The Vision is for the Tatworth Community to live sustainably together in readiness for depleting oil supplies.

Mission Statement and Management Plan
“I ask not, what can our Community Project give me, but what I can give to our Community Project, future generations and our environment?”

The Project was born out of Tatworth and Forton Parish Council’s, and a group of Residents’ commitment to becoming a ‘transition community’, i.e. reducing our dependency on oil and other finite resources and in parallel countering climate change and producing a
secure food source.

Land in the village has been leased for the Project. Funded by Local Authority grants, the Project is owned by the Community, run by volunteers guided by a volunteer Project Manager and regulated by the Parish Council. Our crops will be sold through the village Post Office and maybe through other village outlets. The proceeds from crop sales will be re-invested in the Parish Council's ring-fenced Transition Fund (for seeds, plants and equipment).

Cultivation and Harvesting
Seeds and/or plants can be provided by Residents or purchased using Transition Funds. Crops can be grown from seed by Residents on or off the site and are cultivated, harvested and sold at a competitive rate in order to maintain the existing Site, fund future crops and develop similar Sites around the village. Pesticides, herbicides and non-organic fertilizers will not be used on the Site.

Social and therapeutic benefits
As well as local resident involvement, interest has been expressed by a mental health support group. The project could also provide volunteer work for the unemployed and for local school children. It is also seen as a socialising centre and it is hoped will provide activities for families under parent supervision.

Development of horticultural skills
It is hoped that participants will be able to learn and develop horticultural skills on the site, to be used in other areas in the village and elsewhere.

A longer term aim is - sustainably - to collect and process green and kitchen waste from the Community and this would be processed through an anaerobic digester to make methane gas for local electricity genearation and compost for ongoing crop production.

Andrew Turpin, May 2009