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Environmental
living
in
Cambridgeshire (Previously Green Ginger - The Cambridge Co-Housing Interest Group) |
Front
page |
Liz Roman and Brighid Simpkin were members
of a co-housing group called Amadea for some years. Amadea was nation-wide so
the members found it difficult to meet to push their plans forward. Liz and
Brighid, who both lived in Cambridge, decided to form their own local group.
They also decided to open their new group to all ages unlike Amadea which was
for retired people. The first meeting was on the 14th May 2000 and 22 people
gathered at Hartington Grove, Cambridge to hear what Liz and Brighid had to
say. Most people came from the Cambridge LETS group with others from the
Quakers and Circle Dance group. Enthusiasm at the first meeting was high and
most of the original 22 people are still members of Enlinca although a lot do
not attend meetings any more. As the group matured we decided to give ourselves a name. We chose Green Ginger but we were later advised that it might put some potential business partners off. Looking at other groups it also became obvious that we should form a company. Enlinca Ltd. was officially incorporated as a company limited by guarantee on 1st August 2003, about 3 years after the group was first formed. This web page is designed to attract new members to Enlinca and hopefully serve as a point of contact for potential business partners. Our plan is to buy a large property or a building plot where we can establish a community. We will probably establish at least 2 communities because some members want to live in town and others in the country. Most members want to build very environmentally friendly dwellings and where possible install things such as windmills, solar cells, car pools, compost toilets or reed beds, and organic market gardens using permaculture principles. Some members also see community building as an opportunity for spiritual development. Now that we are officially registered as a company we are concentrating on looking for suitable properties and we are developing a business plan to use to raise sufficient funds for the property we find. Most present members own their own houses but we will need some sort of loan to cover the time between buying our community property and it being ready for moving into. |
