River Link sign up for the Totnes Pound.

After several weeks of discussion we are very please to announce that River Link are signing up to accept Totnes Pounds. What’s more they will be offering a 10% discount on return tickets to Dartmouth that are purchased in Totnes Pounds which they are hoping will encourage local people to use the currency and use their boats for this journey. We also hope to set them up as an exchange point so that they can provide tourists with Totnes Pounds who will then venture into Totnes town centre to spend them. We are very excited about the participation of River Link and expect that their involvement will build the usage and profile of the currency.

New Publicity Materials.

We are about to go to production with a new leaflet and point of sale information. It has taken longer than we planned but it will be worth the wait. The new leaflet has been designed by design student Jessy Atkinson and is kindly being produced free of charge by Colour Works. The new leaflet contains details of all the participating businesses so will act as free publicity for participating businesses.

Once we have received them we will distribute them to all the participating businesses and extras will be available in the TTT office. We will also use the leaflet as part of a new business recruitment drive. Please use it to try and encourage your own contacts and friends to use the Totnes Pound.

The project continues to generate a substantial amount of media attention. Whilst this is not the primary purpose of the project the fact that it is generating interest in Totnes and the Transition Towns initiative is, we believe, a positive thing. As I have previously reported, there is a steady stream of enquiries at the Tourist Information Centre. Some of the recent coverage includes:

• A 4 page spread in the latest edition of the BBC Countryfile magazine

• A 4 page article in the most recent edition of Permaculture magazine

• A piece in the Independent on 1 May which you can read here: http://transitionculture.org/2008/05/01/they-dont-just-shop-local-in-totnes-they-have-their-very-own-currency/

• A piece on Radio 4’s You and Yours which does some ‘vox pops’ with people in Totnes about the Pound and also discusses the plans to develop a similar scheme in Lampeter. You can listen to that here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/items/03/2008_16_wed.shtml

• A short piece in the Times here: http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article3764657.ece

And of course, some coverage on the Archers

One interesting article that I spotted which was not about the Pound directly was this one about an apparent turn to cash by consumers: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7357940.stm

New Volunteers

We are pleased to welcome Tony Nec to the project team. Tony is Chief Executive of Sustain an energy efficiency consultancy company based in Bristol. Although Tony lives in Frome he is keen to help the Totnes Pound project to develop and will be helping us with our search for development funding and our longer term business strategy.

Geoffrey (Lee) Cooper has also been helping with distribution of these leaflets to the businesses that don’t have email addresses.

Whilst we are still looking for funding for a paid worker we would welcome any extra support that businesses or other supporters could offer. We would particularly welcome any admin support or research / project development assistance. Having some business representation on the core group would also be helpful.

Upcoming meetings

• Totnes Pound Project Group This is the group which runs the project. New members are welcome but it is a ‘doing’ meeting where participants take on tasks to help develop the project

• TTT Open Community Meeting This meeting will give people the opportunity to give their thoughts on the progress with TTT, including an opportunity to give feedback and ask questions about the Totnes Pound project.