Patrick presents a Lewes Pound to Green Party leader Natalie Bennett

Back in April Green Party leader Natalie Bennett spent the day in Lewes and visited a number of social and environmental projects. Her busy agenda included a meeting with Patrick Crawford, a director of the Lewes Pound CIC, at All Saints while enjoying the Oyster Project’s delicious Wednesday lunch.

The Green Party’s policy is very much in favour of supporting and strengthening local economies, so Natalie was very interested in Patrick’s explanation to her of how money spent locally circulates within, and benefits the local economy, while money spent in national chains leaks away. The Lewes Pound in the pocket encourages the shopper to support local businesses, goods and services, which in turn builds resilience to the rising costs of energy, transport and food. The discussion ended with Patrick presenting LP2 to Natalie, one each of the two designs. Her busy day left her no opportunity to spend them in Lewes, but we hope they will remind Natalie of all the great Transition work going on in our special town