We are a collective of permaculture practitioners based in the North West of England, who apply permaculture in creative projects that contribute towards our change to a healthy, sustainable society. We have a wide range of experience in design, training and facititation, systems, and communications.

This webpage is simply a minimal holding page while we rebuild our site.

Permaculture is based on observing and learning from nature, then using this knowledge in whatever we do. This might be creating homes, communities, allotments, reports, woodlands, businesses or anything at all. Permaculture is essentially about creating beneficial relationships, and its application is limited only by our imagination.

Creative Local Solutions was initiated by Rob Squires and Fraser How.

Rob is a permaculture activist, teacher and designer who has been practising permaculture since 1994, and has been involved in a range of interesting, challenging, and creative projects. He earns a livelihood as a self-employed permaculture consultant, specialising in community engagement, and self-reliance, with a strong focus in local food and social enterprise. He has organised and taught on numerous introductory courses and design courses, based mainly in urban areas in the Northwest. He has been a trustee of the British Permaculture Association since October 2005, where he is currently the treasurer, and supports the organisation with a broad range of skills and experience. He is also a member of the board of the Manchester Food Futures strategy, and works as a consultant for a partnership of mental health organisations developing a project called HELF (Healthy Eating Local Food)

Fraser did his permaculture design course in Manchester in 1999. Since then he has been steadily incorporating more and more permaculture into his life. He has taught on various design courses and is particularly interested in developing ways of applying permaculture outside gardens and inside minds. He has a talent for explaining concepts in a simple and easy to grasp manner, and is excited about the idea of more people using permaculture approaches in their work in this part of the world.