Land Roots: Benefit gig in Nottingham. What's it all about

Land bought by the people for the people and protected through common ownership and good stewardship for cooperative and creative sustainable living
forever!

We are part of a growing movement of people and grass roots organisations that are holding out the seeds of hope for a healthy future for us all. LAND ROOTS invites you to help plant these seeds
in the rich Earth, that is our home.

We were ALL born onto this planet, it is our home, it is our sanctuary, it is our common ground.

manifesting our best dream of life for ourselves, the land, and the community

'LAND', in the immortal words of Mark Twain, 'They don't make it anymore!'

Aims:
· To work towards common ownership of land.
· To raise funds for the Land by selling Eco-Shares, and in any other ethically sound way
· To establishing a sociallly, economically and environmentally sustainable lifestyle on the land.
· To bring together a culturally diverse community of people who will work towards the aims and objectives, in a creative and cooperative way.
· To work towards good stewardship of the land and maintain a healthy balance of nature and people.
· To facilitate workshops on traditional crafts and current technologies and create unique and inspiring low impact architecture.
· To facilitate workshops in all kinds of arts forms.
· To network with, and promote LAND ROOTS amongst, the growing environmental, holistic, and creative community.
· To offer a range of events, including holistic healing retreats, artist gatherings and seasonal celebrations on the land.

Objectives:
· To offer many people a home from home, a space to relax, enjoy, ground themselves, and share in the pleasures and responsibilities this lifestyle has to offer.
· To develop the Land as a showcase of ecological design, land stewardship and sustainable community living.
· To give ourselves space to nurture our true creativity, explore our real potential and live our lives authentically, in mutual respect and peace.

LAND £250 a share………Coming soon….

"Community owned land is the most powerful way of protecting our natural world and educating people about our environment and the challenges it faces."
Quote from 'Woods for All' They sell shares in woodland in order to conserve it. All profits made are used to purchase other woodland habitats.

Affordability for everyone is the key!

Eco-Share Membership:
LAND ROOTS are offering amazing opportunities to its membership, and invites you to get involved so that you can have an input into the development of the ideas and the unfolding of the plans.
Membership will be through the purchase of Eco-Shares in the land. Our intention is that these Eco-Shares will cost £250 each, and will entitle you to be on the land for up to 28 days out of each year. Like an Eco Time-Share. This could be paid up front, or as a regular payment of £5 per week for 1year.

Imagine 4000 investors in LAND ROOTS.
1 investor = £250
100 investors = £25,000
1000 investors = £250,000
4000 investors = £1000,000 That's a lot of land!

How your £250 will be spent?
Our intention is that £200+ ie between 80% and 100% of the share cost, will go to the capital cost of the land. The remainder will go on development costs, (building renovation, new eco-build, set up costs, planting, etc)

Repeatability:
As the idea grows, we hope that the model will be repeatable elsewhere, and that between us we will buy plots of land, to be good stewards of, throughout the country and abroad.
We believe that a formula is unfolding, to allow us to achieve the very best deal for a good and healthy future for the people and the land. If you wish to be a part of making this happen, contact us and see how you could get involved.

LAND ROOTS is a new and exciting grassroots organisation, with the potential to grow huge!

The Land:
At present Land Roots owns no land. This is the beginning. Where will the land be? Well, as yet we cannot know. That will be dependant on many things:
· What land is up for sale at a time when there is enough money to be able to buy?
· Environmental suitability of these areas.
· Planning permission, precidents and attitudes of local councils, in these areas.

Areas being considered are mostly within half a days drive of Nottingham like: Wales, the West Country, Shropshire, Lincolnshire wolds, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, the Scottish borders, etc. It will definitely be:
· Somewhere beautiful, and where a sustainable lifestyle would be possible.
· Somewhere with buildings to make planning applications easier.
· Somewhere that has areas of established broadleaf woodland and fresh water.
· Somewhere that is secluded enough for the eco-community members to live as they wish.

Some people have expressed a wish to co-own land outside the UK, and when we have grown sufficiently to be able to do this, then buying outside the UK will be wholly appropriate and within the aims and objectives of LAND ROOTS.

If you are a part of a group that are aiming to buy land with similar aims to those of LAND ROOTS, then maybe there is a way of linking together, to the advantage of us all. Check out the website for ideas, and keep in touch.

Space to live creatively.
Some people will live full time on the land, it will be their home and their livlihood.
They will be people with the skills and experience needed to form the basis of the community, ie organic farmers, ecobuilders, alternative technology people, permaculturalist, forest gardeners, workshop leaders, admin staff and a great kitcken team. They will prepare the way, and do the groundwork for the many members that will come and take 'time out' on the land. These full time places will be limited due to the constraints of things such as: carrying capacity of the land and planning law etc.

The intention is that members will be able to be on the land for up to 28 days out of each year, it may be that most of us will be gathering at the same time, or may allow us to spread throughout the year, we'll let you know these kind of details when the feasability study is complete.

Land Roots membership will be open to everyone. We would especially like to encourage gardeners, artists, musicians, writers, poets, crafts people, workshop leaders, teachers, eco-builders, community organisers, environmentalists, holistic healers and anyone who feels passionately that they want to be part of this new wave of eco living.

LAND ROOTS is about realising the power that we have, believing in our ability to create positive change, and its about taking action!

The process.
We have a steering group who are in the process of drawing up documentation, doing a feasability study and establishing environmental and ethical policies etc. Over the next few months we will be forming LAND ROOTS Community Interest Company, to achieve our aims.
We will hold open meetings fairly regularly to feedback to the wider group and to enable people to have an input. These will be advertised on our website and in the Sumac Centre, Gladstone St, Forest Fields, Nottingham. All Welcome.

LAND ROOTS will be launched on December 15th, with a benefit gig at the Polish Centre, on Sherwood Rise in Nottingham. ( Wholesome Fish, Trickster, Tramadolls, Balkan Shuttle, Hojo Honey, Freida Mai, DJ Earthpipe, plus Sweet Potato décor and lighting) There will be an information stall, and we will be taking pledges of interest.
At present all work is voluntary.The money raised at the gig will go towards feasability costs etc. We do not intend to sell Eco-Shares until the feasability study is complete, which we hope to have done in the next few months.

All information and plans herein are subject to the results of the feasability study. Its up to us to grow this organisation in a healthy and positive way, therefore your ideas and input will be most welcome, visit our website, email us your comments, and come to the open meetings.

This life isn't a rehersal its the real thing! So get Passionate and get involved!



If you want to know more, check out .......

 http://www.landroots.org.uk

 roots@landroots.org.uk

____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham. UK
Email:  tash@gn.apc.org
Web:  http://tash.gn.apc.org
WAP phone  http://wappy.to/tash
My Blog  http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com
BroadBand  http://tash.dns2go.com
Member of the National Union of Journalists [No: 014345]
____________________________________________
"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
____________________________________________
OS Grid Ref: SK 575414 - Lat/Lon: 52:58:03N, 1:08:38W