Fiveways Francs? Brighton Bucks? Local currency in a green world

Imagine popping down to our local Newsagents for a paper and paying for it with a “Fiveways Franc”?

That’s exactly the way things have been working in the town of Totnes, Devon since 2006 with the introduction of the “Totnes Pound”. Totnes was the first community to become a Transition Town ; a community committed to finding ways of reducing their future dependence on oil and minimising their carbon footprint.  However recently and more close to home, Lewes issued 10,000 "Lewes Pounds" as part of its Transition Town "Energy Decent Action Plan" in September.  These wonderful Lewes £1 notes have been a real hit, albeit in an unexpected way with most being snapped up in the first 3 days and currently going for about £35 on eBay!  Plans are already underway to issue another 30,000 Lewes Pounds so they can continue to circulate around the Lewes economy.

So how does a "Local Currency" work? 

Alternative currencies are valued and treated in exactly the same way as standard Pounds Sterling. The only difference is that it is legal tender only in the local shops and businesses that accept them. Think of it as a loyalty scheme that is tied to a geographical area (eg. Totnes/Lewes/Brighton/Fiveways) rather than a particular shop.  In Victorian England, Mill owners sometimes used to pay their staff with tokens that could only be redeemed in local shops owned by the Mill owner. Whilst their motives were more unscrupulous than those of the Transition Movement, the result was the same – a thriving, resilient local economy.

To understand the benefit of a local currency; imagine you need to buy some food and instead of heading (in the car or bus) to the local supermarket to buy Brussel Sprouts from Argentina and Asparagus from Israel, all the while making a large corporation richer; you walk down to your local shops and by farm-assured Sussex bacon from Barfields and Kent Strawberries from Danny at the Green Grocers. Locally accepted currency pushes you to shop locally, reducing your need to drive to the shops and to fly produce thousands of miles to stock supermarket shelves. It also supports local businesses, enriching your local community and making Fiveways a nicer place to live. Because the people who own businesses in Fiveways are locals too, they spend the local

 currency for their own needs and of course hand it out in change to other local shoppers, keeping the “shop local” phenomenon going.  It can be used to purchase anything local - like paying for babysitting or purchasing vegetables from the local allotment or farmers market.

So I can just print my own money? 

Not at all. The easiest way to implement an alternative currency is to have an Issuing Authority. This is normally a Community Trust, which is responsible for printing the currency and making it available for people to 'purchase' into circulation; where people exchange Pounds Sterling for local money. Often this can be done at a discount to foster the uptake of the new currency.  

Here's an example:  George goes to a shop issuing Fiveways Franc's (FF's) and hands across £9.50 for FF10.  George can then use his 10FF's just like £10 in the local Fiveways shops that accept them.  If George wanted to cash out his 10FF at any time, he would get back his £9.50, but clearly its better for George to spend his 10FF and keep the local currency circulating.  The Community Trust holds George's £9.50 in trust, just the same way the Bank of England used to keep an amount of Gold equivalent to the amount of money in circulation. Once in circulation, the value of the local currency is the same for whoever’s hands it passes through, so there’s no chance of someone being left with worthless money.

Although not a new concept, the success of the Totnes experiment has been very encouraging, with Transition Towns all over the world issuing local currency.  To learn more about Local Currency and the Transition Movement visit: http://thelewespound.org , http://transitiontowns.org/ or http://www.transitionbrightonandhove.org.uk/

[The article, by Rob Gourdie, first appeared in the Fiveways Directory July 2008]

Welcome to the world Angus LEWIS GOURDIE

Weighing in at a whopping 10lb 3 oz, Angus James Bentley LEWIS GOURDIE was born at home on Saturday 08 December.

George and Angus are well. Jemima and Beatrice are chuffed to bits to have a baby in the house and think having a brother is pretty cool too. Dad has been off on paternity leave and has been getting to grips to the role of Domestic Unit Manager – a tiring task further complicated by a left ankle that is feeling the cold.

As a family, we went out on the Friday to our first ever Pantomime; ‘Cinderella’ at the Theatre Royal in Brighton. We all loved it, especially the girls, and although George was uncomfortable throughout the performance, we figured that it would have been the case no matter where we were. Afterwards we went to dinner at a local restaurant, although George was slightly less keen than the rest of us. Luckily it was a gourmet burger joint, because when George returned from the washroom and said “I think my waters have just gone”, we said “can we get that to takeaway?!”.

In the end we caught a bus home, because we had come in that way and it was faster than getting a taxi. The girls ate their dinner on the bus and were quickly put through the bath and into bed. George was pretty mellow and was happy to spend the evening pottering around ‘tidying up’ etc. At 8:30pm I exercised my right to call Sue Rose, our independent midwife. We agreed that, rather than call her too late, she should come over when she was ready and she could stay in our spare room.

George was in the bath when Sue arrived after 9:30pm. Things were progressing slowly and steadily and I was told to “go away” when I stuck my head in the door (George likes to labour in private). We all went to bed by 11pm, leaving George to move around. Her noisy entry into the bedroom at 2am was a signal for me to wake up and get Sue up. Sue eventually came downstairs at around 2:45am and this seemed to give George ‘permission’ to crack on.

[Photo: George & Rob being checked out by wee Angus. Rob is topless, not because he was dancing around the fire in some hippy ritual, but because skin on skin contact is the best way to warm and regulate a baby's body temperature - sorry to disappoint on the hippy dancing thing...]

And then at 3:25am, little Angus launched himself into this world. Born in the (new) kitchen, we made our way through to the Sitting Room, resplendent with Christmas tree, Tirkish Rug on the floor (for winter) and the flames dancing over the coals of our gas fire. At 7am Jemima appeared on the stairs and cautiously came in to find her new brother. She then darted upstairs and dragged Beatrice downstairs with news of the much anticipated arrival.