It’s not often in these selfish modern times that we hear of people standing up for their communities, so when we covered the Brighton protests against Starbucks recently we were intrigued to find out more about the people behind them. Meet Jon Barrenechea, manager of Brighton’s marvellous Duke of York’s Picturehouse and the man behind the weekly Starbucks protests and accompanying Facebook group.

How did you first hear that Starbucks were planning a sixth Brighton & Hove branch and what was your reaction?

I found out by walking past the closed down Sussex Stationers and looking at the planning notice on the window. It hit me that this was completely wrong, that Starbucks didn’t belong on this street. I am not an activist, but this compelled me to do something.

What’s the particular objection to the St James Street branch? Do you have a problem with Starbucks in general?

St James Street is already well served by sixteen other coffee shops. All of them independently, locally owned. Starbucks’ presence will hurt those businesses, and tips the balance of the street over and hurts the variety of retail options. We need high streets that offer more than coffee shops. I think Starbucks have many questionable practices, including their lack of support for Fairtrade and Organic products, their union-busting, their unfair trading policies (like poaching leases and operating at a loss in order to put others out of business), but that’s not what this is about. This is about protecting our street.

Many people have realised voting with their feet really does make a difference - we can all choose where to spend our money after all - but what pushed you to get involved ‘on the ground’, protesting on the streets of Brighton?

Because although consumer democracy is important, and we hope people will choose the much better independent coffee shops on St James Street, often people make ill-informed choices because they don’t have enough information. That’s why we’re there every week, to give them the information they need to make the right choice. Also, because of Starbucks’ unethical practices, like operating without planning permission, they are effectively reducing our ability to make these choices.

How is the protest going? Do people come every Saturday?

It’s going great – we get about 20-30 people week. But more importantly, we are spreading the word about Starbucks’ illegal trading, the choices available on St James Street, and the importance of not letting this corporate giant bully our neighbourhood.

What is the reaction of passersby?

Mostly positive. We’ve been gathering hundreds of signatures, handing out thousands of leaflets, we get cars honking and cyclists ringing in support, and it’s a way of having the community express their feelings about their street. Occasionally we get a negative reaction, but it’s rare.

And how are Starbucks dealing with it?

They are doing everything to ingratiate themselves with the neighborhood. They are handing out free coffee, and trying to organize fundraising events to benefit Pride. This is a cynical approach, and ignores the thousands of people that have expressed that they want them gone.

How long are you planning on protesting?

As long as we need to.

Has the Facebook group helped to raise awareness too?

It has been the main engine for communicating with people, and galvanizing everyone to write in to the council and has also helped us get national and local press interest. We have over 1800 members.

How have local coffee shops been affected by Starbucks moving in?

We have had reports of rents rising already, because when a chain like Starbucks move into an area they pay above market rates and inflate the value of rents in the area. This hurts local businesses, not just coffee shops.

Where should people be getting their coffee in Brighton?

We are lucky in that we have dozens of fantastic independent coffee shops. My favorite place for coffee is the Red Roaster, otherwise I buy my beans from Infinity Foods (Cafe Nica) and make coffee at home.

Are any other chains threatening Brighton at the moment? If so, how do you feel about that?

Tesco have plans for opening on London Road, and this presents a threat to our Open Market. Again, they are trying to move into an area so well served by supermarkets, local shops and the market. Their only interest is in market share, even at the expense of entire neighbourhoods.

What do you think makes Brighton so unique?

So many things, like independent local businesses, creative people, great architecture, individuals, the music and film scene, the combination of beach and country, sophisticated city and old-fashioned seaside town. It’s a relaxed yet very active place, laid back but restless. I love it here.

What would you recommend as a perfect day out in Brighton to an outsider?

Start off with a walk through the lovely North Lane, browsing through all the quirky little shops, off-the-boat fish lunch at The Regency, freshly roasted coffee at the Red Roaster, homemade ice cream at Marrocco’s, watch the sun go down on the beach and a movie at Britain’s oldest cinema (Duke of York’s) with a glass of wine on a comfy sofa.

Feeling inspired to join in? Weekly demonstrations continue outside Starbucks every Saturday from 11am. If you can’t get down there but want to show support, the group need help printing flyers - donations are welcome via Paypal or given in person at the Saturday protests - check out the Facebook page for more info.

Technorati Tags: TrustedPlaces, Starbucks, coffee, debate, protest, activist, coffee, interview, Brighton, Hove, politics, globalisation, multinational, neighbourhood, community

We’ve recently covered ethical topics like home farming, bread baking and pig rearing, but have you ever thought about ethical fitness? Sure, slapping on some ethically produced, vegan trainers and running off in to the sunset is a pretty good way of doing it, but if you’re addicted to the gym there’s great news.

Not only does brand new company The Gym offer a set membership price of £14.99, no contracts, no joining fees and unlimited use of their equipment, but everything bar the treadmills is self powered. Exercise machines are usually mains powered, so by going down the self powered route The Gym is keeping its carbon footprint low, meaning it has less energy bills to pay and can pass these savings on to the customer.

Compared to gym memberships of £40-£80+ per month it’s a tantalising option, but what’s the catch? Apparently there is no catch…apart from the small fact that their only branch is located in Hounslow. Still, with The Gym’s investors making “aggressive plans” to open more centres across the UK, affordable gym going could be coming to us all very soon…and other leading fitness groups will have to start looking at their ethical credentials if they want to keep customers happy.

In the meantime, other great ways of getting your ethical fitness fix include cycling (see Ethical Consumer’s free report on the most ethically produced bicycles), team games outdoors, yoga and circuit training a la British Military Fitness, where groups get put through their paces in the local park.

How do you exercise? Do you stay away from gyms because of high prices or do you love the luxury of a steam after a sweaty workout? Do you prefer running indoors or hitting the local park? We’d love to know your opinions on the latest fitness developments - get in touch!

Photo credit: Day 254 by pigstubs (CC License)

Technorati Tags: TrustedPlaces, ethical, exercise, gym membership, gym, vegan, shoes, running, weights

Summer - albeit with the odd thunderstorm - is upon us and what better time to celebrate local food? Hampshire Food Festival kicked off last week and runs right to the end of the month, with 120 events showcasing local produce. There’s plenty of opportunity to enjoy Hampshire delicacies via cookery demonstrations across the county as well as workshops including bee keeping, gardening, and jam, chocolate, wine, and bread making, and it sounds like the perfect time to take a trip over there, wherever you live.

Food celebrity heavyweights Ainsley Harriott, Rose Elliot and Prue Leith are lending their support to the festival, alongside encouragement from TrustedPlaces favourite (and Hampshire resident) Gordon Ramsay. In his foreword to the festival programme the chef calls the event “a fascinating insight into the range of wonderful food produced, grown and reared across the county”, praising the “local farmers and producers who are so passionate in their work and the food they produce”.

We already know from you lot that Hampshire has a lot to offer, from romantic dinners in Southampton to fresh pub grub and real ales in Basingstoke to great liquorice in Portsmouth, so download the festival programme here and don’t forget to tell us all about where you went!

Have you been to any good food festivals recently? Or do you have any planned for the summer? Give us all the gossip - we want to see your photos!

Photo credit: chocolate Truffles by Lots of Sprinkles (CC License)

Technorati Tags: TrustedPlaces, hampshire, food festival, portsmouth, basingstoke, southampton, fare, fayre

A staple of British weeknight entertainment, the humble but ever popular pub quiz has been breaking new boundaries recently. Held everywhere from traditional boozers to gastropubs, they’re a fantastic way of getting people out of the house to spend a fun evening with friends, and maybe even making new ones.

Dynamic food writer Sudi Piggott is taking the pub quiz in to the future with her recent success at Westminster’s Cinammon Club, where canapes, cocktails and a three course meal were served up along with the questions. It makes sense to bring great food in to the pub quiz equation; quality snacks and drinks can certainly make or break an entertaining evening and why not make a night of it?

What do you think? Is gourmet quiz night taking it too far or would you prefer canapes to chips? Can you recommend your best local pub quiz?

Photo credit: 44-31 by wiggytoo (CC License)

Technorati Tags: TrustedPlaces, cinammon, pub quiz, westminster, club, pub, questions, london, sudi piggott

We’re very excited to announce that TrustedPlaces has just partnered with Bview to offer online marketing solutions for local businesses. Bview is a new customer reviews directory for all UK businesses. The combined offering is the first collaboration of its kind in the UK and places the two companies in a unique position to benefit from the growing local, online advertising market. It presents a viable and cost-effective alternative to traditional directory players, at a much lower cost.

The partnership enables and supports local business owners to manage their online reputation by providing attractive advertising models and enhancing exposure to relevant customers across both sites. We believe this is a fantastic opportunity to provide our growing community with great special offers from relevant businesses and establish a two-way, constructive conversation between TrustedPlaces members and business owners.

The joint offer is a combination of free and premium access to TrustedPlaces and BView company profiles that allows business owners to:

• Manage their online reputation via their business profile on both www.TrustedPlaces.com and www.BView.co.uk gaining access to both sites’ growing audiences
• Add information including business description, key contacts, menus & photos to their profile
• Promote special offers exclusively to the TrustedPlaces and BView user community
• Increase their footfall through advertising around targeted postcodes on both sites

We’re very excited by this partnership and look forward to working with BView! If you’re a business owner and would like to find out more, please contact us at business@trustedplaces.com or a direct mail to us.

Technorati Tags: TrustedPlaces, BView, partnerships, local, SME, london, online marketing, local sales and advertising

When you think of raw food do you imagine slices of carrot, cucumber and peppers laid out neatly on a plate with some dip on the side? Or a nice leafy salad? These are raw, yes, but the ‘living foods’ movement (an offshoot of veganism) takes the concept to a whole different level and with more people discovering the benefits of this diet, the raw foodists keep hitting the headlines.

The title ‘raw’ is a little misleading - ingredients can be lightly cooked as long as they don’t go over 48C - but the basis of the decision to stop cooking in the traditional way is the belief that it “destroys 50 per cent of the protein and between 50 and 80 per cent of all vitamins and minerals” of our food. Raw foodists claim significant health benefits such as weight loss, more energy and even reversal of symptoms of conditions like asthma, as Chad Sarno of raw restaurant Saf testifies.

“Gastronomy is the focus” for Sarno, whose aim is for Saf to “stand up to any top restaurant in London”. And why not? Must a dish contain meat, fish or dairy to be considered excellent? Must it be hot? What do you think?

Interested in finding out more? Vegan London has a page dedicated to raw food in the capital with restaurants (including Saf), juice bars, groups and information sources listed.

Have you tried raw food? Do you think the whole thing’s bonkers? We want to hear your opinions - get in touch in the comments below!

Photo credit: raw vegan cake by tunnelblick (CC License)

Technorati Tags: TrustedPlaces, food, vegan, raw, saf, london

It’s the turn of another celebrity chef to get riled up on the subject of local seasonal produce (covered by us recently here and here) but this time there’s a book to back it all up with. John Burton Race graced our screens in ‘French Leave’ and ‘Return Of The Chef’, TV series which showed him relocating to France with his family and cooking with local produce all the while - he hopes his new book ‘Flavour First’ will help others to do the same.

“I just want people to realise that 50 per cent of good food is about the raw ingredients” he says, deploring the state of the farming industry, blaming the government for importing milk from France and Poland and emphasising the importance of sourcing and buying “locally and seasonally because that’s how we get great taste and flavours”.

Our recent video interviewees Niamh Shields, Julia Parsons and Aidan Brooks all agree, and the call for fresh, locally farmed, seasonal ingredients shows no sign of quietening down.

But what’s your take on this topic? Is buying local easier said than done? With life expensive enough as it is, can we afford to be picky about our produce? Let us know what you think!

Photo credit: Seasonal Fruit and Veg Display by armcurl (CC License)

Technorati Tags: TrustedPlaces, food, seasonal, local, john burton race, celebrity chef, produce

We never pretend to be fans of the chain cafes, restaurants and shops that proliferate in Britain’s modern towns and cities but neither are we ones for casually bashing them - it might be fun at times, but it’s far more challenging and satisfying to champion our favourite local places instead. Having said that, every once in a while a story crops up in the news that’s difficult to ignore.

Starbucks is making headlines again as controversy builds over its recent expansion in to a former book shop in Brighton. Planning permission for their move in to the building “was rejected on the grounds that the council wanted to preserve a healthy mix of businesses”, but they opened anyway and are apparently allowed to continue trading under a ‘grey area’ in the law.

Locals are protesting online and off, with the Stop Starbucks From Opening On St James Street Facebook group currently standing at 1,758 members. The group organises weekly demos held on Saturdays between 11am and 1pm, and make the following statement:

“For those that just have to have a ‘Frappucino’ we already have six branches of the chain in Brighton & Hove. This is not about denying consumers’ choice, but about protecting our high streets and not losing that which makes our lovely city unique. The council have spoken and so have the local community. Starbucks should listen.

This is about more than just a quaint hope for a future of lively, independent town centres - if the big chains are allowed to steamroll in to town, casting local opinion and even the British legal system aside as they open yet another branch, what hope do smaller businesses have? Well done to the Brighton protestors - only by making a fuss can us little people ever hope to be heard over the din of corporate money.

What do you think about all this? Are you one of the Brighton protestors? Do you like the product but object to the company’s methods? Or is this all just a fuss about nothing? We’re always interested in your opinion - come on, let us have it!

Photo credit: Starbucks coffee - Starbucks coffee by Man in a bowler hat (Epzibah) (CC License)

Technorati Tags: TrustedPlaces, coffee, news, starbucks, debate, brighton, london, cafe

We’re obsessed with growing your own, brewing your own and baking your own, but what about rearing your own? Those of you unconvinced by our recent vegetarian and vegan posts may be interested in a Welsh community’s plans to become self sufficient.

The fantastically monikered People in Grosmont - P.I.G., geddit? - have set up a scheme where 21 families contributed £50 apiece for a stake-in some bacon (groan, sorry). 13 piglets have been reared so far from two Tamworths named Duchess and Princess, with the aim being to “allow the co-operative’s members to access good quality, hand-reared and locally produced pork at prices far cheaper than supermarkets offer”.

The rising price of grain (70% more dear now than 18 months ago) has thwarted that plan somewhat, but founder member Alistair McGowan insists it’s about more than money, “about the process and not the production, and about the community as much as the meat we’re making”. Still, on such a small scale farming like this has a massive impact on the quality of life of the animals involved. We all know ‘free range’ doesn’t really mean carefree gallops through grassy fields, so it’s wonderful to see people taking it upon themselves to be more responsible.

To see a village come together over something as essential as food production is a great thing, hearking back to past times when communities traded amongst themselves, threw in their lot with each other and shared the chores. It’s proof that we can opt out of the modern grind if we care enough - we wish P.I.G. the very best of luck.

Over to you - how far would you go for ethical, sustainable meat? Have you always secretly longed for a chicken run in the garden? Or do you have a favourite local butcher you can recommend? We want to know what you think - hit those comments!

Photo credit: Three Little Pigs! by johnmuk (CC License)

Technorati Tags: TrustedPlaces, food, wales, pigs, piglets, meat, organic, breeding, rearing, free range