There is growing concern over climate change, – the impact that human activity is having on long-term weather patterns - and peak oil, - the idea that at some point the amount of oil we can extract will be less than the demand. Living with climate change and declining supplies of oil, (£1.25 at the pump? We’ve not seen anything yet?) requires communities to become more self-reliant or resilient. Local resilience will come through communities being aware of the issues that face them, developing strategies to cope with the changes and building the skills and organisations required to adopt these new strategies.

The head-in-the–sand position becomes less viable as evidence mounts of our unsustainable impact on the natural environment. So we all – individually and as a community – have to make choices that start to make things better. The project, Working for a Future in Frosterley, is not about beating ourselves up; it is about stopping being rabbits caught in the headlight. So by committing to make some changes to our lifestyles, recording the progress and sharing our learning – we can start to think about what is going on.

The project will provide information, training, resources and hopefully an enjoyable social network that can bring about change. The initial focus will be on our use of energy and then as a group we will choose a second issue to look at - transport, water, biodiversity, waste, food and drink or building and construction.

This project has been funded by the North Pennine Dales LEADER Programme and the Wear Valley Area Action Partnership. We are very grateful to both organisations.