New Moffat Network

People in the Moffat area now (or ‘will soon’, depending on your issue date) have a great new way to keep in touch, with the launch of the Moffat Online website.

Moffat Online (www.moffatonline.co.uk) is a social networking site that has been developed as part of the Moffat-based Lets Live Local project, the website for which (www.letslivelocal.co.uk) also goes live on 8 May 2009.

Jane Gray, founder of Lets Live Local explains the thinking behind the project and the reason for the development of the websites:

‘We believe that small rural communities such as ours are very vulnerable, not just to the headline issues of climate change and peak oil, but to the gradual haemorrhaging of skills, wealth and resources and a centralising of supply chains, decision making and power that has been going on for decades. This has left small towns like Moffat both less resilient and less self-reliant than they were previously.

Many people are now predicting that the future could get very tough - whether through economic, climatic or resource shocks. We set up Lets Live Local because we think that Moffat and its people can live happy, rich and fulfilling lives, no matter what challenges the future throws at us. By relocalising we can make it possible for our community to meet as many of our needs as we wish from within the local area - to live, work, shop and enjoy life just outside our own doorsteps.’

Lets Live Local has a range of projects which it is taking forward in its first phase, looking at relocalising the food economy, at strengthening and diversifying the local economy and a range of exciting projects looking at the built environment. More details can be found on the Lets Live Local website.

In the longer term, Lets Live Local is about building a parallel local infrastructure that gives people in Moffat and the surrounding area more control over how things happen. ‘So much of what we do in our day to day lives has a damaging impact, not because we are ‘bad’ people but because of the way we have designed our society and the systems that supply it’ says Jane. ‘Without re-engineering at least some of these systems, we are just tinkering at the edges. Relocalisation is inherently sustainable and helps to support and strengthen the local community. Done well, it can make it not just easy, but effortless to be green.’

But why the social networking site? Jane explains:

‘We wanted to make the Lets Live Local website truly interactive. The more we thought about it, the more we felt creating a space for communication would help Moffat to create local solutions – that’s why we developed the social networking site. People from Moffat and the surrounding area can chat and contact friends online. And we can use the site to host locally targeted versions of initiatives such as Freeshare, online Car Boot sales, as a way of people offering spare produce to other people in the community and to develop new ideas and support structures to meet our needs locally.’

Jane acknowledged the support and inspiration Lets Live Local is getting from other developments, many of which are offering help to the initiative. ‘Lets Live Local is drawing on the excellent work of the Permaculturists and Transition initiatives, as well as the Post Carbon Institute and the inspirational New Economics Foundation. And while nothing we are developing is new, time and time again we find we are pushing the boundaries of current thinking.’

Find more about Lets Live Local’s early projects at www.letslivelocal.co.uk. Jane can be contacted on jane@letslivelocal.co.uk or on 01683 221 403.