go! Co-operative, said: “I am very excited that we are attracting people with real practical experience and strong track records. That, plus the immediate response to our first offer of withdrawable shares, has given us some real momentum.”

New Chief Executive, Keith Vingoe, who is also Managing Director of the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, is confident about Go! Co-operative.

He said: “The present Lynton and Barnstaple Railway was created from nothing so there is no reason why a similar business model using broad based community support cannot be harnessed to run much needed trains on track that is already there."

"Having worked for many years in the field of business management, I am very confident that a sound idea like that of Go! Co-operative can be turned into a good social enterprise business,” he said.
http://www.go-now.coop/

Co-operatives in Social Enterprise Awards shortlist

Dynamix and Llanmadoc Community Shop, two co-operatives in Wales, have been shortlisted for this year’s Social Enterprise Awards.

The Social Enterprise Awards is a new competition being run by the Social Enterprise Coalition that aims to recognise and celebrate the work carried out by the most successful social enterprises in the UK. It builds on the Enterprising Solution Awards which has been running for the last ten years and - and which was won last year by the Phone Co-op (pictured above).

Dynamix, based in Swansea, is a worker co-operative that specialises in creative training, facilitation and consultation exercises. It primarily works with children and schools but has also recently been training civil servants.

Llanmadoc is a village shop that was bought by the community when its owners retired in 2007. Like – over 200 villages in the UK, the residents did not want to see a vital service disappear so they formed a co-operative, clubbed together and bought the shop themselves.

Both the co-operatives are in the Welsh shortlist of the awards, the winner of which will be announced during Global Entrepreneurship Week (16-22 November) and the overall winner will be determined subsequently through a public vote.

Also present, in the English shortlist, was Central Surrey Health – an employee owned business with around 650 members who formerly provided nursing and therapeutic services within the PCT.

http://www.socialenterpriseawards.org.uk

ExtInked - UHC to tattoo 100 people with endangered species

On 12 November UHC Collective, a design co-operative, will embark on a once in a lifetime social experiment.

The Manchester-based co-operative will be opening a new exhibition of 100 illustrations of the most endangered species in the British Isles and these illustrations will then be tattood, live, onto 100 volunteers.

The exhibition, in Salford, launches to coincide with Charles Darwin’s birthday bicentennial and has been developed With the expert assistance of prominent conservation charities and the artistry of tattooists from Ink Vs Steel.


The result of this unique work will be an army of ambassadors for threatened and rare birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, plants and fungi.


The exhibition on the evening of Thursday 12th November 2009 and will Continue until the 1st of December. Live tattooing commences on Thursday 26th November and continues until Sunday 29th November.


If you want to do more than just watch, UHC is encouraging those who are interested in becoming life-long ambassadors and being tattooed with an endangered species to come to the exhibition from the 12th November.

www.uhc.org.uk

Co-operative celebration for Social Enterprise Day

The East of England Co-operative Society will be holding a co-operative celebration event in partnership with Suffolk County Council and Suffolk ACRE on Social Enterprise Day Thursday, 19 November.

Richard Samson, Chief Executive of the East of England Co-operative said: “We are pleased to be able to make it possible for so many people involved in social enterprise to come together for this event.

“Specialist help and advice about setting up social enterprises and co-operative businesses will be available, as well as help for those who already have their organisation up and running.

“Young people too are an important element of the day and with the backdrop of the global economic crisis we need to support and encourage young people, who are our ‘co-operative entrepreneurs’ of the future.”

The day will demonstrate social enterprises in action when students from Copleston High School, Ipswich, will run a co-operative Christmas enterprise, experts will offer advice and guidance to those interested in setting up their own business. A café will also be run as a co-operative by young people from the Princes Trust.



Surrounding all this will be a market place of co-operative and social enterprises such as the Foster Care Co-operative and Ipswich Food Co-operative, whilst The Co-operative Gateway East of England will run an advice surgery for social enterprises and co-operatives or for those wanting to start up their own socially enterprising business.

The day will run from 10.30am to 3.30pm. Everyone is welcome to come along and share in the celebration of Social Enterprise Day and get a feel for what is different about co-operative enterprise.

The East of England's event is one of hudreds taking place across the day to celebrate Social Enterprise.

www.eastofengland.coop

Community owned shop inspires local activism

Burton in Lonsdale Village Shop near Carnforth, Lancashire, is a bit different from your average store. It's a shop owned by the local community and as such has strong local support.

So when faced by a problem of what to do with a blanked-off window that dominated the frontage, it turned to the community for ideas.

Local artist, Marion Hodgson, came up with a solution that has delighted everyone in the village by transforming the space into a unique depiction of what the shop sells inside. Marion says: "I wanted to show what the shop sells so I brought a few goods back home at a time, arranged them on a shelf and painted them. Andy Warhol it is not!"

Everything is painted in meticulous detail: from a jar of marmite to a duster, from a newspaper with a half-completed crossword to a pack of very edible looking sausages.

Burton in Lonsdale is one of around 200 rural communities in the UK which, rather than lose their only shop, took matters into their own hands and bought it.

In the four years of community ownership the shop has gone from strength to strength and its success shows what an enterprising community can do for itself by calling upon the skills and energy of its individual members.

For committee member, Jean Smith, "Marion's marvellous painting shows what can be achieved when a community pulls together".

http://www.burton-in-lonsdale.net/village_shop.htm