BURY people are being offered a chance to play their part in a green future.

All are invited to a meeting of the borough's Environmental Forum next Tuesday (June 2) at the Met arts centre in Bury.

Green economics will be the major topic of debate, and also forms a key part of Bury's Local Agenda 21 strategy, designed to protect and sustain the environment for generations to come.

For most of the evening, people will be in groups looking at the new ways of working already being tried in Bury or nearby.

These include a trading scheme which enables people to work for each other or exchange goods without money changing hands.

The Council for Voluntary Service also runs a scheme which allows local voluntary groups to trade in the same way.

And there are two credit unions in the borough helping residents to support each other.

The keynote speech at Tuesday's meeting will be given by Julie Lewis of the New Economics Foundation. She recently led a workshop at the People's Summit in Birmingham which co-incided with the G8 Summit of world leaders.

Mr George Heron, secretary of the Forum's economy and work sub-group, said: "If we are to have the green future that the LA21 strategy is aiming for, we will have to find ways to meet our needs and produce wealth which is less environmentally damaging than those of the past.

"We have to develop green economics," he said. "This does not mean sitting around in universities arguing about theory, not is it something we can leave to big business to sort out, we all have to get involved."

Mr Heron said many people believe that new businesses with new ways of working will need to be established.

"The more we can recirculate our wealth within an area rather than letting it drain away elsewhere, the stronger our local communities will be and the more they will care about their own environment."

Tuesday's meeting starts at 6.30pm.

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