The Indie-town project

Background
Indie-town is a collaborative mixed-media project to encourage and assist in the development of independent politics at a local level in the UK. 

Using the experiences of the top UK experts in the field and recorded evidence from independent town council officers and members across the nation, the project will assemble a toolkit of media-based resources, practical ideas, real-time advice, documented case studies and examples of best practice to engage and assist local people in the process of creating independent political systems where they live. 
We hope that by 2019, the date for the next major round of municipal elections, the Indie-town project will have contributed to an effective base of support across the country for the idea of independent politics drawn from several years worth of evidence from the people who are already doing it.
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Town Council meeting
Organisation
Project elements include but are not limited to
  • the use of social media platforms, to keep the discussion lively and current;
  • a series of radio and video productions, to provide documentary evidence from people engaged in or affected by independent political systems at the local level;
  • a website, to hold vital information about the project, articles, statistics, reports, legislation, links to other organisations and to host the video and audio productions.
Media training
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The Indie-town project is primarily based on collecting evidence of the upside of independent politics and releasing that evidence for the benefit of the project’s followers.

In order to maximise the opportunities to document the experiences of this (Frome, Somerset) and other independent towns, we intend to set up a comprehensive media training program.  This will involve training local people in the skills of video and radio journalism to the point where they will be able to cover relevant local events, conduct interviews and edit material together for online or offline distribution or in the case of radio, on-air transmission. We have local trainers and facilitators in place for this and the co-operation of the town’s community radio station, Frome FM.
PictureSave Whatcombe Fields: residents campaign

Funding
The organisers recognise the importance of a professional, consistent and dedicated approach to the development of such a project, requiring, as it will, the input of a number of media and academic professionals. Capital and revenue funding will be sought to ensure the integrity of the project and our ability to take it to term.  We see the best funding route as mixed - with contributions from interested parties both financial and in kind at local, national and perhaps, through the EU, international levels.
more information (to follow)