Pam Warhurst, the driving force behind Incredible Edible Todmorden, is bringing a number of people and organisations together to put forward a bid for lottery funding to build an aquaponics fish farm at Todmorden High School.
But this would not be a normal fish farm as Pam explained: "This will be cutting edge technology and a national exemplar. We would be breeding fish in a healthy and sustainable way, which is environmentally sound, whilst at the same time the heat from the tanks will be used to heat glasshouses to grow crops, such as tomatoes, all year round. And the water will be cleaned by crops of water cress."
Aquaponics is the symbiotic cultivation of plants and fish, which relies on the natural relationship between the two life forms to maintain their environment: the plants are fed by the nutrients in fish waste at the same time as cleaning the water.
"This will not be a normal fish farm; there will be no smells, no bad odours, no negative impact on the local community," Pam assured local residents.
"We will be talking to residents to explain our plans. I've been to one of these places and you wouldn't have known it was there until you got inside: it was totally self-contained."
Incredible Edible Todmorden, Todmorden High School and the Green Business Network are working together to put a bid in to the Lottery for about £500,000 to build the aquaponics fish farm at the school.
"This will be a community enterprise, which will create jobs for local people."
Incredible Edible Todmorden is also working with primary schools in Todmorden, especially linking together parent governors.
Soutar Creagh, a parent governor at Cornholme School, is hoping to set up a network of parent governors so everyone can share ideas to create gardens in the schools.
"I was at a big conference in Birmingham for the national Growing Schools initiative, which is really taking off now and it was really inspirational. So I'd like to bring some of that to Todmorden. I will be setting up a meeting in two or three weeks and anyone wanting to get in touch can contact me through the website or through their schools," said Soutar, who is also interested in establishing links with the health centre to introduce horticultural therapy into the town.
And it's this linking together that the Incredible Edible Todmorden group is all about. Pam is keen to get in touch with local food producers with a view to connecting them with caterers to discuss sourcing local produce for next season.
Community groups have already started gardening, a herb garden opposite Centre Vale Park is now planted and a seed swap at Todmorden Unitarian Church proved a huge success.