ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners will kick off a new scheme to help people develop more sustainable lifestyles with a thought-provoking film screening.

The Transition Town project is being launched in Wanstead next month, and residents will be invited to share ideas and information on how to live 'greener' lives.

Residents are invited to a screening of 'The Age of Stupid', in which actor Pete Postlethwaite plays an archivist looking back from a devastated Earth in 2055 to our current era, and wondering why mankind didn't do more to save itself from environmental ruin.

There are more than 180 'transition towns' in the UK, and their members share ways of reducing their energy consumption and lowering their carbon footprint.

One of the scheme's organisers, Paul Donovan, said: “It's about trying to become more resilient as a community and become not so reliant on oil.

“Down in Exeter, people have taken on allotments and are growing stuff communally.

“People can also walk more and drive less as well. It's quite a Wanstead and Woodford thing to take their big 4x4s down to the gym.

“We're saying, 'Instead of driving why not walk?' Or even go walking instead of the gym.”

The film will be shown at the United Reformed Church in Wanstead on October 15 at 7pm. Admission is free but donations to the project are welcome.

For more information, email Maggie Burlington at maggieburlington@o2.co.uk, or visit www.transitiontowns.org.