The Atmos Totnes campaign, which is seeking to bring the town’s former Dairy Crest site into community ownership, and its vision of the site as ‘the heart of a new economy’, are at the cutting edge of thinking about the economy of the future.  At least, that was the opinion of many of the delegates at the Social Enterprise Exchange in Glasgow, the world’s biggest social enterprise event.  Speakers included Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond, [...]

A SIX-month campaign has been launched to breathe new life back into the Dairy Crest site in the heart of Totnes.  The Totnes-based community group, Atmos, has spent the past five years working on sustainable plans for the eight-acre site. Now frustrated by Dairy Crest’s reluctance to engage seriously with townspeople on the future of the land, a focused push is being made to show the depth of community support to get things moving.  About [...]

On Wednesday 21st March, Rob Hopkins of the Atmos Totnes campaign appeared on TotnesFM to discuss the campaign with host David Parsley.

 “Concrete proposals?”  Atmos Totnes respond with incredulity to Dairy Crest statement. Last week, the Atmos Totnes campaign was launched, designed to get Dairy Crest to engage meaningfully with the community of Totnes over the future of their former milk processing site adjoining Totnes station.  Atmos Totnes patron and writer and broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby was joined by over 200 members of the Totnes community to declare that the site should be ‘the heart of a new [...]

A lobby group fronted by BBC presenter Jonathan Dimbleby has launched a six-month campaign to bring a disused Dairy Crest site in Totnes into community ownership.  Dairy Crest acquired the South Devon site in 2000 and ceased production in 2007, when business from the Totnes dairy was transferred to its site in Taunton. The Atmos Totnes project wants to bring the site back into use as a business and community hub, offering affordable housing, space [...]

TRANSITION TOWN TOTNES (TTT) is set to launch a campaign to bring the former Dairy Crest site, next to the town’s rail station, into community ownership with an ambitious plan to create a scheme for new businesses, the arts and affordable housing.  The Totnes-based community group is embarking on a six month campaign, launching on March 21st, called Atmos Totnes: the heart of a new economy. The name derives from the site’s history as home [...]

A DERELICT dairy site could become a 'national icon' for low-carbon building and put Totnes on the map as a centre of innovation and sustainability.  Transition Town Totnes, the first organisation of its kind in the world, is launching a six-month campaign to put the former Dairy Crest site back to use.  Called Atmos Totnes: the heart of a new economy, the campaign will push for site owners Dairy Crest to gift the land to [...]

Broadcaster and journalist Jonathan Dimbleby is backing a community group's bid to turn a disused dairy building into an "extraordinary" new community facility.  He is supporting campaigners who have criticised Dairy Crest for its "reluctance" to engage with them over land it owns in Totnes. They have been working for five years to bring it under community ownership, with a view to creating a site which would combine affordable housing with brewing, baking, business incubation [...]