Rob Hopkins, co founder of the Transition Network, told a packed conference hall that a movement, which had started as a "sneeze" in Kinsale, Ireland, and another in Totnes in Devon, had captured the imagination of people all over the world.

Nearly 250 groups have taken on the ideas and are adapting them to strengthen their communities for the future.

And thousands more places are mulling over the ideas with a view to taking the plunge.

He said the need to move away from our dependence on fossil fuels was now "astonishingly urgent" because the effects of climate change were happening far faster now than had been expected.

Among the successful carbon reduction initiatives now in operation under the Transition Town banner are local food groups, garden share schemes, reskilling projects, clean energy collectives and local currency schemes including the Lewes pound and the Brixton pound both of which are accepted by an increasing range of retail chains as well as by independent businesses.

"The transition vision is really about acknowledging that the move towards relocalisation is an inevitability and is also an enormous opportunity.

Inherent within responding to peak oil and climate change is the potential for an economic, social and cultural renaissance the likes of which we have never seen before," Rob told the conference.

The conference in Slaithwaite was a collaboration by the Transition and Co-Operative movements. For full details of the day go to www.transitionnorth.net/the-event

For more Transition Town column items, see the news feature section of this website www.hebdenbridgetimes.co.uk