About Peter Macfadyen

Peter has worked in areas of social justice for 40 years. A consummate networker, he is constantly looking to find ways of bringing people and organisations together.

Trained as a gardener, he then worked with disabled people and disability rights organisations in Africa and India.  His work with Comic Relief over the last 20 years has focussed on grants assessing and most recently supporting ways to reduce the impact of climate change on poor people.

Back home, he founded Sustainable Frome and is a Director of Frome’s Renewable Energy Co-op. Through these he better understood both the missed opportunities and potential of local government, leading to his role in initiating Independents for Frome (IfF), the group of individuals whose take over of Frome Town Council is the focus of Flatpack Democracy. Peter chaired key committees and served as both mayor and leader of the council.  He did not stand again in May 2019, instead writing Flatpack Democracy 2.0 to complete the legacy of experience sharing.

Recycling, reusing, organic, growing, cooking, grandfathering and bicycling are all central to his activity.  Peter’s wife Annabelle and children Ben and Amy are also all variously engaged in creating a more sustainable future, with the whole family now various involved in Extinction Rebellion especially through their Future Democracy Hub.