Apr 6, 2009

The true value of pounds and senseBy Richard GillisIrishTimes.com

When thirtysomethings tire of London they move to Brighton, where they wear expensive Japanese denim and talk in an accent just this side of Michael Caine. After a few years, their aspirations shift to Lewes, a pretty hillside town in southern England – like Dalkey, but 10 miles inland – which takes Brighton’s laidback, arty atmosphere and adds about a hundred grand to the price of a small Victorian terrace.

A morning in Lewes is like walking through the Johnny Boden catalogue; the high street is lined with shops selling austerity chic, complete with small garden tools with flowery handles and crisp white towels hanging over the edge of Victorian washing bowls.

What sets Lewes apart is that it has its own currency, the Lewes Pound, which was launched in September last year to promote the town’s status as a “transition town”. This is an international scheme whereby residents unite to preserve community values and fight climate change and fossil-fuel dependency by favouring local produce over that available from international conglomerates. An initial launch of 3,000 Lewes pound notes was greeted with enthusiasm by the locals, and by the online community who traded the £1 notes on eBay for up to £35 each.

Each has a picture of the 18th-century radical Thomas Paine, the town’s most famous former resident. The scheme now has around 25,000 Lewes pounds in circulation, which can be exchanged for sterling in the local town hall. The scheme, which was originally planned to run until August this year, may be extended and larger denominations of £5, £10 and £20 notes will come into circulation. The money tracks the value of sterling but is not legal tender, relying on the trust of local people and the shop owners who have bought into the scheme, as indicated by a small green sign in their windows.

“I have a few notes in my till,” says Scott, from behind the counter in Wickle, a gift shop in the town’s renovated Needlemakers factory. “We use them to pay for local services. For example, the window cleaner takes them.” Not so the lady in WH Smiths: “We’re not allowed to take them, we’re a national chain you see.” Likewise, the bureau de change desk in the local post office was having none of it.

But the walls of Oliver Dudok van Heel’s office are covered with newsprint, testimony to the media interest in the scheme which he, as a key member of the Lewes Pound Group, has had a big hand in setting up. The money, however, is just a part of the story, a Trojan horse for a broader environmental agenda.

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